Kurtz’s appeal lies in her patient accumulation of precise, significant detail, but here matters proceed a little too...
Second in a trilogy (following Deryni Rising, not reviewed) and continuation of a longstanding fantasy series set in the medieval, Celtic-flavored kingdom of Gwynedd.
Gwynedd’s Haldane kings possess powerful magic, as do the Deryni, a human-seeming race whose magic arises from psychic abilities. The tolerant, visionary Haldanes secretly support and protect the Deryni, who are widely feared and reviled, largely because of the church’s implacable hatred of both magic and Deryni. Even King Donal, fearing excommunication, dares not openly oppose the bishops. Again, Donal’s kingdom seems threatened by neighboring Torenth. Donal is beginning to age, and his heir, Brion, is but 14. But then, encouraging news arrives from Torenth. Through meddling with forbidden magic, the heir, Prince Nimur, lies dead, and his younger brother, Torval, has been driven mad. Elsewhere, however, the mage Zachris Pomeroy is plotting on behalf of his sponsor, Prince Hogan, the Festillic Pretender to Donal’s throne. Donal, alarmed at the untimely death of his youngest son, Jathan, decides to prepare the way for Brion. Haldane magic must be activated by somebody with Deryni powers—but Alaric, who was destined to fulfill this role, is only four years old; nevertheless, Donal installs the necessary triggers, and also readies the boy’s Deryni mother, Alyce, now far along in pregnancy, as a precaution.
Kurtz’s appeal lies in her patient accumulation of precise, significant detail, but here matters proceed a little too patiently, and could have used more sparks and less swaddling.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2006
ISBN: 0-441-01282-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all...
The concluding installment of the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, 2014; Authority, 2014) ends where the story began: in a cloud of hallucinatory mystery.
In the present (presumably the present—time does strange things in this novel), Control, the failed director of the Southern Reach, and Ghost Bird, the "copy" of the biologist from Annihilation, travel through Area X, searching for the original biologist. Parallel storylines set in the past explain how Saul Evans, Area X's erstwhile lighthouse keeper, became the creature known as the Crawler and explore both his encounters with the little girl who grew up to be the Southern Authority's previous director and her resolve as an adult to return to Area X. What is, where is, and why is Area X? Is it in another dimension? Is it actually on another planet? Is it some kind of alien experiment? VanderMeer does not provide these answers; a tidy resolution is clearly not his goal, and those seeking such a thing were presumably perceptive enough to give up before reaching this volume. The series is less about a straight throughline of plot and more about constructing a fully realized portrait of peculiar, often alienated people and the odd landscapes they inhabit, both inside and outside of their skulls; and this the author has decidedly achieved. This trilogy represents an interesting pivot for VanderMeer: Although sharing many of the same motifs—metamorphosis, unusual fungi and other organic material, a pull toward the sea—it’s actually more restrained (if no less vivid) than the lush baroquerie of his earlier works.
We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny place.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-10411-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
SEEN & HEARD
A moderately involving gift for fans, offering Harkness’ usual loving attention both to historical detail and...
In this adjunct to the All Souls trilogy, Phoebe Taylor adjusts to existence as a vampire while her vampire fiance, Marcus, contemplates his troubled past.
Ritual and necessity demand that these two lovers remain apart for three months as Phoebe learns to control her new aptitudes and hungers. The separation inspires Marcus to recall his coming-of-age during the Revolutionary War, his troubled relationship with his abusive birth father, and the vampiric rebirth that links him to a new and powerful family. His story is coaxed out of him by the witch Diana, who also has her hands full with her half-witch, half-vampire twin toddlers, who are beginning to come into their own considerable powers. Readers of the previous three books (A Discovery of Witches, 2011; Shadow of Night, 2012; The Book of Life, 2014) will undoubtedly be thrilled to catch up with Diana, her temperamental vampire husband, Matthew, and all their connections. However, those unfamiliar with the series should not jump in here, as it is assumed we already know the backstory. Phoebe’s vampiric education is interesting but also somewhat reminiscent of how Anne Rice handled the same topic in her novels (a point underscored by a cameo of Louis, the protagonist of Rice’s Interview with the Vampire). The book rambles from storyline to storyline at a leisurely pace until coming to a fairly abrupt halt with some rapid epiphanies that don’t feel entirely supported by what came before. Initially, it is strongly suggested that the book’s pivot will involve Marcus' confessing a shocking secret, but it’s actually revealed fairly early on, and another potentially climactic event, the massacre of Marcus’ vampire children in New Orleans, is almost perfunctory (possibly because it was also extensively covered in Book 3).
A moderately involving gift for fans, offering Harkness’ usual loving attention both to historical detail and romantic/familial angst, but perhaps the author will apply her talents to fresh fictional territory in the future.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-56451-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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