A delightful tale of magic and monsters that subverts genre expectations with characters both familiar and equivocal.
A group on a self-imposed mission to track down abducted villagers winds up battling deadly creatures and an evil of unspeakable power in this series-opening debut fantasy.
Having provided a trader with safe passage to Bridgeton, five now out-of-work friends head to Westover, birthplace for one of them: Arden. Though Arden’s family left the town when he was a boy, he wishes to pay respects to his ancestors. His traveling companions include Gnome, Ohlen, Ruprecht, and sole female X’andria, all of whom have special abilities and some of whom know magic. Tragically, they find Westover in ruins, but among the bodies is a survivor, Rowena, who claims the villagers were attacked and killed by pig/human hybrids. Ultimately declaring these beasts goblins, the group journeys west, convinced that some of the still-living townspeople are hostages in need of rescue. Fierce battles with the goblins ensue, and Ohlen believes that a black orb they’ve discovered, which harbors “an evil will within,” is in some way responsible for the beasts’ recent deeds. Once inside the creatures’ lair, Gnome and the others encounter prisoner Boudreaux in the process of escaping. But saving the Westoverans entails reaching an exit while steadfastly steering clear of what Boudreaux decrees a doorway to hell. The kinetic tale is a series of seemingly unending confrontations between the friends and goblins. Hinsley, however, provides sustenance with increasingly sinister villains, like a hooded figure of dark magic and a headlining tentacled monster. Characters’ origins, too, are largely— and curiously—ambiguous. There are quite a few elflike pointy ears, but X’andria and Gnome met years ago as orphans, and aside from Gnome’s short stature and confirmation that he’s neither elf nor human, he remains a mystery. Individual skills add further depth, even when not preternatural (for example, Arden is an apt scouter and tracker). Despite beaucoup clashes, the violence is generally muted, courtesy of Hinsley’s lyrical style: “He was a thing of terrible beauty to behold as his blades cut….” Garretsen’s stunning black-and-white artwork precedes each chapter, both complementing the narrative and teasing images to come, like an ominous empty room.
A delightful tale of magic and monsters that subverts genre expectations with characters both familiar and equivocal.Pub Date: July 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-365-23082-0
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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