A sprawling, crowded tale that would have benefited from a clearer conclusion.
Nutter mixes high fantasy with Old England in a novel featuring Saxons, Vikings, magic, kings, and a handful of talkative beasts.
Several characters in this tale seek the Celestial Sphere, the most powerful magical object in the land. Of these, readers first meet Gwenllian, “a spellcaster who had been cast out of Wessex…over untrue accusations,” and Sagramour, her equally disgraced counterpart. After losing his position as the king’s wizard, Sagramour plots to bring destruction to his enemies when he gains control of the sphere. Accompanying him on his quest is Lord Gudrek, the devious master of the Dark Fortress, whose only interest is personal power. Gwenllian, meanwhile, finds herself on the side (but not in the company) of her ex-suitor King Alfred and his faithful knights, Bodwyn and Calibor. Calibor’s young brother, Jorin, and his friend Garreth, also join the fray when their hunting trip in Dragon Woods lasts longer than anticipated. With Sagramour threatening life as they know it, Jorin and Garreth agree to join Gwenllian’s band of critters as they penetrate the Dark Fortress. Unbeknownst to them, they travel with the sorceress in their midst, in the shape of a “striking green” frog. It’s she who protects them as they encounter various obstacles on their journey. Nutter’s dragons are reminiscent of those in Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon series, the adventure is a little like that of Bruce Coville’s Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (1991), and his creatures wouldn’t have been out of place in J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001). Nutter’s scenes cut back and forth between various characters’ storylines, which adds to the overall intensity of the plot. However, a comprehensive list of the various players—and a map or two—might have made the reading experience a bit less confusing. In the final few chapters, the heat of battle takes over the narrative; the last clash is laborious but reaches a rather exciting climax. It would have been more satisfying, however, if the book’s ending wasn’t so perplexing.
A sprawling, crowded tale that would have benefited from a clearer conclusion.Pub Date: April 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9993208-6-0
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Joseph Nutter Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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