A fast-paced adventure that delivers an odd mix of Bible-fueled action and clumsy dialogue.
A supernatural novel focuses on harnessing the power of Scripture.
Hampton (The Mentality, 2012, etc.) presents Aiden Zane: an Air Force veteran living a seemingly lonely existence in Edgehaven, Arizona. When readers first meet Aiden, he is in church fighting back tears. The cause of his dismay goes back some years, to a time when he and a close associate named Eran Hewer became “guardians of this world.” While on a special mission in Israel, Aiden and Eran were informed by the prophet Elijah that they would be trained to become Nabi’im. They would learn to harness superherolike powers that come not from a magical item or a radioactive accident but directly from the Holy Spirit. To utilize their abilities, they would quote Scripture. And they would need to get pretty good at that with the many dangers they would face. Eventually, Eran failed to resist temptation and he wound up releasing Lucifer into the world. Lucifer now has new plans for humanity’s destruction. Luckily for Aiden, a bold woman named Maya Hadarah is on his side. Will they have what it takes to stop Lucifer’s latest rebellion? The story progresses quickly and the action is rampant. As both fists and biblical quotes fly, the book provides a fresh angle on the idea of an epic battle. Perhaps most intriguingly, Lucifer even summons some bad guys from the Bible, such as the Canaanite god Moloch. While such details give the novel depth, other aspects are not as tightly knit. Dialogue can be awkward and even confusing, as when a policeman looking for someone named Bloodsport says to Maya: “If you don’t know where he is, then I don’t think we’d be wrong to assume that you’re him yourself!” The scene is further jumbled by the fact that Maya later repeats what happened to Aiden even though readers are well aware of that situation. Yet the narrative keeps moving with angels, demons, and the fate of the world hanging in the balance. It all culminates in an ending that is as unexpected as the idea of heroes powered by sacred texts.
A fast-paced adventure that delivers an odd mix of Bible-fueled action and clumsy dialogue.Pub Date: April 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-68328-6
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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