An enthralling, densely packed, historically rich tale.
In Wimber’s fantasy novel, immortal brothers battle a host of enemies and each other.
Sahale, the creator of all things, gives his sons, Wyeast and Pathoe, land that they split for their respective tribes; the “Bridge of the Gods” connects the lands, divided by what will one day be known as the Columbia River in the United States. The area is already populated by hulking daemons, which the brothers’ tribes join forces to vanquish. Sadly, Wyeast and Pathoe soon turn against one another when they both fall for the same woman, Loowit. The book’s second section begins after much time has passed and the brothers once again face a common foe: Massive Thunderbirds threaten to wipe out both tribes unless Wyeast and Pathoe can put their differences aside and fight as one. In the final sequence, white settlers arrive on the land that they call America, and the brothers take part in U.S. wars all through the 19th century. The author’s pithy writing delivers readers an epic tale in compact form. She deftly constructs her narrative (which is based on an Indigenous myth) to provide glimpses into America’s tumultuous growth. The female characters are impeccably well drawn, especially the skilled archer/warrior/healer, Tacoma. By sharp contrast, the brothers’ perpetual squabbling wears thin (the pair are frequently scolded like children). Nevertheless, their story cleverly parallels the book’s historical arc—they sympathize with the Indigenous peoples, but, like the U.S. government, they seize land that isn’t theirs. Contemporary-sounding dialogue throughout helps maintain the brisk pace, although it’s sometimes jarring, as when Tacoma audaciously tells Wyeast, “There is no one else here who is willing to try and pull your head out of your ass.” While each of the three stories contained here concludes satisfactorily, another tale or three about these immortals would be welcome.
An enthralling, densely packed, historically rich tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781039165670
Page Count: 339
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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