A fairy tale for discerning adults who appreciate solid story structure, compelling human characters and inventive fantasy.
A fantasy tale from McCloskey that fleshes out the archetypal hero’s journey with interplanetary travel, fearsome nemeses and one delightfully logical wizard.
The Crescent Knight nears the completion of his quest to the storied Far Coast. However, no sooner does he look upon the floating, magnificent House of Yeel than a winged, cat-bodied, snake-tongued beast viciously bats him off his precipice. Jymoor, a scout, tries next. Where many travelers have failed, she successfully enters the otherworldly house in the sky to request Yeel’s help for her people—and she offers herself as a sacrifice if necessary. A jabbering, self-described alchemist, Yeel only agrees to help Jymoor’s war-torn nation of Riken when he learns that enemy forces are burning their libraries. Unbeknownst to his houseguest, Yeel is a tentacled alien who wears the disguise of an elderly sorcerer. Early in the journey to Riken, Yeel neutralizes the curious keeper of harapins—one harapin besieged the Crescent Knight and many have long enforced Yeel’s home-imprisonment. When Yeel raids the keeper’s abode for artifacts, he discovers the Crescent Knight, who’s been a slave to the keeper for years. After slaying a supernatural serpent and thereby freeing its victims—ages-old Riken citizens who had turned to stone—Yeel defends himself from the Crescent Knight, who actually approached the Far Coast with a goal, not of supplication, but murder. When Yeel gives Jymoor slumber-replacement pills, she is able to tirelessly realm-hop and quickly refine her battle skills. These traits add interest for the reader. The entire party reaches Riken without a single lapse into the tedium of the cookie-cutter quests of fantasy. Having arrived, Jymoor introduces Yeel to the skeptical King Aruscetar and helps Yeel convince the king that an interrealm alliance is expedient to Riken’s freedom. Again calling on the structural and stylistic creativity that kept the arduous road trip to Riken engaging, McCloskey invigorates the closing three-pronged battle sequence with elements of intrigue, humor and surprise.
A fairy tale for discerning adults who appreciate solid story structure, compelling human characters and inventive fantasy.Pub Date: April 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475064025
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This well-crafted, entertaining read may inspire teenagers to learn more about the life and times of their grandparents.
In Sedwick’s novel, 14-year-old Andy revisits the frontier adventures of his grandfather, Myles.
Sedwick says she was inspired to write her first historical novel by her father’s stories about growing up during the Dust Bowl years. The chapters meander among the viewpoints of Andy, who’s living in Evanston, Ill., in the early 2000s; Myles, his grandfather, who’s growing up in the 1930s in Vona, Colo.; and Ro, the coyote adopted as an injured pup by Myles and his family. Generations apart, Andy and Myles share a shyness and lack of interest in school and a gift (or curse) for puns and corny jokes. Inspired by a bourbon box filled with sundry objects his grandfather gave him just before dying of heart failure, Andy sets out to discover more about Grandfather’s early days and to record his many stories. Myles, in the meantime, skips school, tries to keep himself and his coyote pup out of trouble, and (with his sister, Claire) bemoans their existence in a remote town that lacks running water, electricity and a movie theater. The descriptions animate the characters; for example, Myles’ neighbor Herbert is “a man as coarse as a cowhand and as dated as an iron plow, a man who was as squat and dirty as his own sugar beets, a man who stank of cow manure and kerosene.” But the tale goes overboard in its anthropomorphism of Ro, even for a book that would be best enjoyed by a young teen. Watching the neighbor’s dog, “Ro wondered if she ever slept, truly slept. He wondered if she ever played with the children, if she ever ran simply to feel the wind in her ears, if she ever flew in the back of the truck. He did not think so.” Andy ultimately takes the station wagon Myles left him, and he heads west to see if he can inhabit his grandfather’s tales.
This well-crafted, entertaining read may inspire teenagers to learn more about the life and times of their grandparents.Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615692616
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Ten Gallon Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A striking story that will leave readers looking around the corner in fear.
In this mystery, Shadow brings to life the fear of terrorism in a big city.
Jack Oldham, a soon-to-be ex-member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, scans the crowd on New Year’s Eve, weary from constant high alerts and threats that lead to nothing. During the festivities, his concerns change after a bomb scare over a bag that contains the belongings of a college student named Jessica. Jack’s worried she’s missing. Preoccupied by the bag and the missing girl, Jack searches for her throughout the city, sifting block by block through its history while trying to keep its citizens safe. The hunt turns out to be for naught: Jack tracks down Jessica’s mother and then Jessica, who is safe at home. But things don’t add up: Jessica wasn’t anywhere near the neighborhood where the bag was found on New Year’s Eve, and the photo on her ID isn’t hers. Jack realizes this isn’t about a missing person; it’s about the safety of the city he loves. The bag has something to do with a larger plot and the terrorists who, after the death of Osama bin Laden, are more ready than ever to strike another blow against America. Shadow has crafted an entertaining mystery that borrows from the best in mystery and noir, while adding a heavy dose of modern paranoia. Jack Oldham, the compelling detective, is riddled with doubts and scars, and rather than being a standard cardboard cutout, he feels vivid and believable as a protagonist. Shadow deftly evokes the constant high alert in a modern security state, as if there’s always conspiracy around the corner. His language can feel clunky at times, though, and he sometimes drops in eyebrow-raising sex metaphors, although they’re usually just spirited jolts in this thrilling lookout for the bad guys’ next move.
A striking story that will leave readers looking around the corner in fear.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9859688-0-9
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Blue City Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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