Best advice to fans of Book 1: read this one, wait—and hope.
Follow-up to Songs of the Earth (2012), the author’s promising fantasy debut.
Cooper adopts multiple narratives as she first generously fills in and recaps the back story before moving forward. Naturally, a MacGuffin, known as the starseed, is involved. Malevolent renegade Guardian Savin plots with a mysterious dark power to destroy the Veil separating the world from the Hidden Kingdom. Gair, the previous book’s protagonist, despite an all but irresistible urge to challenge Savin and still grieving over the loss of his lover and soul mate, has little to do until the latter stages, when he accompanies wise old Guardian Alderan to the desert kingdoms. In the north, Drwyn has ambitions to become Chief of Chiefs of the nomad tribes and reclaim the territories lost to the Empire when they were defeated 1,000 years ago. To ensure Drwyn’s success, Speaker Ytha unleashes her magic to gain the assistance of the imprisoned death-goddess, Maegern. Teia, Drwyn’s unwilling bed warmer, endures rape and beatings at his hands—but she does discover she has magic powers perhaps strong enough to defy Ytha. Emperor Theodegrance, having long abandoned the border fortresses, finds it impossible to believe that the nomads once again pose a threat. And old, ailing Preceptor Ansel of the Eadorian Knights, anticipating terrible battles to come, seeks to broaden the intake of the novices, to the outrage of conservative factions within the church. This vast expansion in the story’s scope comes not without cost to focus and intensity, though Cooper maintains the quality of her characters and writing. Still, readers may find the switch to plotlines that invariably end in irresolute cliffhangers disconcerting and maybe disappointing.
Best advice to fans of Book 1: read this one, wait—and hope.Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3166-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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