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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
