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COBASFANG JUSTICE RETURNS

Name: COBASFANG JUSTICE RETURNS
Author: David Walker
ISBN: 978-1-64214-457-4

by David Walker ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2018

A fun but chaotic fantasy series starter.

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In this middle-grade fantasy, a brave teen makes a dangerous journey in order to aid his sick grandmother.

Tyler, who prefers the nickname “Ty,” has two best friends, Dylan and Xavier. They’re all playing cards in their treehouse in old man Grady’s backyard when Ty’s younger brother, Bob, pops in and exclaims that their dad has been injured. He’d been digging for blue fire rubies beneath Eagle Cliff when a cave collapsed. The rubies, in the hands of a skilled doctor like Ty’s mom, can be used to create effective healing potions. Ty’s ailing grandmother needs them, and with Eagle Cliff closed off, the next place to search for rubies is the Shadow Forest. Although it’s full of dangerous creatures, such as the horned rinog, Ty manages to sneak into it. He fashions several weapons, including a bow and arrows, and heads for Crystal Mountain. There, he meets a 50-foot-long “vipercon” serpent named Normack who initially wants to eat him for dinner. But when Ty stands up to the snake, he gains a friend. Later, the hero creates a black sword, crackling with power, from the skin of a giant “life leech.” Normack then says that Ty reminds him of the legendary warrior Cobasfang. For his debut, Walker delights in blurring the line between the familiar and the surreal. He doesn’t name Ty’s hometown, but it has some modern elements, such as a high school and a swimming pool; at the same time, it’s surrounded by protective razor bushes. Ty’s quest is playfully meandering, featuring swamps, caves, and the hidden kingdom of Zintar. Along the way, the boy battles a parade of odd creatures, including giant cave rats, the Norgon scavengers who ride them, and a rock monster named Grog. Walker’s principal lesson to young readers is that “knowing when to enter a dangerous area and when to avoid one is a sign of maturity.” The drama of the grandparent’s illness, however, doesn’t provide much narrative cohesion; instead, Walker simply throws in one danger after another until he decides to set up a sequel.

A fun but chaotic fantasy series starter.

Pub Date: July 9, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-64214-457-4

Page Count: 182

Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.

Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.