Baffling sometimes but enthralling and hugely enjoyable.
Second (Between, 2013) in an urban fantasy series where three worlds—Wakeworld, Dreamworld and Between—are real.
In the series opener, ER doctor Vivian Maylor learned that she is the last of the dreamshifters, one who can move at will from one realm to another. She’s also able to transform herself into a dragon—and she’s a sorceress. Unfortunately, nobody instructed her on how to awaken or use any of her powers. In the Dreamworld, her boyfriend, bookseller and artist Zee Arbogast, is the Warlord, slayer of dragons, and Vivian doesn’t know how to tell him about herself. Wherever she goes, she’s followed by a smart, brave penguin named Poe. Becoming a dragon has drawbacks, too, since dragons follow their own instincts and care nothing for humans. Meanwhile, Morgan Weathersby makes a living by conducting small parties of hunters into the Dreamworld, where they can bag spectacular trophies. He’s actually a dreamshifter too, but he rejected the calling as a young boy and was forced to witness his father slaughter the rest of his family, a crime for which he was blamed. When his latest safari goes dreadfully wrong, he decides to return to his roots and learn about his origins, either to take up his calling or put an end to himself, he isn’t sure which. Meanwhile, an old witch steals Vivian’s protective amulet and locks her out of the Dreamworld. She learns of the existence of another possible dreamshifter, who might be able to help, and goes off to find him. This is only the beginning of a huge and complicated plot—sometimes overly so—vigorously narrated within spectacular and vivid settings, with action that rarely slackens. Best of all, it’s set forth in prose so evocative that it practically leaps off the page.
Baffling sometimes but enthralling and hugely enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-425-26124-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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