Another distinctive fantasy featuring a dying protagonist (as in Unicorn Mountain, 1988), this one set in the mythical southern state of Oconee and its largest city, Salonika. After cultural-snob Xavier Thaxton, Fine Arts editor of the Salonika Suburbanite, swims in a pond whose waters (unbeknownst to Xavier) are contaminated with illegally dumped radioactive waste, his life takes a strange turn. He acquires a fashion-designer girlfriend and, much less welcome, a roomie, his retropunk nephew, the Mick, a dedicated fan of UC superhero comics. Following the launch of a new comic character, Count Geiger (he acquires superpowers after exposure to radiation), Xavier and the Mick quarrel over Xavier's condemnation of comics in general and Count Geiger in particular. Soon, however, Xavier develops a strange malady: culture—opera, literature, whatever—makes him sick; the only cure is a dose of lowbrow realism...especially the Mick's comics and rock music. In the hope that constant contact might alleviate his symptoms, Xavier takes to wearing a Count Geiger suit underneath his clothes. But then Count Geiger's creator, blaming Xavier's hostile column for his firing by UC, shoots Xavier—who, far from ending up dead, finds he can expel the bullets and heal right up! Days later, he defeats four would-be subway muggers in comic-book style: somehow, he has become Count Geiger! Not only that, but Xavier now approves of comics and rock music. He starts a crusade to heighten the social awareness of Salonika's stubbornly reactionary inhabitants. Then, as another shipment of illegally dumped nuclear waste comes to light, Xavier realizes that he is dying, though he lives to see the owner of UC comics convicted for masterminding the dumping. Social-conscience-tweaker, tear-jerker, environmental- consciousness-raiser, or just plain if ponderous fun? Witty, often admirable work but with a hidden agenda that grates.
Pub Date: July 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-85199-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An adventurous fantasy romp only for the die-hard fan.
A mysterious woodsman joins forces with an earnest princess to stop a plot that could ruin both of their kingdoms in this fantasy romance.
Princess Sorcha keeps a close eye on her loved ones, constantly living in fear that her brother and adopted sisters will be taken away from her. When she uncovers a plan to murder her brother and steal his queen, Sorcha throws herself (quite literally) into ruining the enemy’s coldhearted scheme. In the fray, she is taken prisoner to be used as leverage. Her freedom comes at the hands of a man known only as the Woodsman. A Robin Hood–esque hero, he leads a secret rebellion to overthrow the corrupt family in power in his woodland country. With Sorcha’s ability to harness fire and the Woodsman’s talent for communing with nature, they realize their combined magical strength is the key to protecting those they love. Sorcha’s close circle of friends and family rely heavily on previously established relationships from prior books, and the setup is a direct relation to past events. Newcomers to Sparks’ (Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, 2018, etc.) Embraced by Magic series will undoubtedly be lost when attempting to understand character connections and references to previous skirmishes and battles. The relationship between the hero and heroine is background noise to the tangled web of political machinations by cartoonish villains, but the inventive setting and depth of worldbuilding prevent this from feeling too much like a paint-by-numbers, cookie-cutter fantasy romance. But while Sparks’ crafting of distinct kingdoms and fantasy races is the strongest part of the series, this installment carries on the earlier tradition of middling, glacially slow romances.
An adventurous fantasy romp only for the die-hard fan.Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3004-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The multitalented author of The Sandman graphic novels and last year’s Neverwhere charms again, with a deftly written fantasy adventure tale set in early Victorian England and enriched by familiar folk materials. In a rural town called Wall (so named for the stone bulwark that separates it from a mysterious meadow through which strange shapes are often seen moving), on “Market Day,” when the citizens of “Faerie” (land) mingle with humans, young Dunstan Thorn makes love to a bewitching maiden and is presented nine months afterward with an infant son (delivered from beyond the Wall). The latter, Tristran, grows up to fall in love himself and rashly promise his beloved that he’ll bring her the star they both observe falling from the sky. Tristran’s ensuing quest takes him deep into Faerie, and, unbeknownst to him, competition with the star’s other pursuers: three weird sisters (the Lilim), gifted with magical powers though still susceptible to “the snares of age and time”; and the surviving sons of the late Lord of Stormhold, accompanied everywhere by their several dead brothers (whom they happen to have murdered). Tristran finds his star (in human form, no less); survives outrageous tests and mishaps, including passage on a “sky-ship” and transformation into a dormouse; and, safely returned to Wall, acquires through a gracious act of renunciation his (long promised) “heart’s desire.” Gaiman blends these beguiling particulars skillfully in a comic romance, reminiscent of James Thurber’s fables, in which even throwaway minutiae radiate good-natured inventiveness (e.g., its hero’s narrow escape from a “goblin press-gang” seeking human mercenaries to fight “the goblins’ endless wars beneath the earth”). There are dozens of fantasy writers around reshaping traditional stories, but none with anything like Gaiman’s distinctive wit, warmth, and narrative energy. Wonderful stuff, for kids of all ages.
Pub Date: Jan. 6, 1999
ISBN: 0-380-97728-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
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