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NIGHTWATCH ON THE HINTERLANDS

From the Weep series , Vol. 1

A promising start even if the new series lacks the sparkle of the old one.

An unlikely duo searches for the culprit behind a gruesome murder in Eason’s new series set in her Arithmancy and Anarchy universe.

Years have passed since the events of How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge (2021), and the war between the colonizing forces of the vakari Protectorate and, well, everyone else is long over. Vakari who were opposed to the Protectorate eventually broke away, starting a civil war, and that war came to an end when the Protectorate accidentally ripped a hole in reality itself. This rip, the Weep, supplied surges of horrifying monsters, the Brood, and hasty alliances were made by all factions in order to deal with the new threat. Iari is a tenju “templar,” meaning a member of a sort of religious military force called the Aedis. She’s been assigned to escort Gaer, an ambassador (and spy) from the faction of vakari that defected from the Protectorate, as he researches the effects of the Weep on the planet Tanis. Gaer is an expert in arithmancy, the SF magic system introduced in Eason’s previous books. So when a wichu arithmancer is found brutally murdered, Gaer is in a unique position to help Iari investigate. And Iari will need his friendship, as well as his protection, when her virtue and sense of justice lead her to pursue the murderer at all costs. Other than building on the setup from How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge and using the system of arithmancy, this new series doesn’t seem interested in the charming narrative style or clever use of fairy-tale tropes that made Eason’s debut novel, How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, such a standout. While that is a shame, Iari and Gaer’s dynamic is engaging, and the shaky alliances amid a magical disaster provide a lot of interesting political tension perfect for complementing Eason’s excellent action sequences.

A promising start even if the new series lacks the sparkle of the old one.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7564-1533-4

Page Count: 416

Publisher: DAW/Berkley

Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2022

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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FOURTH WING

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 1

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

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