A hearty introduction to a world of magic and its equally enchanting inhabitants.
An MIT student with untapped power may play an essential role in a centurieslong war between otherworldly coalitions in this debut supernatural fantasy novel.
Ashley “Ash” Drake escapes his rather uneventful life at MIT with video games. So when a voice in his head and image on his computer screen tell him he possesses unrealized potential, Ash sees the chance for an amazing opportunity. A mysterious package arrives, and equipment inside (for example, virtual reality goggles) starts him on his training—to harness magic. Later, the man from Ash’s screen, whom the student dubs the Wizard, shows up with a history lesson: some children are born of evil (the Touched) and others are good (the Blessed). Both sides have been warring for as long as anyone can remember and searching for the foretold Blessed One, a powerful boy who will drive back an impending darkness. The Wizard, unsure if Ash is the Blessed One, helps the MIT senior, who uses a gemstone eventually affixed to a wand, develop his abilities. Ash then heads to Las Vegas to find “Smiling Jack” Porter, who can use his gift of premonition to locate Sinthia Greyson, an apparent target of the Touched. Touched fiend Nihalus may be looking for Sinthia. He wants to get his clawed hands on a crucial relic, the Sangrian Map. Despite exploiting familiar traits of sorcerers (wands and cloaks), Perez ultimately reveals much more of the Blessed and Touched. A significant back story, including a lengthy but riveting section on young Jack learning he can see the future, never slows the narrative down. Most details aren’t clear until near the end, such as the importance of both Ash and Sinthia, but the mystery’s intriguing enough to retain momentum until the rousing final act. It’s a shame that Touched recruit Sarah Blake, who ominously whispers to potential victims, “I might not be good for you,” is not in the book more. This, however, is clearly the beginning of something bigger, so there’s fortunately the prospect of seeing Sarah again. Humor’s minimal but memorable, particularly Ash’s determination to further his training, which is offset by the Wizard’s insistence that he first put on his pants.
A hearty introduction to a world of magic and its equally enchanting inhabitants.Pub Date: April 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9975072-0-1
Page Count: 286
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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