A thoroughly engrossing and involving entry that no series fan will want to miss.
Fourth in the independently intelligible series (A Plunder of Souls, 2014, etc.) about magic (“conjuring”) in the turbulent and increasingly rebellious pre-Revolutionary Boston of 1770.
With British redcoats occupying the city and crown loyalists clashing with rebellious anti-tax mobs, thieftaker Ethan Kaille—he’s a conjurer, a practice many consider akin to witchcraft, tracking down stolen goods for reward—finds it impossible to compete with his archrival Sephira Pryce and her gang of thugs. Having no leanings in the rebel cause, Ethan takes other jobs protecting the businesses of stubborn loyalists. But when one endangered crown loyalist brandishes a musket and then kills a young boy, if accidentally, it touches off a riot, forcing Ethan to magically quell the violence. Curiously, a spell seems to have triggered the killing, even though Ethan can’t locate the conjurer. Even more ominously, other violent incidents caused by conjuring occur when Ethan is on the scene. He begins to suspect that a conjurer has discovered a way to use Ethan’s own magic against his will, to set rebels and loyalists at each other’s throats and ensure Ethan gets the blame. Finally, when Ethan’s longtime love interest, tavern-keeper Kannice Lester, is stabbed, Ethan becomes certain of the hostile conjurer’s identity. Sheriff Greenleaf, hitherto antagonistic to Ethan’s profession and uncanny abilities, agrees to help Ethan track down and destroy the troublemaker. As usual, Jackson’s intimately detailed historical backdrop is a major advantage. So, with the genuine Latin spellcasting and sturdy characters, the plot, or lack of it, matters little.
A thoroughly engrossing and involving entry that no series fan will want to miss.Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7114-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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