A dense, knotty SF tale set in an age of neo-barbarism.
In the first part of Travagline’s debut SF duology, an itinerant entertainer in a post-apocalyptic, dark-age future keeps memories of the old world alive through storytelling.
About 1,000 years ago, an atomic world war broke out, creating recurring, yearslong nuclear winters around the globe. Civilization, of sorts, has made a slow, painful return, and regional warlords, kings, and guilds compete ruthlessly for power. In the land of Lyrinth in what used to be part of North America, Gnochi Gleeman is an “entertainer,” wandering from place to place, telling his tales of the “first age” world and its achievements. The vagrant guitarist with failing vision may seem unimpressive, but Gleeman is actually an accomplished blade fighter and schemer—a requirement for self-defense, as fanatic “Luddites,” opposed to the progress that brought ruin to mankind, are also a danger to him. But currently, Gleeman has greater concerns. He’s been forced to undertake a mission of treachery and assassination by a man named Jackal, who had his family kidnapped. A complication arises when Cleo, the runaway teenage daughter of an aristocrat, impulsively joins Gleeman, and he doesn’t have the will to force her away. Together, they find tenuous shelter with a “menagerie”—a traveling circus that’s actually a kind of mobile commando unit in disguise. Travagline effectively keeps a lot of subterfuge under wraps and embeds key plot points in flashbacks; moreover, readers get an anthology of Gleeman’s titular tales that are woven into the tapestry of the larger narrative. They include everything from a sort of experimental-theater playlet (“God is a Dinosaur”) to a Civil War spin on Frank R. Stockton’s classic 1882 story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” to a World War II alternate-history tale in which Nazis gain an advantage in 1941. These lengthy asides do push the main plotline to the margins, and other elements, including magic, spirit animals, and psychic phenomena, intrude into Gleeman’s world, leaving a rather peculiar taste; readers may wonder: Was that really a talking white wolf or a piece of one of Aesop’s—or rather Gleeman’s—fables? The finale provides a cliffhanger that virtually severs the story in two.
A dense, knotty SF tale set in an age of neo-barbarism.Pub Date: June 6, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 427
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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