A solid effort whose fresh ideas and entertaining characters more than make up for an occasional lack of polish.
Wloch’s debut epic fantasy features a reincarnated hero, lost civilizations and peoples, and a quest for truth.
Uanadain, known as “Dan” to his friends, is dismissed from his military service and sent home with a message. A nearby village has been burned to the ground, and this fact may or may not be related to some strange ruins discovered nearby. The ruins belong to the Forerunners, a race of beings who long ago mastered many arts of building and magic. Unfortunately, many of their secrets have been lost to time. Some legends remain, however, like that of Kato, the greatest of heroes, who’s said to have long ago faced down a dark, evil god and his ghoulish servants. Today, ghouls remain a very real threat—and if they exist, perhaps their dark god does as well. Dan may find out as he, along with wise, old Illius and the telepathic eagle Silverwing, search for truths past and present in an adventure full of danger, prophecy, and desperate hope for the future. Overall, this is a hefty tale, packed with action, adventure, magic, and lost societies. The characters’ attempts to understand the present by examining the past really stand out; those sections of the narrative are almost archaeological in nature, as the players examine ruins, ancient documents, and other elements. This adds a fantastic, fresh aspect to an otherwise fairly standard narrative about a secondary world and a chosen one. Dan’s journey of discovery also benefits from this narrative choice—particularly in his dream memories. Although telepathic animals are a staple of fantasy literature, Silverwing brings more personality to the trope than usual, as the most distinct of a number of distinct, enjoyable character voices.
A solid effort whose fresh ideas and entertaining characters more than make up for an occasional lack of polish.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4477-5310-0
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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