by Daniel Maidman ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2023
An epic tale of conflict, sorcery, and religion.
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Maidman presents a fantasy series starter set during a brutal war steeped in magic and myth.
At the forefront of the tale is Claire, an immortal in an indeterminate future whose gold palanquin machine can fold space and time. A malfunction sends it hurtling halfway across the world and thousands of years in the past, right in the middle of a military conflict that sees King Ambrosius the Ninth taking over the city of Genova. The king’s general, Marcus Irenaeus Diophantus, is an elite fighter who’s tormented by the terrible things he’s done during wartime. He discovers the crashed palanquin as well as Claire, who’s now just a shadow of her former self: “She was diminished now to mere humanity. She remembered only human things.” Claire soon declares herself a “patricia of Zanzibar” and helps to broker peace throughout the kingdom. But even in peace, danger lurks—whether it’s from the Constantines, who care only for profit and always find it in conflict, or the high priest of Florence, Reburrus, who views Claire with nothing but suspicion. Among the tangled politics, Marcus dedicates himself to helping Claire explore ai Ctesiphôn, a tower in the middle of Florence that only shows itself to certain people and “can be reached from nowhere. Seek the foot of ai Ctesiphôn, and you will walk all day long….” This magical tower may, however, hold the secret to Claire’s return home. Over the course of this first series entry, Maidman stocks the narrative with a wide range of complex characters; indeed, the work begins with a list of players that spans four pages. However, the extensive cast helps to shape a labyrinthine plot that’s presented with patience and sophistication. The work is relatively lengthy at more than 400 pages, but the dialogue remains consistently sharp, and the pace is consistently brisk throughout. Maidman’s remarkable attention to detail—regarding his characters, their kingdoms, and in-universe wizardry—results in a world that audiences won’t want to leave anytime soon.
An epic tale of conflict, sorcery, and religion.Pub Date: June 4, 2023
ISBN: 9798987597811
Page Count: 552
Publisher: Tower Books Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Leigh Bardugo ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2024
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
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