Brisk, toothsome, diverting, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny: a yarn that eventually dispels some of the enveloping weirdness...
A mad jaunt through unwaveringly whimsical worlds: first of a new fantasy trilogy from multiple award winner Resnick (The Castle in Cassiopeia, 2017, etc.).
Much beloved for his short stories, Resnick may be the natural heir to pulp favorite Eric Frank Russell. Here, we know nothing about Eddie Raven and his girlfriend, Lisa, except that they enter a fortuneteller's shop in Manhattan. A gunman bursts in, shoots the owner, shoots Lisa—but then a mysterious character named Rofocale takes the bullet meant for Eddie. When more assassins arrive, Eddie escapes by occult means. He has no idea how. He opens his eyes, discovering that though he’s still Eddie, he's essentially become Rick of a certain eponymous bar in Casablanca! Eddie’s is not quite Rick's, though. Sam the piano player hates Martian music. Bogarti, a character with three arms and three eyes, hisses something about letters of transit just before Ilsa (Lisa's double) and Paul Brff show up. Eddie's policeman friend is named Peugeot, not Renault ("I have class, and I run on more than four cylinders"). What's going on? Well, Eddie can communicate telepathically with Rofocale, who seems to know but is preoccupied with trying not to be dead. What with Oz and Camelot still on the itinerary, Casablanca's just a temporary gig, so hold on to your hat; things will get more peculiar yet. With an analogue of Lisa in each world—oh, and somebody who wants to kill him—Eddie must make friends fast and co-opt others as allies. This promising opener keeps afloat, just about, with only a fragile dream-logic as narrative caulking. Whether it will stay on that level or evolve into something of real weight and substance remains to be seen.
Brisk, toothsome, diverting, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny: a yarn that eventually dispels some of the enveloping weirdness while leaving more questions than answers.Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7564-1384-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: DAW/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strong, thoughtful, and fast-paced follow-up that bodes well for future volumes.
In the second installment of a political fantasy thriller series where “bioenergetic jade” provides magical energy, the conflict of two warlord/organized crime clans has global implications.
In the Hong Kong-like city of Janloon, the Mountain and No Peak clans have announced a public truce while each secretly tries to undermine the other for control of the city and their nation of Kekon, the only source of the jade. As jade smugglers both inside and outside the country threaten the clans’ mutual control over the mineral, political tensions rise between the neighboring nations of Espenia and Ygutan over a rebellion in Shotar, which leads both to seek more jade for their armies. Meanwhile, Hilo, the former Horn (chief enforcer) of the No Peak clan, struggles to master the tactics he needs to fill his late brother’s role as Pillar (clan leader). His sister, Shae, the clan’s Weather Man (chief advisor), has that tactical knowledge but lacks the clan’s complete trust; she’s also trying to juggle her clan responsibilities and her personal life, which includes a quiet romance with a nonclan professor. At the same time, their adopted brother, Anden, embarks on a new, jade-free life in Espenia but still manages to find trouble there, and Hilo’s jade-immune wife, Wen, secretly supports the clan through her own work as a spy. If they are to prevail against the ruthless Ayt Mada, Pillar of the Mountain clan, and the various other domestic and foreign threats, terrible sacrifices will be required, made willingly or not. The first installment, Jade City (2017), leaned rather heavily, albeit effectively, on some tropes and plot points from The Godfather, and it’s pleasing to see that the author has chosen a more independent path this time around. If there’s any thematic link between this book and Godfather II, it’s a common understanding that the outside world has a way of crashing into isolated communities and forcing them to adapt, so it’s best to be on the offensive, as well as a rueful acknowledgment that despite that understanding, relationships with those outside the community might not end well.
A strong, thoughtful, and fast-paced follow-up that bodes well for future volumes.Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-44092-9
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Gwynne’s effort pales in comparison to George R.R. Martin’s gold-standard work, but it’s nothing bad; the story grinds to a...
A middling Middle Earth–ish extravaganza with all the usual thrills, chills, spills and frills.
All modern fantasy begins with J.R.R. Tolkien, and Tolkien begins with the Icelandic sagas and the Mabinogion. Debut author Gwynne’s overstuffed but slow-moving contribution to the genre—the first in a series, of course—wears the latter source on its sleeve: “Fionn ap Toin, Marrock ben Rhagor, why do you come here on this first day of the Birth Moon?” Why, indeed? Well, therein hangs the tale. The protagonist is a 14-year-old commoner named Corban, son of a swineherd, who, as happens in such things, turns out to be more resourceful than his porcine-production background might suggest. There are bad doings afoot in Tintagel—beg pardon, the Banished Lands—where nobles plot against nobles even as there are stirrings of renewed titanomachia, that war between giants and humans having given the place some of its gloominess. There’s treachery aplenty, peppered with odd episodes inspired by other sources, such as an Androcles-and-lion moment in which Corban rescues a fierce wolven (“rarely seen here, preferring the south of Ardan, regions of deep forest and sweeping moors, where the auroch herds roamed”). It’s a good move: You never can tell when a wolven ally will come in handy, especially when there are wyrms around.
Gwynne’s effort pales in comparison to George R.R. Martin’s gold-standard work, but it’s nothing bad; the story grinds to a halt at points, but at others, there’s plenty of action.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-39973-9
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
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