Pleasant but featherweight, and a pretty thin stretch even at this modest length.
In the tradition of Leslie Charteris’s Saint and Jack Vance's Magnus Ridolph, etc., two long interconnected stories featuring Kieran “Knight” Thane, a medium-future knight errant who rights wrongs, cons the conmen and swindles the swindlers while bolstering his personal retirement fund: from the author of The Legend That Was Earth (2000), etc. In the first adventure, Kieran arrives on Mars after wandering the solar system and meets up with his longtime friend June Holland. Together they investigate the plight of scientist Leo Sarda; having invented a matter transmitter, Leo successfully transmitted himself, but then somehow was robbed of the five million credits he'd been paid. Leo himself, it emerges, is the only person who could have stolen the money; moreover, he proves to have lost certain recent memories after emerging from the receiving apparatus. The matter transmitter, it seems, actually creates a duplicate of the original; before Leo tested his invention, the original plotted with rival businessmen to cheat the duplicate and his sponsors, and make billions from the deal. Poor Leo's been swindled by himself. In the second adventure, archeologists exploring the Martian desert discover ancient ruins that might prove the existence of a recent civilization on Mars—and confirm a contemporary pre-Egyptian civilization on Earth. Some predatory bigwigs, however, want to develop the site. Just as Knight prepares to grapple with them, the bad guys from the previous escapade show up.
Pleasant but featherweight, and a pretty thin stretch even at this modest length.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-671-31844-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Baen
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
A new series starts off with a bang.
A queen and her young daughter are forced to separate and go into hiding when a corrupt politician tries to take over the kingdom.
Queen Cressa of Weirandale is worried about her 8-year-old daughter, the “princella” Cerúlia. The people of Weirandale worship a water spirit, Nargis, who grants each queen a special gift called a Talent. Cressa herself is able to meddle with memories, for example, and her mother possessed supernatural strategic abilities that served her well in battle. Cerúlia, however, appears to have none, because surely her insistence that she can talk to animals is only her young imagination running wild. When Cerúlia’s many pets warn her about assassins creeping into the royal chambers, the girl is able to save herself and her mother. Cressa uses her Talent, which actually extends to forcing anyone to tell her the truth, to root out traitors among the aristocracy, led by the power-hungry Lord Matwyck. Fearing for her daughter’s life and her own, Cressa takes Cerúlia and flees. Thinking Cerúlia will be safer away from her mother, Cressa takes the girl to a kind peasant family and adjusts their memories so they believe Cerúlia is their adopted daughter. Kozloff’s debut is the first of four Nine Realms books, and Tor plans to publish them over just four months. Luckily, the series opener is a strong start, so readers will be grateful for the short wait before Book 2. Kozloff sets a solid stage with glimpses into other characters and nations while keeping the book together with a clear, propulsive plot.
A new series starts off with a bang.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16854-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A huge, churning, relentlessly entertaining melodrama buoyed by confidence that human values will prevail.
A rare, rattling space opera—first of a trilogy, or series, from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
Humanity colonized the solar system out as far as Neptune but then exploration stagnated. Straight-arrow Jim Holden is XO of an ice-hauler swinging between the rings of Saturn and the mining stations of the Belt, the scattered ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. His ship's captain, responding to a distress beacon, orders Holden and a shuttle crew to investigate what proves to be a derelict. Holden realizes it's some sort of trap, but an immensely powerful, stealthed warship destroys the ice-hauler, leaving Holden and the shuttle crew the sole survivors. This unthinkable act swiftly brings Earth, with its huge swarms of ships, Mars with its less numerous but modern and powerful navy, and the essentially defenseless Belt to the brink of war. Meanwhile, on the asteroid Ceres, cynical, hard-drinking detective Miller—we don't find out he has other names until the last few pages—receives orders to track down and "rescue"—i.e. kidnap—a girl, Julie Mao, who rebelled against her rich Earth family and built an independent life for herself in the Belt. Julie is nowhere to be found but, as the fighting escalates, Miller discovers that Julie's father knew beforehand that hostilities would occur. Now obsessed, Miller continues to investigate even when he loses his job—and the trail leads towards Holden, the derelict, and what might prove to be a horrifying biological experiment. No great depth of character here, but the adherence to known physical laws—no spaceships zooming around like airplanes—makes the action all the more visceral. And where Corey really excels is in conveying the horror and stupidity of interplanetary war, the sheer vast emptiness of space and the amorality of huge corporations.
A huge, churning, relentlessly entertaining melodrama buoyed by confidence that human values will prevail.Pub Date: June 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-12908-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
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