While out playing one fateful day, brothers Sherwood and Orson stumble upon a horrible and mysterious cave. Inside, the boys...
Children must fight a complicated evil in this dark, disturbing sci-fi tale.
While out playing one fateful day, brothers Sherwood and Orson stumble upon a horrible and mysterious cave. Inside, the boys encounter a demon that will forever alter the paths of their lives. In a parallel universe, a motley crew called the Wrenchies band together in a violent, futuristic wasteland trying to survive numerous foes, especially the Shadowsmen. In yet another place/time, a comics-loving misfit named Hollis (who takes to running about in a scarlet superhero costume) finds himself immersed—literally—in the pages of an enigmatic, purloined comic. These three tales twine together in a somewhat confusing fashion, full of reaching sci-fi leaps into other times and dimensions, creating a brain-aching nonlinear plot. Couple this with a handful of epilogues and an esoteric “fotogloctica” that kind of but not really wraps things up, and expect readers’ brains to be smoking. Dalrymple’s art is impeccable, capturing the horrors of demons that routinely spear eyeballs and great swarms of parasitic insects that can crawl into ears and need to be killed by swords and/or knives; it’s beautiful, dreamy and nightmarishly violent. Think of this as an insidiously macabre Coraline-esque tale meets Charles Burns.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-421-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
A sci-fi mishmash set in a dystopian world where a kind of human/angel hybrid will probably save mankind.
In search of her father, Selah takes a treacherous journey through the hardscrabble landscape of post-nuclear disaster.
Since the Time of Sorrows, the remaining population has returned to subsistence living, as most food sources are contaminated and the infrastructure has crumbled. Also since that time, Landers, inscrutable figures marked by a wing tattoo, periodically wash up on shore, babbling of a “final Kingdom,” to be hunted for bounty by the remnants of humanity. On her 18th birthday, shortly after finding a Lander, the Lander mark appears on Selah’s chest, indicating that she’s a half-breed. No longer safe, she leaves her Borough seeking her father and the protected fortress of the Mountain. She falls into fitful love with her gorgeous Lander companion, Bodhi, who teaches her about her new telepathic powers. Meanwhile, technology has advanced tenfold at the Mountain. Two scientists battle for dominion, while one is experimenting on Landers, using their DNA to find immortality. There are as many subplots to this novel as hydrogen bonds on a double helix, and the story is snarled by its own twists and clunky with contradictions. The romance is eye-rolling. The series’ only hope is that the plot pursues its one fresh idea: What exactly are the Landers?
A sci-fi mishmash set in a dystopian world where a kind of human/angel hybrid will probably save mankind. (Science fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8007-2376-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Revell
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Readers will wish they had a jinni to grant them the next book in the series.
Nalia lives in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, a glittering world of parties and fast cars. She can have anything she wants—except her freedom.
Nalia is “just another jinni on the dark caravan” of the slave trade, forced to spend her days granting wishes on behalf of her human master, Malek, in order to advance his wealth and power. Nalia was trafficked in a bottle from her home realm of Arjinna to Earth after a coup wiped out her entire caste. She is the only surviving Ghan Aisouri, a royal knight and the heir to the Arjinnan throne. Arjinna is now under the martial law of the ruthless Ifrit, the lowest and most despised caste, and all that matters to Nalia is returning home to rescue her 8-year-old brother from the brutal Ifrit work camps—but Nalia can only be free when Malek makes his third and final wish. Enter Raif, sexy leader of the revolution in Arjinna, who makes her an offer; Nalia must decide whether she’ll break her most sacred vow to save the person she loves most, but she’ll pay any price to be her own mistress. The story unfolds at a swift, even pace, and the worldbuilding is superb; the jinn inhabit an intoxicating, richly realized realm of magic, politics, spirituality and history.
Readers will wish they had a jinni to grant them the next book in the series. (Fantasy. 15 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-231856-5
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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