An ambitious but unevenly executed adventure novel.
A novel about a hunt for a mysterious stone that offers its possessor the chance to rule Spain.
Hendry presents a debut novel that moves between the backwoods of Appalachia and the hallways of power in Madrid. Decades after a near-death experience in childhood, James “Jimmy-Mack” MacNaughton returns to the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, following the mysterious instructions of his longtime mentor. McNaughton sets off into the woods by himself, where he ends up in an abandoned cabin with connections to early Spanish and French explorers. He also finds the grave of a forgotten Spanish prince, and when he reaches out to a college professor to learn more about the deceased man, the query catches the attention of Diego Alcazar, a Spanish palace librarian. Alcazar, keeper of many secrets, understands that McNaughton has found proof of the location of the Corazón del Rey, a fabulous ruby with mystical powers that gives its holder great power. The librarian wants the ruby for himself, as do Catholic officials in Compostela, who want to break with Rome and establish their own traditionalist church. While McNaughton makes his way through the woods, learning more about how the prince and the magical gem are connected to the local Cherokee community and his own personal and family history, he faces a threat from the ambitious Spaniards. Over the course of the novel, Hendry presents a solid, creative storyline that holds together despite the book’s excessive length. The creativity extends even to minor plot developments, such as an encounter with a rattlesnake that will leave readers wincing in sympathy. However, the text would have been improved with a stronger edit to correct grammatical errors and awkward phrasing: “On occasion, requests for outside reviews of non-public manuscripts from pre-chosen institutions were generally approved.” There are also stereotypical portrayals (“The proud Native American ran his fingers over the damage, vowing never to look at his paralyzed face”) and factual inaccuracies, such as the fact that the land in Cherokee, North Carolina, is not a reservation.
An ambitious but unevenly executed adventure novel.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-578-85165-5
Page Count: 494
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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