paper 0-312-86516-3 The kick-off of a new fantasy series set in the same world as, but otherwise unrelated to, Kar Kalim (1997). Apprentice Dalin lives with his grand-uncle Granmar, the Truthsayer, high in a cave at Crystal Spires. Then, intruders hurl old Granmar off the cliff and seize his robe of office. Dalin stealthily follows them, but Hanno, the raiders’ runemaster, magically blinds and binds him. Finally he’s rescued by warrior Arandel, one of a second party (largely indistinguishable from each other and from the first party) arriving to find out why the Truthsayer hasn’t visited recently. Arandel and friends agree to help Dalin pursue the malefactors and recover the robe, or Tapestry. Thereafter, an inordinately complicated plot emerges piecemeal. Hanno, scheming to become the king’s chief advisor, arranged to dispose of Granmar (he could expose lies despite Hanno’s rune-magic) and plans to double-cross his associates. Dalin finds he can commune with trees and rocks, turn into a bear, and unerringly detect falsehoods. Arandel and company need to assemble the Panoply of the Loregiver (the Tapestry, a cup, and a brazier) to prevent wars in their homeland. But when Dalin confronts Hanno and appeals to King Hammankarl, Hanno easily befuddles the king with his magic—and Dalin ends up in a dungeon. Hardworking, with intriguing magics, but pedestrian and poorly thought out. It’s becoming ever more difficult to recollect Christian’s promising SF debut, Mainline (1996).
Pub Date: Dec. 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-312-87269-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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