The 11th from Jones (The Curse of Tenth Grave, 2016, etc.) is densely packed with supernatural problems, sex scenes not for...
Now that the Grim Reaper has become a god, she’s having a hard time dealing with her new powers.
Whatever else you can say about it, Charley Davidson’s life isn’t dull. Charley, aka the Grim Reaper, moonlights as a private eye, occasionally helping out the Albuquerque police in the form of her Uncle Bob, who's currently marked for death. She and her strikingly handsome husband, Reyes Alexander Farrow, aka Rey’aziel, son of Satan, have had to send away their daughter to protect her from a dangerous god who wants her dead. The new case she’s taken up over Reyes’ objections is the search for the birth parents of Reyes’ sort-of-brother, Shawn, who was raised by the Fosters, the vile people who kidnapped both boys, kept Shawn, and sold Reyes to a monster. The disappearance of another child suggests they may be up to their old tricks. At the same time, Charley and Uncle Bob have set up a sting operation to try to catch whomever is sending sexually threatening text messages to Charley’s niece, Amber. While Reyes, who’s not above using hot sex to influence Charley, does all he can to get her to drop the investigation into the Fosters, he’s also trying to teach her how to use her powers as a god. Charley, who’s constantly being watched by angels after threatening the Almighty, stubbornly refuses to give up. To her horror, a lot of innocent people get hurt along the way.
The 11th from Jones (The Curse of Tenth Grave, 2016, etc.) is densely packed with supernatural problems, sex scenes not for the timid, and assorted complicated mysteries. Boning up on the 10 proceeding installments may be a prerequisite for making sense of this one.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-07821-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The flashy, snappy delivery fails to compensate for the uninhabited blandness of the characters. And despite the many clever...
After terminally cute campus high-jinks (The Big U) and a smug but attention-grabbing eco-thriller (Zodiac), Stephenson leaps into near-future Gibsonian cyberpunk—with predictably mixed results.
The familiar-sounding backdrop: The US government has been sold off; businesses are divided up into autonomous franchises ("franchulates") visited by kids from the heavily protected independent "Burbclaves"; a computer-generated "metaverse" is populated by hackers and roving commercials. Hiro Protagonist, freelance computer hacker, world's greatest swordsman, and stringer for the privatized CIA, delivers pizzas for the Mafia—until his mentor Da5id is blasted by Snow Crash, a curious new drug capable of crashing both computers and hackers. Hiro joins forces with freelance skateboard courier Y.T. to investigate. It emerges that Snow Crash is both a drug and a virus: it destroyed ancient Sumeria by randomizing their language to create Babel; its modern victims speak in tongues, lose their critical faculties, and are easily brainwashed. Eventually the usual conspiracy to take over the world emerges; it's led by media mogul L. Bob Rife, the Rev. Wayne's Pearly Gates religious franchulate, and vengeful nuclear terrorist Raven. The cultural-linguistic material has intrinsic interest, but its connections with cyberpunk and computer-reality seem more than a little forced.
The flashy, snappy delivery fails to compensate for the uninhabited blandness of the characters. And despite the many clever embellishments, none of the above is as original as Stephenson seems to think. An entertaining entry that would have benefitted from a more rigorous attention to the basics.Pub Date: May 15, 1992
ISBN: 0553380958
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1992
A cut above the same-old, but hardly a classic.
Debut author Sanderson serves up an epic fantasy novel that is (startlingly) not Volume One of a Neverending Sequence.
Ten years ago, the magical city of Elantris fell under a curse, and the land of Arelon it once ruled has hit hard times. The mysterious transformation known as the Shaod, which falls on Arelenes at random and used to turn them into spell-wielding Elantrians, now leaves its victims half-dead husks, exiled to live in the ruined city. Even Prince Raoden, transformed overnight, finds himself imprisoned with the others—but he’s soon rallying the downtrodden and seeking out the source of the curse. Meanwhile, his betrothed, Princess Sarene of Teod (Sanderson’s got a tin ear for names), sets about modernizing the backward Arelish court, and thwarting the schemes of the spy-priest Hrathen of Fjorden, who plots to convert Arelon to his harsh Derethi faith. Sanderson offers an unusually well-conceived system of magic, but he cuts his characters from very simple cloth: only the Derethi agent Hrathen develops any intriguing depth or complexity. Still, the pages turn agreeably, the story has some grip and it’s a tremendous relief to have fruition in a single volume. (Not that sequels won’t be coming.)
A cut above the same-old, but hardly a classic.Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-765-31177-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
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