Original worldbuilding suffers against a cartoonish villain and a plot that must continue straining to support its own...
Fantasist Estep (Venom in the Veins, 2018, etc.) debuts a new series with a tale of a young noblewoman’s coming-of-age against a backdrop of assassination, magic, and fate.
Seventeenth in line for the throne, the orphaned Everleigh (or Evie) is a footnote at Queen Cordelia's magic-filled court. She has learned to avoid the political infighting by being accommodating and unnoticed—which is made easier by her apparent powerlessness, as her magic is only a heightened sense of smell. Evie is thrust into any dull but royal task, such as baking an ambassador's ceremonial dessert or learning a formal dance of friendship. Of course, as Evie is a protagonist, such skills will turn out to be useful after all (in increasingly contrived fashion), and Evie will be revealed as magically powerful. Vasilia, Cordelia's heir, assassinates not merely her mother, but the entire royal family, in fine villainous overkill. Evie survives thanks to a secret immunity to magic, and within 24 hours has managed to find shelter with the country's most prestigious gladiator troupe, where she apparently learns to fight (never mind she managed to kill four trained guards during the original massacre and has killed before), stand up for herself, and make friends. Most of Evie's troubles are self-created, as the plot demands that she foolishly keep lying to her friends about her identity. Truth does finally come out, just before Evie's ability to dance improbably saves everyone's lives. After that, it's no great stretch to think that Villainous Vasilia is hubristic enough to allow a troupe of fully armed gladiators into her presence, allowing Evie to achieve her destiny (handily foretold in one of those children's-rhymes-that's-really-a-prophecy).
Original worldbuilding suffers against a cartoonish villain and a plot that must continue straining to support its own premises.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279761-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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