Readers who don’t mind occasional violence will enjoy exploring this impressive world.
The first book of a promising fantasy series.
An oncoming ice age, known as the Freeze, is bringing masses of refugees from a string of islands to the fortress city of Villjamur, seat of the authoritarian Empire. Far outside the walls, battles rage and strange happenings abound; inside, Villjamur is often a rough and violent place. A politician is mysteriously killed, and city investigator Rumex Jeryd—part of a strange race called the rumel—must solve the crime. Meanwhile, the emperor himself suddenly commits suicide, sparking political intrigue; a thief, Randur Estevu, consults with cultists—users of seemingly magical technology—on a mission to save his mother’s life; and far outside the city, Empire Commander Brynd Lathraea confronts a terrifying and inhuman enemy. The novel is fast-moving and intricately plotted, though sometimes a bit gory; one character is ripped apart by grotesque blood beetles, who toss bits of his flesh into the air “in a fine pink mist.” In general, however, the violence serves the story and contributes to the dark tone.
Readers who don’t mind occasional violence will enjoy exploring this impressive world.Pub Date: June 29, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-345-52084-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy...
A dark and bloody fantasy about a young woman bent on revenge—at almost any price.
Mia Corvere was 10 years old when she watched her father be hanged as a traitor, saw her mother and infant brother hauled away to die in prison, and escaped death herself at the hands of two trained Luminatii soldiers. She’s darkin, which means she can control shadows, and her constant companion, a cat made of shadows, drinks her fear. But even that won’t be enough to get the revenge she craves on the powerful men who destroyed her family. That’s why she’s traveled out to the ends of civilization to gain entry to the Red Church, where “the greatest enclave of assassins in the known world” worships the goddess of night, Niah, “Our Lady of Blessed Murder.” If she can get inducted into the Red Church, she’ll have the skills she needs to exact her revenge. She just has to survive her training—at the hands of the world’s most deadly, amoral assassins. Kristoff (Illuminae, 2015, etc.) comes on strong from the start, creating a shadowy world dripping with blood, in which our feisty, determined heroine must claw her way to the top of a deadly pecking order. Mia manages to find connection and even caring in the black pit of the Red Church—but how long can it last?
A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won’t be able to put down.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 9781250073020
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
As in Resurrection (1966) and The Wreckage of Agathon (1970) Gardner demonstrates his agility at juggling metaphysical notions while telling a diverting tale. Here he has used as a means of discovering man's unsavory ways that muzziest of monsters, Grendel, from the Beowulf chronicle. As in the original, Grendel is a bewildering combination of amorphous threats and grisly specifics — he bellows in the wilds and crunches through hapless inhabitants of the meadhall. But Grendel, the essence of primal violence, is also a learning creature. Itc listens to a wheezing bore with scales and coils, a pedantic Lucifer, declaim on the relentless complexity of cosmic accident. He hears an old priest put in a word for God as unity of discords, where nothing is lost. And Grendel continues to observe the illusions of bards, kings, heroes, and soldiers, occasionally eating one. After the true hero arrives sprouting fiery wings, to deal the death blow, he shows Grendel the reality of both destruction and rebirth. Throughout the trackless philosophic speculation, the dialogue is witty and often has a highly contemporary tilt: "The whole shit-ass scene was his idea, not mine," says Grendel, disgusted by a sacrificial hero. At the close one is not sure if the savior is "blithe of his deed," but Gardner, the word-pleaser, should be.
Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1971
ISBN: 0679723110
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
