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THE HAND OF CHAOS

Volume five of the apparently interminable Death Gate Cycle (Serpent Mage, 1992, etc.). Now that the evil-magic serpents of the water-world Chelestra have escaped through the Death Gate, new power alliances are possible—such as that between the serpents and Xar, Haplo's powerful Patryn boss. Despite Haplo's feeble warnings about the serpents' malevolent intentions (they can assume any shape, retaining only tell-tale red eyes), Xar dispatches Haplo and his yappy-dog sidekick to the air-world Arianus, with orders to set species against species and generally create chaos among the lower- order ``mensch.'' And this time Haplo's old rival/accomplice, Albert the Sartan, languishes trapped inside the Labyrinth. So, by himself Haplo must somehow stop the elf-dwarf war by helping the human and elf magicians while placating Xar and devising a means to repel the serpents—oh, yes, and preventing various assassinations, including his own. A hypercomplicated plot whose increasingly improbable convolutions seem designed only to distract attention from the ludicrously implausible scenario, plodding narrative, and irritatingly obtuse characters. Which, being translated into Fannish, means: another smash hit. (First printing of 60,000)

Pub Date: March 15, 1993

ISBN: 0-553-09377-0

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993

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A BLIGHT OF BLACKWINGS

A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.

Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.

In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.

A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3

Page Count: 592

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019

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BETWEEN TWO FIRES

An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.

The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.

An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.

Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Ace/Berkley

Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012

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