A smart, demon-laden tale with a bevy of personable characters, horns notwithstanding.
A U.S. college student who finds a way to travel to a realm of demons may be the first sign of a hopeful prophecy in this fantasy novel.
Riley Moore has a cynical worldview and, consequently, no real friends. But she reaches her threshold for this “poisonous” world after three men attack and mug her, and she goes to sleep that night hoping she’ll awaken somewhere else. Astonishingly, she does; she’s in the realm of Abaddon, populated by demons. These demons are genial—particularly the first one she meets, purple-eyed Ukobach—and they promise to help the student get home. But the next day, she is somehow back at her house, where she lives with her mom. She soon realizes she can journey between realms at will, which demons haven’t been able to do for a long time. Her ability leads some to believe she’s part of a prophecy, stating “the light” will return to Abaddon, where poverty is widespread. While Riley, unhappy with her world, comes to favor Abaddon, Ukobach isn’t exactly content with the violence in his own realm, including the annual blood sacrifice. Meanwhile, a threat looms, as a demon with unwholesome aspirations sets eyes on the human world. Carter’s (Deviants: Ignite, 2017) story treats the demons as peculiar but familiar creatures. For example, they sport traditional horns and tails while other physical attributes, like a demon who looks “as if he were halfway transformed into a werewolf,” are unusual. The author wisely simplifies the demons’ backstory, with minimal references to angels or religion. Riley makes a smashing protagonist, beginning as a 20-something carrying residual teen angst (which she acknowledges) but becoming a woman who respectfully adjusts to customs she doesn’t understand. It’s likewise apparent that these demons aren’t innately evil. Puppyish Ukobach and his brother, Stolas, are immensely likable. And demons’ villainy stems from individual behavior or beliefs. Carter’s brisk narrative rushes readers through a short but satisfying final act and a superlative denouement.
A smart, demon-laden tale with a bevy of personable characters, horns notwithstanding.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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 fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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