A complex, entertaining fantasy that sets loose a “chosen one” hero arc among the dogs of war.
A young Oxford student discovers his mystical destiny on the eve of World War II.
Prolific <i>Star Trek</i> novelist Mack (The Calling, 2009, etc.) steps out of his comfort zone with this sprawling, ambitious fantasy novel, the first of a trilogy. Our hero is Cade Martin, an American graduate student pursuing his degree at Oxford in 1939 when he and his parents are forced to flee the oncoming war. But a sea monster appears midocean, killing Cade’s parents and leaving him stranded. He’s rescued by Adair Macrae, a wily old Scotsman and the leader of the Midnight Front, a top-secret cadre of sorcerers operating under the banner of the United Kingdom. Macrae explains that Cade is a nikraim, a human bonded before birth with the essence of an angel, imbued with paranormal abilities rooted in Renaissance-era ceremonial “magick.” As happens, these abilities come from harnessing the power of actual demons, which brings a terrible cost. After the obligatory training montage, the Midnight Front heads to Europe in pursuit of its enemy, a powerful black mage called Kein Engel, a “karcist” working on behalf of Adolf Hitler. Engel and his two dangerous adepts are setting a trap for the Allied invasion of France: “One that can unleash a legion from Hell, without instruction or restriction, to wreak havok on the earth until I am satisfied it has laid waste Science’s decadent modern world,” he explains. Mack’s novel is heavy on the universe-building, but it's also propulsive, with well-crafted characters and cinematic set pieces culled from the war’s most momentous crossroads. Equal parts brimstone and gunpowder, the book deftly mixes the tropes of high fantasy into a semirealistic portrayal of WWII, resulting in an entertaining scenario that wouldn’t be out of place in a video game or a spirited match of Dungeons & Dragons. The sequels promise to bring the story postwar into the 1950s and '60s.
A complex, entertaining fantasy that sets loose a “chosen one” hero arc among the dogs of war.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8320-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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