by Noah Lemelson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 20, 2021
A gripping mystery with an exceptionally fleshed-out world.
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A detective haunted by his past and an engineer desperate to ensure her future become embroiled in a conspiracy in Lemelson’s debut urban fantasy novel.
In the wake of the Calamity, which left an irradiated crater in the middle of the continent, the wasteland border city of Huile has become a bustling hub for the production of “æther-oil,” a miraculous fuel source that also allows certain gifted people to bend physics to their will—a power nicknamed “the Knack.” The people of Huile fought a bitter revolution for their independence from imperial occupiers, and private detective Marcel Talwar, one disillusioned veteran who lost a leg during the conflict, is haunted by traumatic memories. He often investigates for Lazacorp, the city’s distributor of æther-oil. However, after the deaths of one of his former comrades and of a Lazacorp worker, Marcel looks into what’s going on with Lazacorp’s new water filtration plant, overseen by beloved industrialist and war hero Lazarus Roache. Meanwhile, in the engineering mecca of Icaria, a young engineer named Sylvaine becomes acquainted with Roache when he offers to become her patron. As a feral—a furred animal-person—she often faces discrimination, so she’s eager to accept Roache’s offer of “Slickdust,” a substance that awakens her Knack after years of failure. She and Marcel cross paths when they realize they’re both pawns in a struggle between strange and ancient forces. From the very start of the novel, Lemelson’s unique take on a postwar industrial fantasy world features memorable imagery (“You ever take a walk outside this city?” says Marcel at one point. “See the cracked land, the ruins, the oozing trees, the Demiurge-damned Wastes?”) and deftly realized worldbuilding. In its account of its dual protagonists’ struggles, the narrative unfolds at a controlled pace, swelling with tension at each new revelation while delivering intriguing information in an organic way. The result, expressed in Lemelson’s vibrant, witty, and often heartbreaking prose, is a page-turner that’s perfect for urban fantasy fans.
A gripping mystery with an exceptionally fleshed-out world.Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-94-650140-0
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Tiny Fox Press LLC
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2023
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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