Fabulously layered mythmaking.
In this debut fantasy, a schoolteacher is thrust into a contest for a medieval throne.
In 1924, Rhissan “Rhiss” Griffith teaches English literature at the Darkton School. Though only 25, he feels that his life has become a joyless slog, except when he and confidant Alistair practice their swordsmanship and archery. One day, Rhiss notices a richly decorated door in the school where it shouldn’t be. Behind it is a librarylike setting where he soon meets someone named Brother Gavrilos. He commiserates with Rhiss on his plight and encourages him to choose a life of difficulty and adventure by entering a second door, opposite the first. Before leaving for the realm of Arrinor, where he’s to help the rightful King win back the Crystal Throne, Rhiss receives magical items, including the Circlet of Araxis and a matching dagger. Once through the portal, he saves a young gryphon from flying creatures called Malmoridai; he names the orphaned creature Aquilea. Soon he encounters the Sovereign’s Men, who are about to harm a mother and daughter. Rhiss dispatches the brigands, then miraculously heals the daughter’s mortal wound. Does some sort of spiritual magic flow through Rhiss? Debut author Ranshaw crafts a literary epic apparently inspired by grand classics such as T.H. White’s The Once and Future King (1958) and the poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He sends Rhiss not only to find the King but to master himself spiritually (with the help of a woman named Arian) and make ethical choices in a world savaged by the corrupt Usurper. Ranshaw’s prose is sharp and absorbing, with characters often discussing every facet of a situation before taking action. Major events are preceded by plenty of traveling, but they are worth the wait (“A roiling wave of dense, grey mist advanced swiftly and silently across the Moor from the south, a wave hundreds of feet high”). A scene in which a legendary sword appears is truly breathtaking. Monotheism and gender equality also prove to be engaging themes, which will hopefully reappear in the sequel.
Fabulously layered mythmaking.Pub Date: June 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-5763-0
Page Count: 360
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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.
