Rote setting and unnecessarily dense exposition, enlivened by Fallon’s teeming imagination.
A spoiled princess and her dwarf slave prove surprisingly effective adversaries against a host of contenders for power in Fallon’s saga of forbidden love and revenge, the first in a trilogy.
The Demon Child trilogy (Medalon, 2004, etc.) and the Wolfblade Trilogy launched with this volume are both part of Fallon’s over-arching Hythrun Chronicles. Here, a complicated series of political dealings result in the marriage of Princess Marla Wolfblade, barely 16, to Laran Krakenshield, one of the Warlords of Hythria. Too bad Marla’s not in love with him—that honor goes to the dashing Nash Hawksword, who could be the princess’s Achilles heel if the maneuvers of expertly sneaky Alija Eaglespike succeed. Much skullduggery ensues, and for a few hundred pages, Fallon is happy to simply keep throwing out characters and schemes until the narrative achieves a critical mass of paranoid confusion. In the process, she neglects the culture of slaves and court’esa (sexual servants for the nobility) that provides the book’s most interesting scenes. The story finally gels with some shockingly cold-blooded betrayals and the looming prospect of war.
Rote setting and unnecessarily dense exposition, enlivened by Fallon’s teeming imagination.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2006
ISBN: 0-765-30992-0
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2005
A reasonable start, on the whole; let’s see where the series goes.
Liu’s stories have won most major critical science-fiction and fantasy awards. His first novel, inspired by the civil chaos stemming from the death of China’s first emperor, is poised to break him out to a more commercial audience.
The island nations of Dara only ceased warring with one another when King Réon of Xana conquered them and united them into an empire. But now the emperor is dead; his young, spoiled heir actively avoids ruling, and his power-hungry advisers are not up to the task, either. Old rivalries stir as various rebellions spring up. Chief among the rebels are two men of the old kingdom of Cocru: the sneaky, clever commoner-turned–able politician Kuni Garu and the deposed noble Mata Zyndu, an 8-foot-tall, double-pupiled warrior who values honor above all else. At first, Kuni and Mata are like brothers, but their ideological differences soon drive them apart. The epic fantasy genre can only be enriched by more novels drawing from non-Western traditions. Liu’s ambitious work expertly blends mythology, history, military tactics, and technological innovation (airships and submarines). There are plenty of excellent action scenes—the scene in which Kuni and his allies employ horned, scaled whales to attack an armada is particularly enjoyable. However, Liu’s characters could use a bit more texture; at times, they seem little more than puppets manipulated by Dara’s gods—or perhaps by the author: the novel is a door-stopper of an argument for the value of brains over brawn and flexible thinking over hidebound tradition. Liu’s plotting can also appear a bit thin and contrived; the outcomes of too many key battles hinge on one side contemptuously underestimating the other. Perhaps history bears Liu out on this point, but it doesn't make for convincing fiction.
A reasonable start, on the whole; let’s see where the series goes.Pub Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2427-1
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Poignant and heartbreaking, eloquent and frightening, impeccably rendered, it’s a fable that reminds us how our lives are...
From one of the great masters of modern speculative fiction: Gaiman’s first novel for adults since Anansi Boys (2005).
An unnamed protagonist and narrator returns to his Sussex roots to attend a funeral. Although his boyhood dwelling no longer stands, at the end of the road lies the Hempstock farm, to which he’s drawn without knowing why. Memories begin to flow. The Hempstocks were an odd family, with 11-year-old Lettie’s claim that their duck pond was an ocean, her mother’s miraculous cooking and her grandmother’s reminiscences of the Big Bang; all three seemed much older than their apparent ages. Forty years ago, the family lodger, a South African opal miner, gambled his fortune away, then committed suicide in the Hempstock farmyard. Something dark, deadly and far distant heard his dying lament and swooped closer. As the past becomes the present, Lettie takes the boy’s hand and confidently sets off through unearthly landscapes to deal with the menace; but he’s only 7 years old, and he makes a mistake. Instead of banishing the predator, he brings it back into the familiar world, where it reappears as his family’s new housekeeper, the demonic Ursula Monkton. Terrified, he tries to flee back to the Hempstocks, but Ursula easily keeps him confined as she cruelly manipulates and torments his parents and sister. Despite his determination and well-developed sense of right and wrong, he’s also a scared little boy drawn into adventures beyond his understanding, forced into terrible mistakes through innocence. Yet, guided by a female wisdom beyond his ability to comprehend, he may one day find redemption.
Poignant and heartbreaking, eloquent and frightening, impeccably rendered, it’s a fable that reminds us how our lives are shaped by childhood experiences, what we gain from them and the price we pay.Pub Date: June 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-225565-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
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