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
An entertaining novel that does not neglect the vitality of its story while probing society’s assumptions.
The HSS Matilda is a massive spaceship that has carried a small contingent of humanity for many years away from a destroyed Earth and toward a hazy vision of a promised land.
Over generations, the ship’s decks have become harshly segregated by race and prosperity, and the corrupt leadership of the upper decks has imposed increasingly cruel rules, restrictions, and forced labor on the darker-skinned residents of the lower decks. Aster is an angry and strange young woman of the lower decks who struggles with deeply rooted anger and sadness but also provides medical care to her shipmates with great skill and compassion. When the ship’s sovereign falls ill and Aster’s friend and mentor, the Surgeon General Theo Smith—a member of the leadership class—asks for her help with his treatment, Aster finds herself thrown into the investigation of a personal mystery that is deeply entwined with the fate of the ship. A seemingly inexplicable link between the sovereign’s illness and her mother’s suicide 25 years earlier sends Aster on a dangerous search for answers that threatens to upend her understanding of herself, fuel an uprising, and open up the never imagined possibility of escape. Solomon’s characters are solid and easily likable, even when their more abrasive qualities and lack of self-reflection add exasperating misunderstandings to the plot. The HSS Matilda is a well-crafted world, and while the tyrannical regime of its leadership feels like a familiar dystopic trope, the diversity of the people who inhabit it—their various sexual and gender identities, physical abilities, and psychological burdens—is refreshingly visible and vital even as they face brutal discrimination for their differences.
An entertaining novel that does not neglect the vitality of its story while probing society’s assumptions.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61775-588-0
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Akashic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Foundation (1951) and Foundation and Empire (1952) are the predecessors of this tale of galaxy security based on conflicting searches for the Second Foundation, established and hidden by the master psycho-historian, Hari Seldon. The Mule, wrecker of part of Seldon's plan, and members of the First Foundation are at odds; the Mule is disposed of and the First Foundation believes itself the victor. But the Second Foundation carries on, devising impromptu methods to maintain its superiority. The blue yonder, and not so wild.
Pub Date: June 25, 1953
ISBN: 0553382594
Page Count: -
Publisher: Gnome Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1953
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