The personal touches—the relationships between characters—make this fantasy stand out and give a shade more meaning to...
Ross (The Midnight Sea, 2016, etc.) continues the epic tale of a young woman determined to find justice amid the chaos of an empire beset by undead dangers and corruption.
In the first novel of the Fourth Element series, Nazafareen, a brave, young woman who’s a member of the empire’s elite fighting force called the Water Dogs, and Darius, her powerful daeva (a bound demon who kills the undead), were accused of treason and imprisoned. With help, they managed to escape. In this second installment, they now seek the Prophet Zarathustra, long believed to be dead. If they can find him in time, they just might save the city of Persepolae and, with it, Darius’ mother, long held captive by its king. If they are very lucky, the prophet might also reveal the meaning behind the strange power growing within Nazafareen. It will be no easy task, however. The necromancer Balthazar also seeks the prophet, at the behest of his Undead Queen, Neblis. Meanwhile, King Alexander marches across the lands, waging war. The fates of both humans and Immortals are at stake, but if Nazafareen and Darius can’t convince them to unite—in spite of centuries of slavery, abuse, and resentment—then they all might die at the hands of Neblis and her armies of undead Druj. The stakes have risen in this sequel, but personal connections are still the heart of the story, from Darius’ relationship with his mother to the tragic tale of spurned lovers that set dark events in motion ages ago. Ironically, although the events in this book are more epic than those in the previous one, the personal moments shine through more clearly, perhaps because the links between these world-shaking occurrences and the individual grudges that started them are brought more into the light. It’s always refreshing to enjoy a story where well-drawn characters are so central to the events of the plot rather than feeling tacked on. The one disappointing note is that the villains of the piece are not getting as much attention in terms of motivation, which makes them less convincing and less interesting.
The personal touches—the relationships between characters—make this fantasy stand out and give a shade more meaning to monumental events than is usually found in the genre.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 289
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
