An interesting premise stalled by shortcomings in character development and narrative voice.
In the first installment of a series, Davies captures the imagination by following Cuauhtémoc and his airborne adventures through 16th-century Mayan civilization.
Cuauhtémoc (which means descending eagle) is born into the world as the fulfillment of a prophecy. By the time he’s 10, Cuauhtémoc’s good deeds, confident demeanor and logical mind lead him away from his grandfather’s wishes (to be a healer) and toward his own inevitable destiny as a birdman—a flying messenger for the Maya. Through his observation of eagles, Cuauhtémoc knows the ups and down of flying, and after joining up with the nestlings—the trainee school for birdmen—he easily becomes one of their most talented members. Good-hearted Cuauhtémoc goes on to solve many of the village’s problems with simple logic, all the while gaining allies and friends who defend his every move. Eventually, while out on duty, Cuauhtémoc sees unfamiliar ships at sea and decides to investigate—only to find that foreign pirates have invaded his land. Though a well-crafted idea for a fairy tale, the presentation falls short of its potential. The omniscient narrator is too distant and unfocused, going so far as to mention the nonexistence of television in 16th-century Mayan culture. The dryness bleeds into the dialogue of the characters as well: “That order suits me from the ground up, Lieutenant; you would not believe how much that order suits me.” The abundance of poor punctuation leads to long, aimless sentences that ultimately distract readers from the story. Overall, the placement of a dispassionate voice within an exhilarating subject matter causes the narrative to be at conflict with itself, disallowing the reader to enjoy the exciting world of flying soldiers and legendary boys.
An interesting premise stalled by shortcomings in character development and narrative voice.Pub Date: June 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1453513583
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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