Seymour’s artful perfectionism will have readers clamoring for the sequel.
Seymour (Three Dances, 2013) begins a new epic fantasy series in which unlikely heroes must prevent a mythic dragon from destroying the world.
One night in Eldan City, brothers Cole and Litnig each have disturbing dreams. While Lit sees strange figures chained to stone, Cole envisions a black-scaled dragon destroy the world. Then, after Lit has a vision of their friend Ryse in danger, they visit Eldan’s Old Temple, where Ryse is a disciple of the god Yenor. At the temple, the brothers find shocking death and destruction—but miraculously, Ryse lives. As a soulweaver, she taps into the all-permeating River of Souls to heal a small boy; doing so offers her a vision of Sherduan, the black dragon that Cole saw. While leaving the temple, the trio glimpses a shattered dragon statue. “Three sets of golden heart dragons,” says the legend, and “if all of them are broken, a dragon comes from the depths of the void to burn the world.” When Cole meets with his close friend Prince Quay Eldani, he and his brother are enlisted to help save the last two sets of dragon statues from destruction by necromancers. Along the way, Seymour’s cast expands to include a teenage archer, Dilanthia Lonecliff, and a diminutive axe-wielder, Len Heramsun, among others. And while their exploits seemingly echo the many epics crowding this genre, Seymour lets these characters—and their private struggles—command the narrative. He conveys emotional conflict, like whenever Cole thinks of Dilanthia, superbly: “He couldn’t figure out what he wanted her to be. Maybe a best friend. Maybe a sister. Maybe something deeper....” What also distinguishes this fantasy is a clear, unique magic system; e.g., when Ryse heals someone, the soul responds and flows toward her until it forms a “bright, pulsing cloud around her body.” Chapters tend to focus on a character’s personal drama as it roils beneath the larger tale.
Seymour’s artful perfectionism will have readers clamoring for the sequel.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494388485
Page Count: 444
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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