Another Paxson rattle and roll of a cluster of ancient tales and myths. Here, in the first of a trilogy, the author spotlights a heroic pair given fame by Wagner's operatic Ring cycle: Sigfrid and Brunahild of the Walkyriun, who—like Tristan and Iseult of The White Raven (1988) and King Leir of The Serpent's Tooth (1991)— step out of the mythic mists with earthbound feet and overheated crania. After an essential Foreword, in which Paxson sketches a fifth- century background of a crumbling Roman empire amid the roiling movement of Germanic tribes, there's an eye-crossing roll call of characters (from the one-eyed god Wodan to Fafner, ``a berserker''), plus a Prologue and a view of the theft of the Gold from the river Rhenus. (The jury is still out on the joys of authentic spelling.) The young girl Brunahild, daughter of a Hun prince, will first see the image of Wodan as, with Gudrun, offspring of a Bergund chieftain, she peers into a sacred well. (Wodan will appear at other times and places.) So it's off to the Walkyriun for Brunahild, to be trained with the other women to defend the old ways and old gods. The storms through which they ride in battle are within—as is Brunahild's quest for her father, surely the One-Eyed. Meanwhile, Sigfrid is being raised by the smith Ragan to avenge a death by slaying the shapechanger Fafner, guardian of the Rhenus gold. He'll run with wolves, learn killing, receive his father's sword, etc. Then at the stony cold ``pyre'' on which Brunahild lies (punished by her peers for sparing an enemy), the two will thunderously lose their respective virginities. There are those who regret the leach of old gold out of old myths, but Paxson substitutes the happy clamor of invention—how can one kill a dragon that isn't there?—with ease and in a wink of Wodan's eye.
Pub Date: April 27, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10821-0
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
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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