Kay is probably best known for his neo-Arthurian trilogy, "The Fionavar Tapestry," which drew mixed notices; this big new novel should establish him as an important independent voice. The setting is The Palm, a peninsula broken into small rival states each with its own Duke. Resisting an invasion, the province of Tigana defeats the armies of the sorcerer-king Brandin, killing his son. Enraged, Brandin sends a greater force to crush Tigana, then casts a spell to obliterate the province from human memory; only those born there before its fall can ever hear its name spoken. Fifteen years later, a few who escaped the subsequent bloodbath are sworn to kill Brandin, restoring the province to its rightful name and the exiled heir Alessan to its throne. Posing as traveling musicians, then as merchants, the small group of conspirators lays its plans and gathers its strength until the time is right. Meanwhile, unknown to anyone, Brandin's favorite concubine is a daughter of Tigana's, also sworn to kill him, but unable to act against him. These plot threads build to a convincing climax, but the novel's colorful setting nearly steals the show. Kay has spun a richly sensuous fantasy world, full of evocative history, religions, folklore, local customs, and magical rites. Knowledgeable readers will spot parallels with classical Greece and medieval Italy, but (unlike "Fionavar") there is very little that's derivative here. A bravura performance, nearly impossible to put down unfinished anywhere in the last 300 pages; odds are we'll see it on more than one award ballot next year.
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0451457765
Page Count: 692
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990
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 new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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