An adventurous, deeply moral tale with all the trappings of high fantasy.
A squire tries to overcome his feelings about his father and his religion to accomplish great things in Techlin’s (Betrayal, 2013, etc.) fantasy novel.
This first volume of the Wither the Waking World series gives readers full entry into a fantasy world full of devout knights and bitter warfare. It begins with Theel, a young squire whose father and masterknight has recently died. Although Theel feels his father treated him poorly over the years as he tried to make him a perfect warrior, he still misses him deeply, whether or not he will admit it. He’s given a quest as part of his Warrior’s Baptism that will make him a knight if completed, but it seems absurd: he’s to find the Blessed Soul of Man, someone known only from prophecy. According to the prophet Sun Antheus, the Blessed Soul of Man will be the salvation of Theel’s country and his entire world. After a week spent drinking, drugging, and even being accused of murder, Theel finally sets out on his journey in the company of his devoted brother, Yatham. Theel lost his faith in God and prophecy long ago, but Yatham is a true believer. Together, they travel away from everything they’ve ever known and into deeply treacherous territory where Theel changes more than he could have imagined. In this first volume of his series, Techlin effectively addresses such weighty issues as forgiveness within a family, faith and what it takes to regain it, and even what happens when people in power betray their souls for other aims. The author also delivers another plotline—that of Aeoxoea, an assassin from another world sent to witness or cause the death of the Blessed Soul of Man. What she sees adds a degree of depth to the overall story and even, at one point, provides an unusual cyberpunk element. Overall, the author has created a world that readers will want to spend time in, filled with characters who aren’t necessarily sympathetic but are always fully human.
An adventurous, deeply moral tale with all the trappings of high fantasy.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-5086-3125-5
Page Count: 668
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
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
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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