A sunny, swashbuckling creaturefest ripe with pithy characterizations.
In this historical fantasy, Christopher Columbus hunts for the mythical Atlantis.
The year is 1492, and Spain has just defeated the Moors at Granada. After an excursion to Istanbul, Columbus, the renowned rake and explorer, returns to Córdoba. There, he reunites with his royal patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. During a clandestine meeting between Columbus and Isabella in her bed chamber, the captain of the Santa María acts on his knowledge that Plato knew the location of the fabled city of Atlantis. He tilts a copy of Plato’s Timaeus on a bookshelf and reveals a secret treasure room. Within is a bronze disc that may lead to the lost city and Poseidon’s Trident, which can turn anything into gold. Then Ferdinand and his toady, Amerigo Vespucci, discover the pair. The adultery exposed, Columbus races from the palace to the docks. He and his crew immediately set sail west, but not before a shadowy figure sneaks aboard the Santa María, and Vespucci determines to follow with the Niña and Pinta. When nearly a month passes with no leads on Atlantis—and after the revelation that a 12-year-old named Nyx has stowed away—the ship suddenly faces off against a giant, tentacled monstrosity. In his latest novel, Robinson (Robinson Crusoe 2246, 2016) imagines a playful left turn for the controversial figure who brought ruin to several Indigenous societies. This Columbus fights dirty like Indiana Jones and is a caddish goof (“I do like the smoldering types,” he replies to Isabella’s mention of Joan of Arc). On his greedy quest, the explorer encounters hideous, birdlike sirens but also the beautiful Princess Elara. Time-tested fantasy components like quick-healing potions, an ancient prophecy, and magic keys are sublime in juxtaposition with historical figures. Young Nyx blossoms under readers’ eyes, acting as a foil for the cynical Columbus and teaching that human bonds matter more than material gain. The author’s agile creativity will leave audiences itchy for a sequel.
A sunny, swashbuckling creaturefest ripe with pithy characterizations.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-79087-598-6
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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