Radiant prose and characters propel this exhilarating, fully charged sequel.
A Mars-born detective fights against time to save her grandfather and her home planet in this installment of an SF series.
Martian Denver Moon knows that working with diabolical alien bugs is a necessary evil. Shape-shifting bug doctor Doctor Werner has tried controlling human minds for enslavement in the past, but he’s also leading the terraforming project on Mars. Denver, however, is surprised to learn that Werner has fled to Earth and even more surprised when bugs attack her and her grandfather, Ojiisan. With Ojiisan seriously injured, Denver believes her grandfather's only hope lies in bug doctor Werner. She makes tracks for Earth with a couple of friends and her reliable AI, Smith, who lives in her gun and speaks in her head. The bug doctor could be up to all sorts of no good at his underwater lab in Japan, but Ojiisan doesn’t have much time, forcing Denver to trust a few untrustworthy individuals. Mars is in trouble, too, as the bugs seem dead set on exterminating the red planet’s human inhabitants. Although Denver does little investigating, Hammond and Viola (The Saint of Mars, 2019, etc.) load this novel with action from the opening scene. It’s invigorating throughout, as Denver and her ragtag crew get into tussles on Mars, Earth, and other spots in the galaxy. Returning characters likewise evolve; Denver finally gets new eyes to replace her failing monochromatic ones, and Smith, outfitted with Ojiisan’s memories and personality, has a very human response when Ojiisan’s life is on the line. Some in this delightful cast face monumental changes before this installment ends. Fans of the series geared up for the authors’ razor-sharp writing won’t be disappointed; this sensational story’s highlight is Denver’s seeing colors for the first time, a “dizzying kaleidoscope” of a variety of pigments, including the joy of watching a vicious bug pop “like a neon green pimple.”
Radiant prose and characters propel this exhilarating, fully charged sequel.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986219424
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Hex Publishers
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
