Gripping enough if insufficiently original to be a major standout.
The follow-up to London Falling (2013), an odd book that morphed from police procedural into urban-fantasy thriller.
In the opener, detectives Tony Costain and Kev Sefton, DI James Quill and police intelligence analyst Lisa Ross acquired supernatural powers when they touched a pile of dirt used by their quarry, evil witch Mora Losley—and in the process discovered the existence of an entire occult London behind and below the mundane city. This time, the city’s swarming with protestors and rioters enraged by austerity-inspired budget cuts; even the Metropolitan Police are planning a strike (which would be illegal). Then a prominent member of Parliament gets carved to ribbons inside a sealed car by an apparently invisible assailant. When Quill and company examine the car, they see—though nobody else does—splashes of a mercurylike silver substance that seems to be concentrated magic. Other gruesome killings swiftly follow, with only one clue—the perpetrator’s efforts to make them resemble those of the legendary Jack the Ripper. (Really? Isn’t it about time to let Mr. Ripper RIP?) The team focuses on gangster twins Barry and Terry Keel, whose various enterprises are known to cater to an occult clientele. Ross becomes obsessed with locating a magical artifact that might help her free her father from hell. Also in town is author Neil Gaiman (the very same), who chips in some useful information—but can he be trusted? How is ruthless newspaper tycoon Russell Vincent involved? What of the enigmatic occult powers known as John the Rat King and the Smiling Man? With its refreshingly flawed characters, the narrative interweaves its multiple strands mostly successfully, while the tone veers between jocular horror (less) and all-out macabre thrills (more). Stir in a deep political undercurrent that eventually forces its way into the plot’s mainstream.
Gripping enough if insufficiently original to be a major standout.Pub Date: May 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3028-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 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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