An impressive and captivating start to a new series offering Arthurian adventures.
A historical novel details the valorous fifth-century exploits of King Arthur’s uncle.
Early in the fifth century, during the twilight of the Roman Empire, 14-year-old Merlin attends the funeral of an infant named Theodosius in Barcelona. The child was to be the heir of King Adaulphus and Princess Placidia, and yet because Adaulphus is an Arian who helped sack Rome, there are those who reproach his offspring. Conspirators have switched the child, sending the Roman scion to be raised secretly in Britain, at the hands of the ruler Vortimer. In payment for escorting the child (now named Ambrosius) to Britain, Merlin receives an estate in Gallic Aureliani from Lord Grallon. Instead of settling down, Merlin travels the world, learning languages and the fighting arts. Ambrosius, meanwhile, grows into a willful but kind young man. Merlin returns home after 14 years and finds Ambrosius safe among those considered family (including the lovely Ahès, who adores him like a son). When one of the original conspirators, Bishop Germanus, stops by the family’s villa on the way to Britain—to reestablish Christian orthodoxy in the face of heresy—Merlin joins him as an interpreter. Ambrosius goes too, and begins his rapid metamorphosis from restless teenager to inspiring leader of men. Mintz (Memoir of the Masses, 2006) organizes a grand cache of myths and historical information to open a new series called Arthurian Tales. The story of Ambrosius, King Arthur’s uncle, proves an epic in its own right, filled with battles during which “the grass drank itself red,” and chivalrous wisdom, as in the line “Good deeds made a person noble, not lands or titles.” Mintz also whets the audience’s appetite for fifth-century history, with the bulk of his plot including the taming of the Saxon and Irish heathens. Each hint of the Camelot to come is thrilling, as when Merlin conceives the Round Table, at which “all men are equal.” With Merlin narrating, readers new to the historical fiction genre will find his clear (and occasionally sarcastic) voice great illumination in a murkily recorded era.
An impressive and captivating start to a new series offering Arthurian adventures.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9717828-5-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Erie Harbor Productions
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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