An intoxicating, top-flight dark fantasy.
A secluded island realm gets raided for its mythical secrets in this fantasy series opener.
Fourteen-year-old Icabus is a villager in Aggersel on the island of Apenninus. He’s been dreaming of ships arriving on the nearby lake and violent men who attack. One day, three ships do appear, and their captain, Furius of Authia, says “chance or fate” led them to the village. He and his small contingent are desperate to visit the Old Kingdom, sealed by the village ancestors. The sorcerer Galen once guarded “healing waters” that are now cursed. Furius nevertheless wants access to help save his homeland, fallen to the savage Arx Caeli imperialists. When the Aggersel Elders agree to vote on the matter, Furius goes behind their backs and insists that Icabus’ father, Atius, take him and his group to the Old Kingdom. The duplicitous sailors do find Galen and, with his consent, perform a swiftly brutal takeover of the village using soldiers hidden on the ships. Icabus flees into the forest, where the monstrous Taker lives. Yet deeper in the wilderness, there is hope. Apenninus is home to many strange, miraculous tribes that aren’t quite human. There’s also Nubis, a “dragon knight,” who explains to Icabus the secret of “mana,” a substance that can change a creature’s form. Agapoff’s tale is an enthralling example of showing the story rather than telling it. A minimum of exposition brings characters and dialogue to the forefront of vivid events that crest over readers. As Furius reveals his evil, the narrative’s dramatic grip tightens. Horror fans will love the surprising moments, as when one villain is eaten alive (“There was so much blood, and still the butcher shrieked, arching his body and flapping what remained of his arms and legs like bloody flippers”). While dragons are legends, missing from the world, readers instead meet the endearing Shrail, a giant talking bat. Yet change is the thematic center here. As Nubis says, “If you resist it, you will always be disappointed....Accept it, and it might be used to your advantage.” A wider world awaits in the sequel.
An intoxicating, top-flight dark fantasy.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-578-26023-5
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Mill City Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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