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
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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