“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
Though the book is vastly overelaborate, the steady pace and intricately fascinating details are relentlessly gripping; fans...
Second part of Islington’s doorstopper epic fantasy trilogy (The Shadow of What Was Lost, 2016), set in a world of the Gifted, whose magic lies in being able to tap into their own life force, and the Augurs, who wield a higher-order magic.
Islington supplies a "refresher" of the events of Book 1 that isn’t as helpful as you might suppose for reasons that will soon become clear. The laws that kept the Augurs and the Gifted constrained have been changed to allow them to defend Andarra against mysterious invaders. Three 16-year-olds who became friends at a school for the Gifted, Davian, Wirr, and Asha, now face different futures. Davian must learn to control his Augur powers and determine why the Boundary, put in place many years ago to keep out an invader called Aarkein Devaed, is weakening. Wirr, who, following his father’s death, is now Prince Torin the Northwarden, suspects that the story his father told him was false and must also deal with his interfering mother. By means of treachery, Asha’s Gifted powers have been suppressed, turning her into a Shadow; determined to find out how and why, she may discover more than she bargained for. Their friend Caeden has learned he’s an immortal; worse, he was once Aarkein Devaed but could not bear the crushing guilt and deleted his memories. Now he finds he needs them back; but is he really as evil as everybody says and he himself believes? With the narrative lacking the clear theme usually found in epic fantasy, the particulars assume critical importance; without them readers will be unable to decipher such magnificently gnomic passages as: "Andrael’s ridiculous weapon did its job and took my Reserve, so the Siphon is now bonded to Ashalia rather than me. If you want to seal the ilshara, she will need to find the final Tributary. The one that you set aside for Gassandrid, until he began to suspect and split himself."
Though the book is vastly overelaborate, the steady pace and intricately fascinating details are relentlessly gripping; fans of the first volume won’t be disappointed.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-27411-1
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The indomitable, quick-on-the-draw Lizbeth remains an irresistible heroine, and Harris proves she still has the magic touch.
In the second installment of Harris’ weird Western series set in an alternate former United States (after An Easy Death, 2018), gunslinger/bodyguard for hire Lizbeth “Gunnie” Rose must accompany a mysterious crate to its destination, but things go terribly wrong.
A long train ride east to the country of Dixie isn’t 19-year-old Lizbeth’s idea of a good time, but it is a job, and she needs it, especially since her last job left her with a long recovery and no crew. Her new troupe, the Lucky Crew, seems competent enough, and when Lizbeth spots some suspicious folks on the train, she’s pretty sure they’re about to be tested. A shootout precedes an explosion that engulfs the train. Someone must really want the Lucky Crew’s cargo. Lizbeth has been shot, her crew has been decimated, and the contents of the crate are gone, but she’s still got a job to do. When a blast from Lizbeth’s past—Eli Savarov, a grigori, or Russian wizard—shows up, Lizbeth discovers that he’s in search of whomever hired the Lucky Crew to deliver the crate. Lizbeth agrees to take a job as his bodyguard, and the two, posing as a married couple (it’s only proper) poke around the Louisiana town of Sally for clues that will lead them to the chest. They quickly realize the town is in racial turmoil: Slavery doesn’t technically exist, but it might as well considering the backward attitudes of the townsfolk and their shabby treatment of Sally’s black citizens. It all seems to lead to a powerful family that holds the town in its thrall, and, of course, the explosive contents of that troublesome crate. Lizbeth and Eli spend quite a bit of time on old-fashioned sleuthing (and, delightfully, between the sheets), but the action ratchets up exponentially in the surprising last half. Lizbeth is a no-nonsense, dryly funny narrator, and while this installment lacks a bit of the spark of the first book, it’s still a shoot’em-up, rollicking ride.
The indomitable, quick-on-the-draw Lizbeth remains an irresistible heroine, and Harris proves she still has the magic touch.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9495-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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