Weakened by its monotonous structure but propelled by luminous detail and Malin’s determination, this novel is not Baker at...
Alone in an unforgiving, sometimes-fantastical landscape, Malin Reed is on a journey in search of a mythical mother in this pungent early novel, newly available in the U.S., from acclaimed British writer Baker (Offcomer, 2014, etc.).
“[B]orn to a fishwoman and a ferryman, I was, I always had been, different.” So speaks friendless Malin, a self-styled freak whose gender Baker deftly conceals until a late, incontrovertible plot development. Malin’s miserable life in an undefined corner of England, in perhaps the early 19th century, shifts, after the ferryman’s death, from the nontender care of a grandmother to drudgery in the service of a brutish pub landlord. But flashes of magic light up Malin’s landscape—the passing visit of a circus; the arrival of a stranger at the pub who may be a swindler or a savior but who releases Malin into the larger world in search of mermaids. This long voyage of discovery includes time aboard a slave ship—one of the less convincing episodes in the tale—where Malin, now a sailor, finds a cross-dressing ally and also an enemy in the form of the captain. Flogged to ribbons, Malin escapes overboard, freeing the slaves on the way, only to be rescued by an eccentric librarian, alone on another vessel with his rare books. Icebergs, pirates, slavery—the thrills keep coming, with Malin sliding from one peril to another, sometimes using sex as a bargaining tool. Rescued by yet another circus, Malin learns not only a new skill—tightrope walking—but also something that will eventually bring the long, circular journey to a fitting end.
Weakened by its monotonous structure but propelled by luminous detail and Malin’s determination, this novel is not Baker at her strongest, but the promise is evident.Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7263-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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
One small step, no giant leaps.
Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or “porter,” whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth’s moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she’ll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon’s surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum’s automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don’t go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian’s smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike “Gizmos”), although intriguing elements—such as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russia—do show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, “for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator”—as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as “I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”
One small step, no giant leaps.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-44812-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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