This meandering tale combines fantastical components into an entertainingly bizarre ride.
A genre-melding adventure focuses on a parallel world.
Voltz’s novel presents Kevin Quinn, a Los Angeles–based musician with a heroin problem who, after dying, wakes up in a strange place. Quinn finds himself in a land called Ouros. Ouros is divided into distinct territories and each has its own set of outlandish dangers. Take Darke, for example, a place home to “demons, spirits and all manner of unnatural things.” Quinn befriends a gunslinging cowboy named Merrick, who hunts down bad guys. Soon, Merrick is killed by a giant metal cyclops known as Midnight. Quinn then partners with a different gun-toting badass: Faline Bristowe. Faline is a woman who locates people, and part of the reason she’s so good at it is because she’s a werewolf. For some reason, Midnight is abducting blond girls, and Faline vows to get to the bottom of it. Faline and Quinn must track down Midnight in colorful places that feature everything from nanobot law enforcement agents to highly aggressive, albeit slovenly, vampires. Although some early portions may lead readers to believe Quinn has merely landed in a technologically advanced dystopia, later chapters take the story in unexpected, creative directions. Standout scenes include a chilling village of people without eyes, and a law firm–like company where clients can receive protection provided by demons. In the latter episode, a salesman assures Quinn and Faline that the company’s employees, though they are demons, “are highly trained and screened professionals.” While the tale offers many such gems, progress is slowed by an overabundance of backstories. For instance, Merrick explains to Quinn in an earnest Old West style not only the town he is from, but also how the place got its name and how he became bent on a life of revenge. His account is not particularly gripping or important. After all, who has time for origin stories when a giant cyclops is on the loose, capable of vaporizing anything that dares to cross its path?
This meandering tale combines fantastical components into an entertainingly bizarre ride.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72789-392-2
Page Count: 326
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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