A meticulously orchestrated genre mashup with an urgent, heartfelt message.
A novel sees a reporter trying to uncover the truth about his planet and its many secret inhabitants.
A’eiio and her husband, E’iouy, are fairies. They’ve been exiled by intergalactic Wardens to a planet where they don flesh suits to hide among the locals. Tonight, they’re attending an award ceremony at the Congress of Nations building in their guises of Sen. Deborah Bright and her husband, Marc. But before the senator can receive her award for saving children in conflict zones, a waiter accidentally hits her face with a tray. Her disguise rips, and she flees to a secluded room. As she spreads her wings to escape from a window, a drunken guest spots her. The man, Jack March, is a recently laid-off reporter for the Capital Herald. Deborah and Marc do what any Mythical must in this situation—neutralize the witness. They call in Sam, an irresistible pixie, to seduce and discredit Jack. Meanwhile, Sen. Warren F. Lee, secretly a werewolf, pressures Deborah to support increased military spending. Yet she knows that this won’t help the Mythicals’ ultimate goal: “to guide the planet toward a lasting, planetary peace.” But military aid may be a moot point if the Wardens declare the Mythicals’ hosts to be a “terminal species,” too destructive to continue. In this wickedly clever adventure, Meredith (The Neuromorphs, 2018, etc.) adds political and environmental savvy for good measure. While the Mythicals—including Mike the ogre and Steve the troll—are exiles from various home worlds, each race (except the werewolves) has triumphed over its worst tendencies. As Lee tells the humans, “Many of your signal technological achievements...enhance your ability to kill.” Fans should delight in the author’s genre subversion, like his elves, which are really the bulb-headed aliens of modern folklore. There’s also a randy sense of humor in the Mythicals’ commitment to nudity. Plot points like the Genetic Fitness Law, which would place women in charge worldwide, will stir healthy debate. Best of all is the twist involving a hidden race of Pilgrims, which slams home an environmental lesson in a manner that few novels attempt.
A meticulously orchestrated genre mashup with an urgent, heartfelt message.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-939118-29-5
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Glyphus, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
