By itself, a fascinating meditation on the choices which alter lives and the course of history; in the context of Walton's...
A mystical stone and time travel play roles in the redemption of the Renaissance-era priest and reformer Girolamo Savonarola in this unusual historical fantasy.
At the end of the 15th century, Brother Girolamo seeks to keep his adopted city of Florence both physically safe and spiritually pure in the wake of the death of the great politician Lorenzo de’Medici and a looming invasion by both the French and an army of demons that only Brother Girolamo can see. Even armed with his abilities to cast those demons back to hell and to prophesy the future, he cannot keep his enemies from the secular world of politics or rivals in the church from executing him for heresy. But after his death, Girolamo learns that his entire life was a lie: In fact, he is a demon, a Duke of Hell condemned to live the same life over and over in mortal form, unable to receive divine mercy or make a lasting difference. But when he’s sent back to Florence the next time, something changes: The touch of a green stone brings back Girolamo’s memories of his demonic existence and his repeated lives. With that hideous knowledge, Girolamo wonders if it’s possible to change destiny, both for Florence and himself. He begins forging alternate paths in the secular and religious worlds, which eventually intersect with another embodied demon who calls himself Crookback but whom history knows as Richard III of England. Walton masterfully engenders sympathy for the fanatic Savonarola, conveying how devastating it is to remember God’s love but be forever cut off from it. This book may also impel her close readers to perform their own feats of intellectual gymnastics. Walton’s Thessaly trilogy (Necessity, 2016, etc.) features two of Girolamo’s friends, the historical figures Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino, who are snatched out of time just before their deaths by the Greek gods to participate in an attempt to build Plato’s Republic. This suggests that not only does the Judeo-Christian God coexist with the Greek pantheon, but that both employ time travel to explore philosophical possibilities; that indeed, it is a vital part of the theological toolbox.
By itself, a fascinating meditation on the choices which alter lives and the course of history; in the context of Walton's other novels, positively mind-bending.Pub Date: May 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7906-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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