Series fans will want to investigate, but the gloss is definitely off.
Third in the series (Thieves’ Quarry, 2013, etc.) about magic (“conjuring”) in the turbulent, dangerous pre-Revolutionary Boston of 1769.
One-time sailor and convict, now thieftaker, Ethan Kaille uses conjuring—a practice many consider to be witchcraft, punishable by burning—to help him track down stolen goods for reward while fending off his archrival Sephira Pryce and her gang of thugs. Despite a smallpox epidemic, British redcoats still occupy the city. Samuel Adams and his revolutionaries continue their activities and again attempt to recruit Ethan, though that subplot advances no further. Church ministers ask Ethan to investigate a series of bizarre grave desecrations involving the theft of body parts and snippets of clothing and the marking of the corpses with ritualistic designs. At first suspecting body-snatchers, Ethan soon learns that the victims are reappearing as horribly disfigured ghosts, incurring the fear and mistrust of their families. On top of that, Ethan's spells are no longer reliable. Evidently, a powerful conjurer is at work, and it doesn’t take long for Ethan to discover his opponent’s identity since the two of them clashed in the past. But what does the hostile conjurer want, and how is he causing spells to weaken? Ethan may need to enlist the help of the city’s other conjurers—his friend Mariz, who unfortunately takes his orders from Sephira; Janna Windcatcher, an old and experienced herbalist; and Gavin Black, who’s lost his powers altogether and refuses to become involved. Once again, the historical verisimilitude and atmosphere are major advantages, along with the Latin spellcasting and rather more contemporary gumshoe-noir tone. Given these promising ingredients, however, Jackson’s attempt to weave an original plot with depth and allure just fizzles.
Series fans will want to investigate, but the gloss is definitely off.Pub Date: July 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3818-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.
The third installment of this fantasy series (The Bone Season, 2013; The Mime Order, 2015) expands the reaches of the fight against Scion far beyond London.
Paige Mahoney, though only 19, serves as the Underqueen of the Mime Order. She's the leader of the Unnatural community in London, a city serving under the ever more militaristic Scion, whose government is based on ridding the streets of "enemy" clairvoyants. But Paige knows the truth about Scion's roots—that an Unnatural and immortal race called the Rephaim, who come from the Netherworld, forced Scion into existence to gain control over the growing human clairvoyant community. Scion’s hatred of clairvoyants now runs so deep that Paige is forced to consider moving her entire syndicate into hiding while she aims to stop Scion's next attack: there are rumors that Senshield, a scanner able to detect certain levels of clairvoyance, is going portable. Which means no Unnatural citizen is safe—their safe houses, their back-alley routes, are all at risk of detection. Paige’s main enemy this time around is Hildred Vance, mastermind of Scion’s military branch, ScionIDE. Vance creates terror by anticipating her opponent’s next moves, so with each step that Paige and her team take to dismantle Senshield, Vance is hovering nearby to toy with Paige’s will. Luckily, Paige is never separated for long from her Rephaite ally, Warden, as his presence is grounding. But their growing relationship, strengthened by their connection to the spirit world, takes a back seat to the constant, fast-paced action. The mesmerizing qualities of this series—insight into the different orders of clairvoyance as well as the intricately imagined details of Paige’s “dreamwalking” gift, with which she is able to enter others’ minds—fade to the background as this seven-part series climbs to its highest point of tension. Shannon’s world begins to feel more generically dystopian, but as Paige fights to locate and understand the spiritual energy powering Senshield, it is never less than captivating.
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-624-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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