A smart, pleasing, unpretentious fantasy that is only the opening movement of a planned series.
Cunder’s debut is a fantasy bildungsroman that chronicles the journey of the young Arius and his dragon through a once-happy land.
In the mystical land of Farahdin, before our young hero Arius is born, the evil Contemno, with magical powers that can make any skeptic disappear in a puff of blackness, stages a bloody coup and ascends to the throne. Once in power, the megalomaniac not only instills fear in his subjects, but he installs creepy portraits of himself in every one of his reluctant subjects’ homes. It is in this tyrannical, dystopian environment that young Arius is born. His parents die a mysterious and vaguely heroic death in the prologue, just tantalizing enough to whet readers’ appetites. When the narrative proper begins, Arius is hawking daggers under the care and tutelage of a man named Lodus, a living compendium of local lore and legend. He regales the young Arius with stories of elves and the lost world of the dragons, which Arius takes as only the entertainments of an old man. But there’s not too much exposition before Arius’ greater destiny comes calling. It’s well-trodden territory in the genre, but Cunder’s lively prose and the pleasure of his interwoven narratives—one chapter in Arius’ present and the next charting Contemno’s rise to wickedness—are as sophisticated as they are easily accessible, with only occasional flourishes of purple prose that seem endemic to the fantasy genre. Indeed, it’s really a book tailored to please the pleasure centers of the fantasy addict, and rarely does it diverge from the archetypal steps the genre demands. However, this adherence to convention is the book’s strength as it doesn’t flail about in avant-garde meanderings. Once the plot starts moving, it rarely lets up and the revelations abound. The final (or is it?) denouement might be rushed a bit too vigorously considering all the build up, but the final battle with Contemno and Arius’ new knowledge of his family history sets the stage for continuation.
A smart, pleasing, unpretentious fantasy that is only the opening movement of a planned series.Pub Date: May 4, 2010
ISBN: 978-1452017723
Page Count: 476
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2010
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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