Ambitious but not entirely successful, with entertaining moments and promise for more.
In the latest from Bell (Spireseeker, 2013), a dragon scientist and a human witch try to survive political machinations on two separate but related worlds.
In the prologue, an unnamed, four-dimensional being relates how one of its children accidentally split a three-dimensional space into two separate worlds (i.e., planes or dimensions). Now this being tries to help the creatures reconnect their worlds. These two separate worlds parallel each other—which explains why the book opens with two nearly identical maps—but are slightly different. On the human world of Teirrah, a young orphan named Cor wants to discover the mystery of her parents’ murder; her only real clue is a strange tattoo. On her search, she faces prejudice as a woman, especially in the university she sneaks into for research: “WOMEN, CATS, AND WEAPONS STRICTLY PROHIBITED,” a sign declares. On top of all that, there’s political upheaval, as the Seastate seeks some measure of freedom from the Unified Government and its oppressive rules, with some secessionists willing to commit violent revolution. On the dragon world of Arev, Emperor Zee faces a shadowy challenger wishing to unseat her—a conspiracy connected to how Zee herself claimed the throne. Meanwhile, a young dragon studying a potentially medicinal (or narcotic) plant gets forcibly recruited by the emperor and her military. Can such disparate forces heal the rift between these two worlds? There are some interesting elements and episodes in this book, such as Cor’s escaping the university library by accusing another person of being a woman, and the curious dragon society, where the emperor has analysts and biologists at her command. Bell writes clearly and presents some uncommon elements—artistic dragons, a vegetarian heroine, etc.—but the book introduces so many characters in both worlds that few engage the reader as fully as they could. Perhaps the second volume—this being the first in a planned series—will help narrow the focus and deepen reader engagement.
Ambitious but not entirely successful, with entertaining moments and promise for more.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9896992-7-3
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Atthis Arts, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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