Requires some suspension of disbelief and an appreciation for medieval mythology.
Searching for purpose, Will McBride, a young man in 14th-century Scotland, encounters two Templar Knights and ultimately aides them as they attempt to mount a new Crusade to regain a foothold in Jerusalem with the goal of rebuilding Solomon’s Temple and heralding in the “End Time.”
Intrigued by his own Scottish heritage, debut Australian novelist Logan began researching the history of Scotland from the 14th to the 18th centuries. In the process, he became especially fascinated by the real saga of Sir Walter and Sir Robert Logan, brothers and knights. After the Catholic Church disbanded and excommunicated the Order of the Templars, in 1312, a number of knights escaped the European continent and continued their order under the protection of Robert the Bruce of Scotland. This much is history; the rest of the tale is imagined adventure, historical battles intertwined with Celtic mythology, a dose of Arthurian legend and enough magical idols with special powers to keep the fanciful satisfied. Sprinkled in is a trunk-full of sage advice and cautions dispensed to Will by a variety of mentors. There is plenty of interest in this dense volume—political intrigue as early kings vie for power, wealth and land; secret battles between Catholic priests and Templar Knights, each claiming to represent the true way to serve God; plus the search for hidden Templar gold and silver and a secreted statue known as the “Black Madonna” dating back to the days of Queen Esther of ancient Persia. There are also some engaging depictions of 14th-century day-to-day life. Unfortunately, grammatical problems—“more clearer,” “more easier,” punctuation oddities, etc.—prove distracting. Similarly out of place are the occasional colloquial phrases inappropriate for the period—“I tell you he is one sick puppy”—which are especially jarring in a narrative that otherwise tries to re-create the cadence of the time.
Requires some suspension of disbelief and an appreciation for medieval mythology.Pub Date: March 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1491864043
Page Count: 486
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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