An intriguing fantasy concept that sometimes gets sidetracked by a wordy narrative.
In this debut novel, a maid searches for her lover in a bizarre world.
Miller’s fantasy is about the residents, human and otherwise, of The Coast, a region that has a colonial feel to it. This tale starts as a love story between a seaman named Tom and Katie Jean, a maid at one of Port Jay’s many mansions. But when Tom ships out for a two-year voyage, things start to fall apart, both for the couple and The Coast itself. Catastrophes befall the land, some thanks to supernatural acts, some a result of human stupidity and greed. Port Jay is leveled by fire, creating a stream of refugees in a land whose resources are stretched thin. A pregnant Katie goes on the road in search of Tom, accompanied by her fellow servant Tavish, who harbors an unrequited love for her. Tom isn’t faring much better. He loses his earnings to card sharks, falls off his ship, and ends up swallowed by a leviathan. Freed from the monster, he gets tortured by pirates. Then there’s the king’s army waging campaigns against native tribes and runaway slaves, resulting in major casualties on all sides. Miller has also thrown such evil or capricious creatures as witches, gods, a werewolf, and even the devil himself into the mix. The author has built this tale around the proverb “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.” All the characters do well in their day-to-day activities, but get into trouble when they start to ponder life too much. There is far too much philosophizing, which makes for a draggy narrative. “God is language. And language is God. God puts meaning into the sounds that come out of our mouths. And that’s what creates and rules the universe,” asserts a character named Colophus of Demarest. In Tom and Katie, Miller delivers fully developed protagonists in whom readers can become invested. But he puts them through hell and they don’t get a story arc that satisfies. Most of his unethically fuzzy characters do deserve the gruesome fates they receive. While the author offers crackling dialogue, lengthy descriptive passages make the novel seem even longer than its 413 pages. Tighter editing could have given Miller’s story a more pleasing flow.
An intriguing fantasy concept that sometimes gets sidetracked by a wordy narrative.Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 413
Publisher: Dreamy Moon Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2019
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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