Though dense with worldbuilding, this dragon rider tale remains refreshingly optimistic.
In this YA fantasy debut, a teen learns that his destiny involves a distant planet, several races of magical beings, and the defeat of a Dark King.
In 18th-century Persia, Xerxes has just turned 15. On his chest is a birthmark shaped like a dragon’s head, and his grandfather Azman calls him Dragonheart. For the boy’s birthday, Azman gives Xerxes a prized sword that he forged himself years ago. He also suggests that Xerxes and his friend Kaspar skip their morning chores and ride into the city with him. But on the busy streets, the boys accidentally spill a man’s pastries and must run for cover. At the insistence of a strangely garbed fighter, they duck into a curiosity shop. Inside they meet the warrior, named Zalgarra, who instructs Xerxes to seize a gold lamp. The teens argue about taking the advice seriously when a dark-cloaked creature appears and attacks. Xerxes grabs the lamp and finds himself transported to the planet Ishtar, where he is the prophesied Thirteenth Dragon Rider. His arrival marks the beginning of his training with Grandmaster Nab and the dragon named Sesha, and the hunt for the Pearl of Immortality—crucial to the bond between dragon and rider. Attempting to thwart the hero are the Dark King of Snakes, Xul-Nagrah, and the wretched Queen Kaliiya. In her epic novel, Singh marries reliable genre elements like dragons and elves with strong statements on fate, as when Azman says, “Accept what Destiny has weaved for you, for no Design of Life can be altered.” On Ishtar, heavy sweeps of lore surround Xerxes, including the presence of the long-lived Aryans, Nemurs, and Bazilians—all presided over by the Elder Gods—and the True Flame, which facilitates magic. Singh’s prose conjures loveliness, like the chamber with “a dark background radiant with flickering stars” that’s embellished with “images of colourful dragons.” Fantasy fans of all ages who love meaty chunks of layered mythology and a strict light versus dark dynamic should enjoy this series’ opening volume.
Though dense with worldbuilding, this dragon rider tale remains refreshingly optimistic.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Black Panther
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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