A lavish blend of urban crime and high fantasy.
Reeve (Pathfinder, 2010, etc.) begins a new fantasy series in which the defenders of magic must flush out a sect of necromancers.
In the kingdom of Tyrra, Draius is a member of the City Guard. She and her career-obsessed husband, Jan, have a 7-year-old son named Peri. Like all marriages in Tyrra, theirs was arranged by careful matriarchal planning and exists within the confines of a contract. Also unique to Tyrran culture are the Phrenii, translucent elementals that resemble unicorns and roam the streets of Betarr Serasa. One night, in the Sea Serpent tavern, a member of the King’s Council named Meran-Nelja Reggis is found nailed to the floor of an upstairs room and eviscerated. Missing organs and fingers, as well as symbols painted in blood, point to the illegal teachings of Nherissa—or necromancy. The crime scene is spoiled when Cmdr. Erik is too drunk to contain the tavern’s crowds. Draius takes the case, aided by the handsome but inexperienced Lt. Lornis. Complicating matters are the shards of a magical artifact called the Kaskea, which create a bond with the Phrenii and which only the King may wield. Despite Tyrra’s reliance on science and procedure, anyone abusing pieces of the Kaskea has the power to upend their society. Reeve seamlessly combines disparate motifs to create an evocative new urban fantasy realm. Fascinating is the idea that Tyrra considers the word “unicorn” vulgar, and only children may touch the ethereal Phrenii without suffering ill effects (like shame and guilt). Tyrra is a place with a living history, the details of which (including a recent plague that affected birthrates) only enrich the story. Several first-person chapters from the killer’s perspective add tension as Reeve leads readers toward an otherworldly finale.
A lavish blend of urban crime and high fantasy.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9891358-3-2
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Cajun Coyote Media
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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