An enjoyable, well-researched historical adventure.
Hermannson’s historical fantasy sees a young warrior seduced toward adventure by the promise of treasure.
In Saxon Germany in the year 109, a band of youths trap a giant white aurochs (a type of cattle) in a cave. Then 15-year-old Sunu arrives and mounts the aurochs before it charges off into the village. During the wild, destructive ride, Sunu manages to subdue the animal, killing it with nothing but his bare fists. Villagers shower the young man with adulation, and he derives great personal pride from the accomplishment. Later, after some sport with his fellow hunters, Sunu hears a voice in his head say, “You are better than this life.” He then determines that the Saxons should possess and display great wealth, so that other tribes, such as the Marcomanns, will fear and respect them. Then he sees a rainbow leading to Thunor’s Grove. He follows his goat, Blicsmo, into the area and encounters a glowing white mare that speaks with him telepathically, introducing herself as Runa (a word meaning “mystery”). He also finds a golden brooch on the beach that looks like a wheel—a fortunate event that reinforces his hope to become “the most powerful man in the world!” The next day, Runa carries Sunu on a series of heroic adventures, using the rainbow bridge (called the “Bifröst”) to appear wherever injustice rears its head. In many cases, however, the young champion is distracted by the very same spoils that have inspired oppression throughout the Roman Empire. Hermannson offers a cautionary tale, set against the backdrop of Roman emperor Trajan’s systematic corruption; after Sunu saves a family in Bohemia from abusive soldiers, he’s shocked to learn that the local king strong-arms people to pay rent and taxes. But glory and its beautiful accoutrements quickly go to Sunu’s head; at one point, for example, he assures King Riki of the Southwest Swabians, “If I told you everything I did today, the last thing you would doubt is my significance.” Readers will be intrigued by the parallels between the god Thunor (aka Thor) and Hercules, as explained in the line, “They also have a heavenly father and an earthly mother, who produced a quick-tempered, far-traveling son who can out-eat and out-drink anyone in the cosmos!” The resulting commentary declares that those with faith have more in common than not. Hermannson will draw in action fans with a scene in which Sunu raises an army of 312 retainers to rescue three sisters from Colonia Agrippinensium. There’s also an engaging secondary character in the warrior Keresaspa, who sees through Sunu’s callow attempts to woo her. Throughout, the author makes sure to focus on his primary theme: that material gains can frequently be detrimental to familial bonds. Sunu’s character arc, while epic in scope, is charming and fun; Runa often brings the hero back to Earth with lines such as, “This guy is hopeless.” The hero learns much through experience, however, and further exploits would be welcome.
An enjoyable, well-researched historical adventure.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2018
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
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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