This solid fantasy tale is well paced and well told, even if it misses some opportunities.
Eramane is stolen away by a dark force, only to find that it has a special role in mind for her.
The village of Eludwid is plagued by a unique problem: every once in a while, a horrific beast descends upon a local woman and impregnates her, often killing or traumatizing her husband in the process. The book opens with two such cases, as one woman jumps to her death in front of her grieving husband, rather than face giving birth to the child of a monster, and another goes through with the delivery, knowing that the Riders, protectors of the village, will never let her baby reunite with The Nameless One, the beast that threatens them all. Eramane Fahnestock, however, lives a regular life with her family and friends, though she longs for more adventure and excitement. While on a picnic with a young man who wants to marry her, Eramane and her date are beset by the beast itself, and Eramane is seemingly rescued by the handsome and mysterious, Adikiah, who promptly takes her back to his castle. While it’s clear Adikiah is not the savior he claims to be, Eramane trusts him for a surprisingly long time, despite the fact that he will not let her leave the place he’s brought her to. She quickly learns of his own connection to the Nameless One, and the role he expects her to play, one different from that of the women presented at the beginning of the book. Meanwhile, Eramane’s brother Samiah discovers she is missing and sets out to find her, but he might be too late to save Eramane from the Nameless One, and from herself. Jumps into Samiah’s point of view can be jarring, especially since the present tense voice works better in Ermane’s first person chapters than in the third person chapters of Samiah. Sometimes the plot progresses too quickly, missing opportunities to build conflict to its breaking point, rather than simply introducing the conflict. In one example, Eramane begins to suspect that Adikiah might be less than well intentioned, and almost immediately, his nefarious plan commences - more time given to her attempts to learn about his plan and stop him would add more conflict to what is already a solid suspenseful read. Otherwise, this is a well paced, well written story, with good suspense, and a good main character in Eramane. Readers will want to know what happens to her after this book.
This solid fantasy tale is well paced and well told, even if it misses some opportunities.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1480801790
Page Count: 242
Publisher: ArchwayPublishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.
After 1,000 years of peace, whispers that “the Nameless One will return” ignite the spark that sets the world order aflame.
No, the Nameless One is not a new nickname for Voldemort. Here, evil takes the shape of fire-breathing dragons—beasts that feed off chaos and imbalance—set on destroying humankind. The leader of these creatures, the Nameless One, has been trapped in the Abyss for ages after having been severely wounded by the sword Ascalon wielded by Galian Berethnet. These events brought about the current order: Virtudom, the kingdom set up by Berethnet, is a pious society that considers all dragons evil. In the East, dragons are worshiped as gods—but not the fire-breathing type. These dragons channel the power of water and are said to be born of stars. They forge a connection with humans by taking riders. In the South, an entirely different way of thinking exists. There, a society of female mages called the Priory worships the Mother. They don’t believe that the Berethnet line, continued by generations of queens, is the sacred key to keeping the Nameless One at bay. This means he could return—and soon. “Do you not see? It is a cycle.” The one thing uniting all corners of the world is fear. Representatives of each belief system—Queen Sabran the Ninth of Virtudom, hopeful dragon rider Tané of the East, and Ead Duryan, mage of the Priory from the South—are linked by the common goal of keeping the Nameless One trapped at any cost. This world of female warriors and leaders feels natural, and while there is a “chosen one” aspect to the tale, it’s far from the main point. Shannon’s depth of imagination and worldbuilding are impressive, as this 800-pager is filled not only with legend, but also with satisfying twists that turn legend on its head. Shannon isn’t new to this game of complex storytelling. Her Bone Season novels (The Song Rising, 2017, etc.) navigate a multilayered society of clairvoyants. Here, Shannon chooses a more traditional view of magic, where light fights against dark, earth against sky, and fire against water. Through these classic pairings, an entirely fresh and addicting tale is born. Shannon may favor detailed explication over keeping a steady pace, but the epic converging of plotlines at the end is enough to forgive.
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63557-029-8
Page Count: 848
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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