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The Buried Symbol

Name: The Buried Symbol
Author: Jeffrey L. Kohanek
ISBN: 978-1-61296-692-2

From the The Runes of Issalia series , Vol. 1

by Jeffrey L. Kohanek ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2016

While it shows potential, this tale lays the groundwork for future installments instead of delivering a rousing adventure.

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A poor young man strives to rise above his station in a rigid society stratified into strict castes in this debut fantasy novel, the first in The Runes of Issalia series.

In Brock Talenz’s world, how much control people have over their lives is determined by whether they are granted a rune at a young age, defining them as one of the upper classes. Unfortunately for Brock, he belongs to the Unchosen, namely the lowest level of society, with no hope for upward mobility. After his beloved aunt dies of an illness the same day he was finally able to get her a doctor by stealing enough money to pay for the visit, Brock decides he has had enough. He goes to a man who gives him a counterfeit rune and then sets off with his best friend, Tipper, and a few others on the long journey to the Academy, where all of the upper echelons of this realm are trained. Along the way, Brock discovers he possesses strange powers when a banshee kills one of his companions and he manages to temporarily revive the corpse. Once Brock finally arrives at the Academy, he begins his education and discovers some buried truths that could threaten to unravel the Empire. Brock is by far the strongest element of Kohanek’s novel. Sharply drawn, natural, and sympathetic, the protagonist grounds the narrative, even amid its fantasy trappings. Neither the plot nor the world he inhabits is the genre’s most original, but both are solid, initially promising a sturdy foundation for a series. But at the same time, an overabundance of exposition weighs down this first installment, particularly once Brock reaches the school. What was a fairly exciting quest story suddenly gets bogged down in classroom minutiae, like Hogwarts without the whimsy, fun, and true sense of danger. After all of that, the book ends abruptly, revealing itself to have simply been a setup for sequels, with no emotional resolution or payoff.

While it shows potential, this tale lays the groundwork for future installments instead of delivering a rousing adventure.

Pub Date: April 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-61296-692-2

Page Count: 356

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.