A satisfying fantasy opus that will leave readers hungry for Morea’s next work.
This fantasy debut sees a dark face manipulating two kingdoms into war.
King Regulus has asked Magnus, the hero of the Great War that was fought five years ago, to come out of retirement. Although he’s a farmer now, Magnus is still known as the Phoenix of Regulus, and he remains the kingdom’s most honorable military man. He agrees to go on a diplomatic mission to Catalia, a nearby realm that’s approaching civil war. Magnus doesn’t get the chance to broker peace between the rebels and King Tobias’ forces, however, as his Regulan detachment, including 18-year-old knights Sain and Trun, suffer a Catalian ambush. Magnus and his men recover in Tset, the rebels’ capital. Their leader, Lord Garon, convinces the Phoenix to help them in their fight. Dagab, Catalia’s capital, has become a brutal place where a group of judges execute citizens who speak against them. When the judges’ field commander, Ragin, loses against Magnus on the Fillandrosa battleground, the group recalls Ragin’s soldiers from the western front. Sain then attempts to assassinate Ragin, but before he can, a shadowy creature captures Sain and transports him to Dagab. There, the knight meets Ragin’s sister, Fea, a rebel organizer. A demon, meanwhile, is using humans as pawns to reach the Aurora, a power source that comes from Velestra, the Goddess of Judgment. Author Morea sets an elaborate table, heaped with spiritual reckonings, magic-tinged war, and politics that mirror the current congressional gridlock. As an example of the dark tone, Fea grimly wonders if the phrase “all is well in Catalia” is “a sarcastic joke Dagabians told themselves or a convenient fiction they all bought into.” On the spiritual side, a man named Zelious guides Sain in matters of fighting and faith, telling him that “There are some things that are better left discovered, not told.” However, what truly separates Morea’s epic fantasy from so many others is its narrative compression, as events roll by quickly and ferociously, with plot enough to fill two volumes. The author also crafts a stunning finale for his well-traveled cast.
A satisfying fantasy opus that will leave readers hungry for Morea’s next work.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-974345-26-7
Page Count: 537
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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