A little more moral nuance and even pacing would have enhanced this otherwise welcome return to epic fantasy.
The long-awaited follow-up to The Last Dragonlord (1998) and Dragon and Phoenix (1999) does not, actually, have very much to do with dragons or Dragonlords until the climax.
Folk of all sorts—lords, peasants, merchants, nobles and Dragonlords—are gathered for the famous Balyaranna Horse Fair. One attendee is haughty, angry Master Bard Leet, whose beloved kinsman Arnath died when sociopathic Lord Tirael thrust the boy onto the vicious stallion Summer Lightning. Determined to revenge himself on the horse and the lord, and as a bonus, hurt his erstwhile rival in love, Bard Otter, Leet uses an evil-haunted harp to enchant a boy into poisoning the horse and Otter’s beloved great-nephew Raven into murdering Tirael. Can Raven’s childhood friend Maurynna and her fellow Dragonlords uncover the true perpetrator before the apparently guilty suffer for their crimes? Bertin spends most of the book ratcheting up the tension, dotting it with threatening little incidents, before anything of note actually occurs. Ultimately, the plot structure resembles a magical cross between Columbo and Law & Order: We know from the outset who the perpetrator is; we’re just waiting for Our Heroes to find him and prove his guilt during some extremely dramatic courtroom scenes. While minor characters are slightly more well-rounded, the two villains are almost cartoonishly bad people. Readers will rejoice at evil Tirael’s (admittedly creepy) death, but it’s too bad that Bertin won’t allow readers to sympathize with Leet, a man who feels he’s lost everything he ever valued and is driven to drastic measures to heal his pain. But Leet’s cruel, bigoted, selfish and just all-around unpleasant; there’s simply nothing redeeming about him.
A little more moral nuance and even pacing would have enhanced this otherwise welcome return to epic fantasy.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-87370-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.
Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.
The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three. Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.
Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-88743-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read...
Marrs’ debut novel traces the stories of five people who find their soul mates—or do they?
Imagine if you could submit to a simple DNA test and then receive your Match in your email. Not just an online date who might be geographically compatible, but a true and unique genetically destined partner. While the potential long-term benefits may seem to outweigh the negative consequences, the system is far from infallible; as any science-fiction fan could tell you, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catastrophe lurking at the other end. Marrs’ novel traces five individuals who meet their Matches under varying circumstances and with widely conflicting outcomes. During the course of their romantic adventures (and misadventures), the entire DNA matching algorithm will prove to be susceptible to hacking, also proving that (gasp!) just because something may be driven by science doesn’t mean that it’s free from the world of human error. The philosophy posed by the novel speaks not just to the power of love and the laws of attraction, but also serves as a commentary on today’s world of genetic exploration. Do these breakthroughs simplify our lives, or do they make us lazy, replacing the idea of “destiny” or “fate” with “science” as a larger power that we don’t need to question? These ideas keep the novel moving along and create a deeper level of interest, since most of the narrative threads are fairly predictable. The two exceptions are the psychopathic serial killer who meets his Match and begins to lose interest in killing and the heterosexual man matched with another man, both of whom must then redefine sexuality and love, commitment and family.
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read all in one sitting.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-00510-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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