Surprising and redemptive; Carey masters yet another subgenre of speculative fiction.
A soldier and a witch fumble their way through a sea of misfortune in hopes of a better future in this upending of the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the same name.
After Magnus Tresti’s wound forces him to leave the army, no one will employ him except the reclusive widow and secret witch Jannae Mirchella. After several weeks as her handyman, Mag is assigned the unusual task of looting the body of a dead demon they’ve seen fall from the sky. Resentful that Jannae hasn’t paid him for any of his work, he steals one of the demon’s possessions, a battered tinderbox, and runs off. He’s soon arrested, and in an effort to warm up the cell where he’s imprisoned, he strikes the flint of the tinderbox and discovers that it summons three demons who must obey his commands. He’s deeply troubled by his power over these beings, but his situation is such that he constantly requires their help to extricate himself from trouble. As he wrestles with this dilemma, he’s pursued by the witch and the king’s warlock advisor, both seeking the tinderbox for themselves. Carey replaces one of the most memorable aspects of the original tale: Andersen’s tinderbox summoned enormous-eyed dogs, not humanlike demons; the switch highlights how unethical it is to keep magical servants forced to obey one’s orders. In addition, Carey excises the most obviously unsavory aspect of the story, in which the soldier uses the dogs to kidnap the virginal princess on several nights, and marries her after the king is disposed of. Here, Mag is gay—and attracted to one of the demons. Nor does he wish to rule anyone. This version also lends sympathy and dimension to the witch, the abused daughter of an innkeeper who unintentionally causes her beloved mentor to be condemned to death. The typical story of a poor man triumphing over a cruel king and an evil witch is thus transformed into a compelling exploration of the brutality of the social divide, the hypocrisy of rulers, and the futility of war.
Surprising and redemptive; Carey masters yet another subgenre of speculative fiction.Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9780316595490
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
© 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.
