Swift, invigorating, and this fantasy saga’s darkest book yet.
In this third installment of a series, a battle-weary group of heroes journeys to a village in need of help and unearths a multitude of unnerving secrets.
A vicious conflict has left Gnome and his warrior comrades—including Arden, she-elf X’andria, and Ohlen—nursing their injuries in Rockmoor. Half-elf Boudreaux recovers items from the defeated villains: a leather-bound book and two scrolls. X’andria and Ohlen later take the book to the Sorcerer of Rockmoor, seeking his advice. Unfortunately, his examination of the apparently cursed volume doesn’t turn out so well, leaving the Sorcerer’s fate in question as X’andria and Ohlen flee. Considering the blame for that incident will surely fall on Ohlen and the others, they readily agree to help the village of Meriden, where the elder, Alzbeda, has inexplicably disappeared. It’s a good reason to get out of Rockmoor, where there’s also a circulating rumor that the group has killed and eaten people. But Meriden proves no less menacing; children in the vicinity are missing, and a dreaded beast, the Rock Eater, resides there as well. Meanwhile, one member of the band, with access to a few magical ingredients, covertly tries mastering alchemy, with predictably dangerous results. Hinsley (Rockmoor, 2017, etc.) packs this fantasy series entry with a host of new and returning characters. While preceding books certainly aren’t lighthearted, featuring bloody encounters and a sundry of baddies, this one is the grimmest. Meriden, for one, becomes increasingly more precarious as events continue to unfold, and the story ends on a disturbing—but unforgettable—cliffhanger. Nevertheless, the narrative’s brisk momentum never falters while the precisely defined settings and characters generate indelible imagery, such as a creature with “two stubby, severely supinated legs” and “three lipless, fanged mouths.” As always, Garretsen’s (Rockmoor, 2017, etc.) illustrations enrich the novel. Even in black and white, artwork of the characters climbing myriad stairs is a thoroughly detailed, laudable rendition of the group’s laborious trek to Meriden.
Swift, invigorating, and this fantasy saga’s darkest book yet.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-387-91550-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Envision Arts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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