A rich, complex meditation on love and mortality among supernatural beings.
A fallen angel on the run due to an international conspiracy finds himself in love in this second series installment by Baginski (Windstalker, 2015).
The Evo-Nephilim, also known as windstalkers, are a species of undead shape-shifters—a cross between men and the angels who roamed the Earth when it was new. Drew, a convicted murderer and former Evo-Nephilim, has been given a chance at mortality, as the Evo-Nephilim alliance has removed his aurion, the organ that makes him immortal. The angel Lothos has been assigned to relocate him away from Sam, who originally sired him into the order of windstalkers. Sam, explains Lothos, is “a rogue leader who refers to us as infidels, since we often hunt his followers.” Sam is also creating his own army of undead and has little concern for his human prey. Drew is hidden by other windstalkers in a beautiful cabin in the woods. There, he meets Nathan, a friendly, hardworking farmer with psychic gifts, and Nathan’s daughter, Amelia, a “flawless beauty” who’s hiding a big secret. The three try to figure out how to outwit Sam, how to save the humans who most need saving, and how they feel about one another. But soon the forces of darkness close in. For readers who are new to the series, this book is probably not the place to start, as the story begins in medias res and new readers won’t quite shake the sense that they’re missing crucial details. For instance, what exactly does being a windstalker entail, aside from being immortal? This and other questions are only answered deep into the book. But for others, the story offers a refreshing new perspective on a character they thought they knew, as Drew, a predator in the previous book, becomes a victim here. The depiction of Drew and Amelia’s growing feelings for each other also rings sweet and true, such as when they share popcorn and flirt while watching a movie at home or when they check each other out as they work in the fields. Their struggles and revelations are worth the price of admission.
A rich, complex meditation on love and mortality among supernatural beings.Pub Date: March 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5447-1301-4
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 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
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