A highly charged fantasy tale about God-chosen warriors fighting evil forces intent on destruction.
A young man imbued with superpowers must fight to save the world from the man he once thought was his father.
The latest from Platz (Sir Coffin Graves Book 1, 2015) picks up right where the previous book left off: young Collin Graves, formerly a furniture store worker and part-time gravedigger, has had his world shattered by a series of revelations and tragedies. His lifelong nanny, Sylvanna, abruptly leaves him; Henry Davis, the man he once thought was his father, is revealed as Lord Harod Dunraven, the powerful lieutenant of a being named Dymortis, who’s bent on world domination; Jill, a young woman Collin cared for, mysteriously dies; Collin’s friend Patrick is abducted and tortured by Dunraven’s henchmen, the Regulators; and Collin himself is approached by a group calling itself the Challengers that tells him he’s actually the last surviving leader of an ancient bloodline of supernatural beings named Soulmadds, who are intent on thwarting the plans of Dunraven and Dymortis. Under the tutelage of the various remaining Soulmadds (including Sylvanna), Collin starts to master the supernatural powers that he’s begun to manifest, and he learns more about the mission of the Challengers and their allied groups, such as the grass-roots movement of the Fosai. All of them are dedicated to serving God and defeating the designs of the “Adversary,” furthering the well-crafted Christian allegory of the series. As in the previous novel, Platz here presents a thoroughly constructed and often quite exciting fantasy scenario full of high-stakes plot twists, vivid characters, and some well-timed comic relief amid all the end-of-the-world drama. Most of the Challengers feel like types rather than individuals, but Collin himself fascinates more with every chapter, constantly confronted with new information about both himself and the world, frequently forced to adapt his beliefs while trying to maintain some level of sanity. Platz continues to do a first-rate job of crafting a gripping fantasy series that can appeal equally to religious and nonreligious lovers of the genre.
A highly charged fantasy tale about God-chosen warriors fighting evil forces intent on destruction.Pub Date: April 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63505-035-6
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Mill City Press
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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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