Full of captivating characters and well-staged battles that should keep readers engaged and make them look forward to...
In German’s sci-fi debut, the first of a proposed series, humanoids and wild creatures band together to prevent the destruction of their planet.
After years of war, the Sucobers and Plamanics form a truce, agreeing to settle disputes with the Contest. Each side sends a warrior to combat the other on a neutral moon called Yimi in the Galagar Solar System. As reigning champs, the Sucobers, win the right to mine valuable materials on planet #762 (also known as Medias), where they manipulate the DNA of a local tribe to create slave labor. Meanwhile, a Plamanic named Euphenix hopes to create a warrior to help his species win the Contest. Much of the story centers on one of Euphenix’s humanoid experiments, Palak, and his mate, Watooni, a former member of the tribe the Sucobers had altered, as they fight for survival. German packs the novel with complex plot details and intricate characters. His use of an omniscient narrator sometimes gives the narrative a detached feel, but it works well for the story overall, particularly when the author unflinchingly presents brutal, bloody fight scenes. The numerous action-packed set pieces should please sci-fi aficionados, especially a showdown between Medias’ inhabitants and Sucober clones, and a brawl between Palak and the Captain, the seemingly indestructible winner of six consecutive Contests. An epilogue contains an extended preview of the series’ next installment.
Full of captivating characters and well-staged battles that should keep readers engaged and make them look forward to further Progenitor tales.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477583678
Page Count: 300
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.
A time-toying spy romance that’s truly a thriller.
In the author’s note following the moving conclusion of her gripping, gleefully delicious debut novel, Bradley explains how she gathered historical facts about Lt. Graham Gore, a real-life Victorian naval officer and polar explorer, then “extrapolated a great deal” about him to come up with one of her main characters, a curly-haired, chain-smoking, devastatingly charming dreamboat who has been transported through time. Having also found inspiration in the sole extant daguerreotype of Gore, showing him to have been “a very attractive man,” Bradley wrote the earliest draft of the book for a cluster of friends who were similarly passionate about polar explorers. Her finished novel—taut, artfully unspooled, and vividly written—retains the kind of insouciant joy and intimacy you might expect from a book with those origins. It’s also breathtakingly sexy. The time-toggling plot focuses on the plight of a British civil servant who takes a high-paying job on a secret mission, working as a “bridge” to help time-traveling “expats” resettle in 21st-century London—and who falls hard for her charge, the aforementioned Commander Gore. Drama, intrigue, and romance ensue. And while this quasi-futuristic tale of time and tenderness never seems to take itself too seriously, it also offers a meaningful, nuanced perspective on the challenges we face, the choices we make, and the way we live and love today.
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781668045145
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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