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
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
