A fresh, fun romp through 10 fantasy realms that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy exploring.
Fee gathers fantasy tales that span from classic to creepy and beyond in this collection of stories.
Compiled and written by book enthusiasts who all run various YouTube channels dedicated to the art of writing, this anthology has a little something for everyone. The presence of “half-human” protagonists proves to be the common thread that runs through all 10 stories—the criteria for membership in that group vary as wildly as the plotlines. In Mason Adey’s “Dishonoured in Death,” a half-fae, half-dwarf known only as “The Woman” seeks revenge for her twin brother’s death. Dane Cobain’s darkly comedic “The Band Gets Together” features the obnoxiously named Gröin Gönadsson, who is 3 feet, 11 inches and “pretty sure” he is a vampire. Even the stories’ forms vary, as in the genuinely eerie epistolary gem “Goatman’s Bridge” by P.M. Brown, in which Marlon Timothy discovers his one eye contains special sight and uses it to save his friends from a Southern backwoods cult. While violence understandably abounds in these often conflict-heavy tales, the mayhem never proves overly graphic. Some pieces, such as David Wiley’s “The Defense of Bergond,” which features a “half-breed” named Tirlok struggling to prove himself, relish in old-fashioned epic battle scenes: “The stench of sweat made Tirlok’s nose twitch. The corpses were quickly dragged behind the defenses and plundered, reinforcing their line with superior shields and weapons in a few points.” While collections like this can sometimes feel uneven, this anthology doesn’t have a weak link in the chain. Certain stories will obviously appeal to some readers more than others, depending on how one prefers their fantasy; there are magical artifacts and druids as well as crow-human hybrids, and the tones range from funny to epic to inspirational to heartbreaking.
A fresh, fun romp through 10 fantasy realms that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy exploring.Pub Date: May 13, 2023
ISBN: 9798391502418
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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