A witch and her lover aim to thwart a villainous immortal hellbent on domination in Gateley’s contemporary fantasy sequel.
Fate has united Canadian Julia Harrison and Irishman Dom O’Brien throughout their various lifetimes. Together once again in 2018, they survive their destined run-in with depraved sorcerer Cassius, largely thanks to Julia’s fairly new Bearing magic, akin to witchcraft. Julia and Dom leave Canada’s west coast for LA, where they hope to lie low for a spell. But it’s not easy to elude Cassius’ Wraiths, which have been ominously gathering all around them. Fortunately, the couple isn’t short on allies—from magic-wielding Druids to weapons-oriented Knaves. Julia is still trying to “unlock” her own power but hasn’t yet mastered it. Though Bearers like her are rare, she senses a dark wielder of Bearing magic who’s possibly in league with Cassius. Meanwhile, Julia and the others are oblivious to what Cassius is up to—scouring the globe for an ancient tome he believes will put an end to all “Wielders.” With any luck, Julia’s visions will warn her about Cassius’ fiendish plans. This second installment of a trilogy (following Tides of the Sovereign, 2022) sharpens its focus even more on Julia and Dom’s riveting series-driving union. It’s steeped in searing romance and tragedy; for centuries Cassius has killed them off each time they connect, and Dom, unlike Julia, remembers their past lives and all the times he’s watched her die. Moreover, the couple treks the world together, as when one of Julia’s “Divinations” sends them to Mexico. Through uber-evil Cassius’ point of view, the reader is privy to the novel’s vividly rendered global settings, whether he’s wandering through market stalls in Marrakech or driving past a medieval fortress in Carcassonne, France, for example. The author elevates this fantasy with some intense magic-driven action in between the sympathetic couple’s many intimate and convincingly passionate scenes.
Romance and resplendent characters fuel this novel’s enthralling magical world.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781039155268
Page Count: 531
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY
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A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
Categories: FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY
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SEEN & HEARD
A retelling of Pinocchio from Geppetto's point of view.
The novel purports to be the memoirs of Geppetto, a carpenter from the town of Collodi, written in the belly of a vast fish that has swallowed him. Fortunately for Geppetto, the fish has also engulfed a ship, and its supplies—fresh water, candles, hardtack, captain’s logbook, ink—are what keep the Swallowed Man going. (Collodi is, of course, the name of the author of the original Pinocchio.) A misfit whose loneliness is equaled only by his drive to make art, Geppetto scours his surroundings for supplies, crafting sculptures out of pieces of the ship’s wood, softened hardtack, mussel shells, and his own hair, half hoping and half fearing to create a companion once again that will come to life. He befriends a crab that lives all too briefly in his beard, then mourns when “she” dies. Alone in the dark, he broods over his past, reflecting on his strained relationship with his father and his harsh treatment of his own “son”—Pinocchio, the wooden puppet that somehow came to life. In true Carey fashion, the author illustrates the novel with his own images of his protagonist’s art: sketches of Pinocchio, of woodworking tools, of the women Geppetto loved; photos of driftwood, of tintypes, of a sculpted self-portrait with seaweed hair. For all its humor, the novel is dark and claustrophobic, and its true subject is the responsibilities of creators. Remembering the first time he heard of the sea monster that was to swallow him, Geppetto wonders if the monster is somehow connected to Pinocchio: “The unnatural child had so thrown the world off-balance that it must be righted at any cost, and perhaps the only thing with the power to right it was a gigantic sea monster, born—I began to suppose this—just after I cracked the world by making a wooden person.” Later, contemplating his self-portrait bust, Geppetto asks, “Monster of the deep. Am I, then, the monster? Do I nightmare myself?”
A deep and grimly whimsical exploration of what it means to be a son, a father, and an artist.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18887-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Categories: HISTORICAL FICTION | LITERARY FICTION | FANTASY
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