A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.
Debut authors Schenck-de Michele and Marquez’s urban fantasy novel about Lucifer’s daughter and a peculiar shop.
Lucinda’s Pawnshop & Antiquary is no ordinary secondhand store, much in the way Lucinda Trompe is no ordinary proprietor: “Half mortal, half immortal, she had been sired by Lucifer on a human mother—THE human mother. The woman the Torah called ‘Eve.’ ” Gifted with the ability to change form and manipulate regular mortals, Lucinda spends much of her time selling specific items to the latter. These items work as “soul magnets,” which in their own special ways work to do the bidding of Lucifer. After all, “Lucinda’s father was hell-bent (she loved that expression) on bringing mankind not to its knees, but to its grave.” With an elaborate plan that involves a group of young witches, Morgan le Fay’s Book of Shadows, a cursed pocket watch, and unrest in the Middle East, humanity seems to be in trouble. It’s trouble that Lucinda initially aids, though her infatuation with a beautiful man named Dominic Amado, and has the potential to disrupt even Lucifer’s well-laid plans. Lucinda is of course half human, a reality that occasionally allows her to subvert her father’s intentions. Hatching an intricate plot, the story progresses from different angles at a cracking pace. While the concept of Lucifer’s daughter falling in love with a modern man as she works at a magical secondhand store could have easily become awash with urban fantasy clichés, the story maintains an original feel. Touching on historical figures such as Averroes and Francis Galton, the real is woven seamlessly with the fantastical, such as when a young witch conjures a water horse—“She flung it at the first wave of men, twisting it until it looked less like a horse and more like a horrific, gleaming tornado with a wide, open vortex.” Though a passage involving a dutiful young soldier and his feuding parents seems forced, the overall story proves itself to be both genuinely surprising and, if one can imagine the devil’s daughter falling in love, touching.
A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1939457363
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Bird Street Books
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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