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THE CHRONICLE OF THE OSTMEN

Name: THE CHRONICLE OF THE OSTMEN
Author: Ian McKay Nunn
ISBN: 978-1-5043-0752-9

by Ian McKay Nunn ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2017

A well-researched, comprehensive, but messy Viking tale.

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In this debut historical novel, a young nobleman becomes a captive of Vikings set to conquer British kingdoms in the late ninth century.

Mael MacConaill is the son of Lord Bran in the Irish town of Ard Mhacha. When the Danes, led by Viking lord Ímar, raid the town’s monastery, they initially take Mael to perform folk songs on his lute. But he remains their prisoner and ultimately becomes separated from his family and friends. He winds up on the ship the Red Wasp as part of Lord Sidroc’s band. Mael gradually learns the Danish tongue and even gains a friend in warrior Meintet. He also finds comrades after a raiding party in Wessex picks up a Saxon slave, Blythe, along with her 9-year-old daughter, Godiva. The Danes assign Mael the task of teaching Danish to Godiva and learning her Saxon language. Meanwhile, the Vikings continue to raid such kingdoms as Mercia and East Anglia. But Wessex and its king, Æthelred, seem the most resistant and may prove the Danes’ greatest challenge. While the battles rage, Mael must deal with Cuthbert, a boy whose unveiled animosity results in his recurrent bullying of both the lute player and Godiva. This epic series opener is brimming with vivid fictional and real-life characters. Nunn circumvents potential muddle by rigorously detailing players’ titles and relationships while concise descriptions throughout avoid any narrative lulls. Battles are aplenty but never graphic, and though the perspectives are largely those of savage Vikings, sympathetic Mael is the clear protagonist. He searches for his purpose among the Vikings, such as gathering materials or tending to the wounded. But as he’s not a warrior, Mael is noticeably absent from the action-packed final act, which leads to an ending that deftly sets up Book 2. The author’s accompanying illustrations are indelible, particularly landscape images that are, not surprisingly, packed with characters (some of these pictures are sadly split in two to accommodate the book’s standard size). Unfortunately, a host of errors distracts from the story, from missing letters or words (“Out on the sea, left to himself, Mael thought of the Briton boys who now hostages”) to improper punctuation, like an omitted period at the end of a sentence (“This wind will take you to a large river that flows from the heart of Mercia”).

A well-researched, comprehensive, but messy Viking tale.

Pub Date: April 6, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0752-9

Page Count: 262

Publisher: BalboaPressAU

Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- SEEN & HEARD
Salinger Focus of NYPL Exhibit

- SEEN & HEARD
NYC Mayoral Candidates Name Favorite Gotham Books

- APPRECIATIONS
Holden Caulfield: Forever Young

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.