A more polished and entertaining second installment covers much of the same ground as the first.
In the second of Hoy’s (Darkness and Light: Rise of the Omans, 2015) fantasy series, humans may hold the key to the survival of powerful beings from another world.
Having suffered betrayal, Auron, king of the Omans, ordered his people, the children of Light, back to Sonos. They’re returning from two pieces of dark matter, Luna and Terra, where the Omans, hoping to create new light by igniting the cores, were overrun by the Darkness and its Hollowed Minions. There was a life-form, however, on Terra, and they call themselves Humans, who are inexplicably thriving without light. Auron believes that the Humans can create new light to assure his people’s continued existence. On Sonos, lead engineer Relix reveals that she saved a Human male and female, but because their fragile bodies can’t survive outside of Terra’s atmosphere, Auron’s determined to return to them to their home planet. The king assembles another crew, including Auron’s lightmate, Akina. The plan is to reignite the cores of both Luna and Terra, where they may once again have to face off against the Darkness and Hollowed Minions, who thrive on mercilessly extinguishing the Omans’ lights. Championed by the Protector, who watches over the children of Light, Auron and the rest, with any luck, will vanquish their enemies and secure their future by keeping the Humans safe. Hoy’s sophomore outing shows signs of improvement over the preceding novel. The cast, for starters, is more clearly delineated. Merek’s got eyes for cook Osheida and vies for her attention, and one individual finds a way onto the ship, defying the king’s orders to stay on Sonos. The series’ already apparent religious theme (Omans strive “never to surrender to the Darkness”) becomes more pronounced and perhaps a bit too transparent: the two comatose Humans are called Etam and Ayva. Hoy injects stellar genre elements, including griffins and unicorns, and loads the plot with a good number of battle scenes. The story often feels like a retread, however, as the Omans’ mission is essentially the same as the first: create new light on Luna and Terra while contending with/resisting the Darkness.
A more polished and entertaining second installment covers much of the same ground as the first.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5246-4510-6
Page Count: 257
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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