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
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...
Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.
Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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