An agreeable, slow-burning high-fantasy tale.
An orphaned girl joins a male-only magical sect in Patrick’s fantasy novel.
Twelve-year-old Arien has grown up in a small village orphanage. She knows nothing of a Seer’s prophecy when she was born, which foretold the end of her father’s bloodline and prompted her mother to spirit her away. Arien does know that she’s different from other kids, as she hears thoughts and can sense other people’s emotions. When Master Petro of the Brotherhood of Power offers to train her in the use of her abilities, she sees a chance to fit in, at last, and gain a surrogate family. But the Brotherhood is an order that’s made up of only boys and men. Even after Petro successfully argues for her inclusion, he and Arien must live apart from the other members of the group. Seven years go by, and Arien undergoes the trial to become a “Brother.” She later accompanies Petro to the court of King Mendel of Hamlin, where Petro is to be Mendel’s adviser; meanwhile, Arien is sent on a covert diplomatic mission. Will she succeed in ferreting out hostile intentions in the neighboring kingdom, or will her past catch up with her and bring ruin upon two lands? Patrick writes in a close third-person perspective involving many characters, offering a multifaceted but homogeneous narrative voice. The story moves slowly at first, avoiding contrived peril and instead slowly leading readers toward the larger, inescapable danger noted in the prologue. Arien and company will be recognizable types for fans of the genre, and many plot points have a similarly comfortable familiarity. Still, Patrick sometimes subverts genre tropes by, for example, forgoing an expected betrayal. These subversions are subtle but pleasing elements, as is the fact that the book is a stand-alone story instead of the start of a series. The author also demonstrates a good measure of restraint regarding sex and violence, presenting readers with a wholesome alternative to George R.R. Martin and other dark-fantasy writers.
An agreeable, slow-burning high-fantasy tale.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-937671-44-0
Page Count: 371
Publisher: Next Step Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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