One seriously annoying flaw detracts from what otherwise is a stellar performance.
Elliott (Cold Steel, 2013 etc.) kicks off an intriguing new fantasy trilogy with—what else?—a doorstopper.
King Anjihosh now rules the land known as the Hundred, having wrested it away from fearsome demons (they are strong, all but unkillable, and have the ability to manipulate human memories) in battle. His elite troops, the Black Wolves, operate mostly in secret, and of these the most trusted is Capt. Kellas. Princess Dannarah dreams of becoming a reeve—royal scouts and messengers who pair-bond with and ride ferocious giant eagles—and resists being married off to cement a foreign alliance. But then her brother, Prince Atani, overhears something he shouldn’t have and runs away. Sent in pursuit, Kellas too learns more than is good for him. The narrative abruptly leaps 44 years into the future. Anjihosh is long dead. Kellas served his successor, Atani, until the latter was treacherously murdered, whereupon Kellas was retired in disgrace and the Wolves disbanded. Now, King Jehosh, fearing a power struggle with his mother, Queen Chorannah, recalls an old but still hale Kellas. Dannarah, once marshal of the reeves but deposed by Jehosh in favor of incompetent sycophants, and Kellas, united in their loyalty to the late Atani, trust the monarchs not at all—and the mystery of Atani’s death rankles. Sophisticated, multifaceted worldbuilding sparked by original flourishes, populated by characters we quickly come to care about and whose motivations drive intricate, absorbing conspiracies—the whole vehicle mired in the kind of ugly, messy structure designed largely to conceal what’s going on from readers and characters alike.
One seriously annoying flaw detracts from what otherwise is a stellar performance.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-36869-8
Page Count: 832
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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