paper 0-9652621-8-9 Originally published in 1946 in Hungary, this ambitious and relentlessly arcane novel reshapes the stuff of legend into a compelling, if ponderous, philosophical melodrama. Subtitled “The Elixir of Eternal Life,” it recounts the harrowing adventures endured, over a span of four centuries, by Hans Burgner, a 16th-century alchemist’s apprentice who murders his master in order to possess a potion rumored to confer the gift of immortality. Having drunk this elixir, Burgner is condemned to be repeatedly reborn, century after century, as a cursed visionary who sees, but is powerless to prevent, the injustices and cruelties that lie in wait for his fellowmen. Eventually purified by his sufferings, Cornelius (Hans’s final incarnation) fulfills his destiny: to prophesy, to a world ravaged by war, the reappearance of the Messiah. Discursive and hyperbolic, The Red Lion, a bulky mixture of biblical, alchemical, and historical lore (which rather resembles Eugene Sue’s epic romance The Wandering Jew), nevertheless explores with passionate intensity its deeply flawed hero’s passage from sin and error, through a world more flawed even than he, to a paradoxical state of grace. It’s a very imperfect novel, but a memorable reading experience all the same.
Pub Date: Jan. 29, 1998
ISBN: 0-9652621-7-0
Page Count: 390
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998
A fun, unusual contemporary fantasy that doesn’t skimp on violence.
An accident-prone teenage boy named Squib forms an unlikely friendship with a dragon living in a Louisiana bayou.
Squib Moreau can’t catch a break. His kindhearted single mother, Elodie, works long hours as a nurse, and when she’s not worrying about what her son is up to, she’s fighting off the advances of the local constable, Regence Hooke. Elodie and Squib both get the feeling that Hooke is something more dangerous than a sleazy cop, and they’re right: He’s murderous, corrupt, and out to take over the local drug-running business. When Squib sees something he shouldn’t late at night out on the water and Hooke goes after him with a grenade launcher, Squib suddenly finds himself being rescued by a dragon. The dragon in question, Vern (short for “Wyvern, Lord Highfire”), believes he is the last of his kind and lives in secret deep in the swamp. Vern holds a centuries-old grudge against the race that killed off his fellow dragons but finds himself in need of a helper, or “familiar.” Vern may be a dragon, but he has a taste for TV, vodka, Flashdance T-shirts, and all sorts of things he can’t get for himself. Vern reluctantly lets Squib work for him, and over time they develop a camaraderie. But when Hooke sees Vern for himself, he decides to use Squib to force the dragon to do some of his dirty work. Colfer’s best-known writing is geared toward young adults (The Fowl Twins, 2019, etc.), but between some of the gorier scenes and Hooke’s sinister inner monologue, you wouldn’t know it. He writes this book in a folksy Louisiana voice that drawls right off the page: “Squib was as jumpy as a cat in a doghouse traversing the river.” Vern’s taste for modern life (he’s on the Keto diet) is clever, and he is a prickly but lovable foil to the unholy terror that is Constable Hooke.
A fun, unusual contemporary fantasy that doesn’t skimp on violence.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293855-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
An overlong but imaginative entry in the revived Foundation series, with a talky opening, an intriguing middle, and an illogical fade-out. Councilman Golan Trevize, having opted for the formation of a galaxy-wide, totally empathic super-organism, Galaxia, is now having second thoughts—and his doubts focus on a possible threat from the long-lost planet Earth. So, supplied with clues by historian Janes Pelorat, and protected by the powerful Gaian woman, Bliss, Trevize begins his search. (The debate pro and con Galaxia continues, meanwhile, in tiresome detail.) In the novel's best section, they touch down on various planets, including the old Spacer world Solaria, where the hermaphroditic Solarians live in solipsistic splendor, totally isolated from each other on their vast robot-run estates, casually controlling energy by means of their enlarged brains. Finally, on Earth's Moon, Trevize encounters robot Daneel Olivaw, now 20,000 years old; Daneel, with his highly advanced brain and psychic powers, has secretly been guiding the development of Galaxia all along. And, in a total non sequitur, Trevize realizes that what he really fears—why Galaxia must be formed—is the threat of invasion by extra-galactic aliens. Dreadfully long-winded—would that the characters sometimes reply with a simple "yes" or "no"—and many longtime fans will prefer Daneel as a plain old robot-detective rather than a galactic super-brain. Yet, much here qualifies as vintage Asimov—Solaria has long been one of his finest creations—despite that disappointing, artificial finale.
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1986
ISBN: 0553900943
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
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