A sequel presents an ample and pronounced Christian doctrine but has a tale of individuals protecting their home against...
Mortals and immortals reintroducing science and technology to New Earth have their peaceful realm threatened by evil beings planning an uprising in this second installment of a fantasy series.
Adam and Nim, who died together in a car accident, find each other again as immortals. They live in Protection, a town on New Earth, many years after Prince Kristos purified the planet of the chaos that the wicked Teufel had instigated. The realm’s also inhabited by mortals, including Adam and Nim’s old pal Rocky, now going by Pete, who may be looking for redemption after giving his soul to Teufel. The inhabitants try to make sense of the world’s new natural laws (a north-south equator as well as East and West Poles) while getting assistance from educated, recognizable immortals, not the least of whom is Isaac Newton. Adam and others are likewise striving to maintain a “peaceable kingdom” led by the prince, son of Rule, “Omnipotent of all universes.” Unfortunately, an insurrection may be on the horizon, starting with the imminent release of Teufel and his demons from their chained imprisonment in the hellish Pit. But there are signs of rebellion against the kingdom elsewhere, as a tragedy claims the life of 30 men and an attempted kidnapping is nearly successful. To ensure tranquility is preserved, those on the side of Rule may have to wage war for Earth. Though much of the story’s akin to religious allegory, Stilson (The Long Home: Now & Then, 2014) makes it abundantly clear what’s good and what’s evil. There are elements of (primarily) Christianity: references to original sin coupled with more ambiguous turns, like Adam conceivably being chosen by the prince—a prophet, perhaps? This second series entry focuses a bit more on science, and characters’ speculative conversations become intriguing (the Earth is possibly larger in mass than the spun-out-of-orbit moon that’s apparently missing). There are even touches of sci-fi, with immortals capable of “translating” (essentially teleporting) through space and time. The narrative builds toward an inevitable confrontation that, despite scenes such as an organ recital slowing down its steady momentum, delivers a climactic battle.
A sequel presents an ample and pronounced Christian doctrine but has a tale of individuals protecting their home against malicious baddies at its core.Pub Date: March 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9974163-0-5
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Word Edge
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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