An excess of plot threads and unclear narrative priorities hamper Albrecht’s otherwise well-structured, engaging novel.
Dreams, time travel, the Civil War, criminal intrigue and more collide in Albrecht’s debut, genre-spanning adventure.
Trained as an architect but now making a living as a historical researcher, Jack Brandigan is enamored with history. Plagued by unusual dreams he can neither interpret nor trace, he feels out of step with the world, his love of flying his only connection to modern times. His closest friend is Chad Lewis, a physicist studying superconductivity whose latest experimental creation has demonstrated an unexpected side effect: time travel. As Brandigan is drawn into a series of escapades that center on his friend’s device, he discovers a new purpose, new dangers and, through his explorations of the device’s capabilities, new love. Albrecht, who’s also an architect and licensed pilot, brings his considerable experience and enthusiasm for history to bear in the verisimilitude and detail of the settings, particularly in the Civil War episodes, which have a texture the modern sections lack. This greater focus on the past keeps with Brandigan’s nature, but it also has the effect of rendering the modern sections flavorless by comparison. Albrecht’s sturdily constructed prose smoothly leads readers from point to point; it’s never flashy, but it gets the job done. Similarly, the plot threads, while numerous, lock into place over the course of the narrative, despite the prodigious number of characters—some of whom, like most of the Jacobs family, appear once and vanish. However, despite the structural facility Albrecht displays, the subplots end up vying for attention, making it difficult to assess which part of the narrative is most important: Is it the centuries-spanning romance? The thriller aspect, with Chad and his lab assistant on the run from would-be thieves, battling back with surprising violence? Or is it the simple story of a man traveling through time to capture invaluable historical photographs? As confidently handled as the threads may be, the abundance of plot obscures the real story, making the adventure less enjoyable than it could be.
An excess of plot threads and unclear narrative priorities hamper Albrecht’s otherwise well-structured, engaging novel.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2013
ISBN: 978-1477532102
Page Count: 738
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© 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
