“The X-Men of Shannara,” if you will, skirmish against elves, rebels, their own masters and, occasionally, the reader’s...
In the start to a new heroic-fantasy series, a corps of elite magically mutated “hybrids,” humanoid creatures bred to serve an unworthy king, go rogue during a period of war and take destiny into their own hands, wings and claws.
Raines blends elements of mutant-superhero-comics team-ups (the X-Men in particular) with the familiar tropes of young-adult warrior fantasy. The Royal Guard of the weakling King Shale are a proud, fearless and formidable squad of magical hybrids, human beings whose DNA has been combined, via spell work, with creatures of myth and lore borrowed from varied world cultures. Thus, we have Shadow the gremlin-man, Howl the hotheaded werewolf, Silver the unicorn-guy, Jinx the harpy-girl (who, despite her heritage, is quite attractive), Crunch the Sasquatch-like hulk and more, all with their specific superpowers and quirks. As they flee the excruciating boredom of their security duties around the castle to chase marauders or assist in sieges, the Royal Guards’ protracted, Stan Lee-level bickering among themselves consumes a lot of dialogue (sprinkled with anachronistically modern slang). That and the made-for-Marvel fight scenes (using not just strength and speed, but psi-power and other mojo) distracts from Raines’ real achievement—he forges a decent fantasy saga in which boundaries of good and evil are intriguingly uncertain. Allegiances and alliances shift, and the Royal Guard may actually be closer to the villain end of the spectrum at times as they pursue a mysterious, resourceful assassin whose true identity and mission, a neat surprise, closes this flawed but lively debut. With foreshadowing of future installments promising to explore Shale in more detail, this book should find a modest audience in this realm’s readership.
“The X-Men of Shannara,” if you will, skirmish against elves, rebels, their own masters and, occasionally, the reader’s patience, but ultimately win the battle for the attention of young followers in the genre.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450245340
Page Count: 402
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
