An inventive, intuitive debut.
Sommers’ debut collection of linked short stories portrays a series of uncanny events that occurs in a fictional valley.
Green Valley “exists in the soul of every town and every village, every suburb and every city,” remarks Sommers in his opening note to the reader. This is the first installment in the Conduits series, which includes 12 stories set within a fictional landscape that stretches from mountain wilderness to a great metropolis. The opener, “A Sunny Day,” follows Gregg Ryan, a lonely SkyTram operator, who is beguiled by a passerby he spots on a crosswalk. In “Ya’hootie,” Boy Scout Pierre Abbé sets out to prove that Ya’hootie (a Bigfoot-like entity) does not exist but makes a life-changing discovery. Meanwhile, “The Ballpark Poet” is about Mac, a stadium beer vendor known for spouting rhymes during the game. Other stories star a crazed delivery driver, a movie projectionist threatened by the march of technology, and a woman whose child refuses to be born. Jinx Jenkins, a vagrant who carries bad luck with him, makes brief appearances throughout the collection. Sommers’ debut offers thoughtful insight into the processes of mythologization. With regard to Mac, the Ballpark Poet, he writes: “Nobody had a clue who he was or where he came from. When fans asked him, he always agreed with their story, in turn cultivating his myth beyond any actual truth. He figured the grander the legend became, the more beer he could sell.” The collection employs some imaginative twists in perspective—the foulmouthed delivery driver Puck introduced as a character in “Maddest Midsummer’s Night” reappears as the first-person narrator of “Roulette.” Puck’s crude, misogynistic language may deter some readers: “Can you believe this bitch? Fucking cunt. I swear, every time I get stiffed, it’s by some entitled white rich bitch.” Still, Sommers succeeds in setting up a fascinatingly detestable character. This is a shrewdly written collection that turns a mirror on contemporary society’s hunger to forge and destroy legends.
An inventive, intuitive debut.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9984983-5-5
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Transmundane Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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