A complex civil war saga that may appeal to Egyptian history buffs.
A troublesome prince rises to unite a kingdom in this debut historical novel.
Ahmose, a prince in the mid-1500s B.C.E., was raised in a temple city, but he has very little respect for the gods and even less for human authority. At the beginning of the story, he is king of South Kemet (part of the country now known as Egypt), but he still wants two things: the love of his lifelong crush, Nefertari, and the rule of the northern kingdom, which is controlled by a tribe called the Semites. He works toward these goals by marrying Nefertari, though he still has to spend the rest of the story trying to make her love him and beginning a war to unite the two lands. Meanwhile, his courtiers and allies, including those from the island kingdom of Atlantis, plot their own schemes and intrigues, and the Semites, led by their king, Mose, won’t be easily defeated, even by an expert strategist like Ahmose. The book is essentially a retelling of the biblical Exodus, as seen by the Egyptians. Most of the major Egyptian characters are based on historical notables, and the opposing forces in the Great Prince’s war are led by major biblical figures—although for the most part, they’re unrecognizable. At nearly 700 pages, Prada’s book is dense and will likely be difficult to follow for non-Egyptologists. The glossary, list of names, and maps at the end may assist readers. But they will not make the main characters more compelling, and that’s the chief problem with the novel. Ahmose is meant to be this tale’s answer to Moses, but he comes across as a petty, selfish man who happens to be proficient at battle strategy. The dialogue, liberally peppered with phrases like “By my ka” and “Bloody nuts of Seth!,” fails to help matters. Still, readers interested in Egypt and the Exodus may be willing to overlook these flaws for the meticulously researched setting.
A complex civil war saga that may appeal to Egyptian history buffs.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 596
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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