A confident supernatural comedy from writers who can turn from laughter to tears on a dime.
A scientist and a man of faith must find common ground to save a friendly desert community in the American Southwest.
Just kidding—of course we’re back in the weird town of Night Vale, where all the conspiracies you’ve ever heard of are true. For interlopers who haven’t yet experienced Welcome to Night Vale, it started as a podcast mimicking a bizarre community radio broadcast, later became a live touring production, and lives on in a first novel by Fink and Cranor (Welcome to Night Vale, 2015, etc.). This sequel will be a delight for fans but also features a funny but nuanced story about the chasm between faith and science. Our lead character is Nilanjana Sikdar, a levelheaded scientist from Indiana who has come to work with head scientist Carlos, husband to Cecil Palmer, the voice of Night Vale. But strange things start happening when first Larry Leroy’s house and later Big Rico’s Pizza fall into giant sinkholes. On the trail of a suspect known as “the Wordsmith,” Nilanjana meets Darryl Ramirez, a good-natured proselytizer for the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, a faith that believes redemption comes from being devoured by...something. The book includes whimsical pamphlets designed by Jessica Hayworth explaining the faith. While the new story is light on our friend Cecil—whose romance with Carlos is quietly breathtaking—readers spend more time with Carlos, whose story answers some lingering questions about this strange otherworld. As the Smiling God grows more dangerous, the fundamental conflict between Darryl’s faith and Nilanjana’s science threatens to tear the town asunder. With cameos from minor characters and the same fanciful sense of humor, the authors deliver not only a love letter to fans, but also a compelling drama that shows people coming together in a world that feels like it’s coming apart—which isn’t the worst message to broadcast these days.
A confident supernatural comedy from writers who can turn from laughter to tears on a dime.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-247605-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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