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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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