An urban fantasy that features an irreverent, smart-mouthed hero and adventures that are entertaining, if not particularly...
The fifth book in the Pax Arcana urban fantasy series takes James’ (In Shining Armor, 2016, etc.) cast of characters on a near-catastrophic romp through a reality destabilized by fairy tale and myth.
John Charming is a werewolf and monster hunter who was once a member of the Knights Templar, a secret society that works to keep ordinary humans and magic apart. When a half-vampire named Kasia crashes his peaceful summer evening with an ominous message, Charming finds himself dragged into a disastrous supernatural. People in New York City are transforming into monsters out of fairy tales, myths, and the video games and role-playing games they have inspired, wreacking havoc and violence on innocent bystanders. The knights summon Charming to New York, along with his team of friends and fellow monster hunters: Sig, his Valkyrie girlfriend; Molly, who specializes in holy knowledge and exorcisms; and Choo, who acquires cars and weaponry with ease. Along with the mysterious and brutal Kasia, they must find the person causing the horrific transformations by reading them into existence with the help of a magical book. The search for this reader ticks the boxes of serviceable plot points that seem ready-made for television adaptation, with blandly described fight scenes, terrible puns, and tough-guy repartee. The characters are likable but not exceptional, falling neatly into the tropes of both urban fantasy and rougher-than-usual action heroes. The book opens with a strange, imagined interview between Charming and Barbara Walters, allowing for a shameless infodump that catches the reader up on the back story of the series, and most of the novel is narrated in Charming’s voice, which might be the strongest and most enjoyable element of the story.
An urban fantasy that features an irreverent, smart-mouthed hero and adventures that are entertaining, if not particularly thrilling.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30237-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
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
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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