Energetic stuff, with the promise of much more to come.
Always-on-the-run Rol Cortishane and his trusty sword Fleam battle an evil empire and backstabbing allies in the rousing Sea Beggars series’ second installment.
The Mark of Ran (2005) provided a lengthy origin myth and coming-of-age tale for Rol, the orphaned half-human, possibly half-god with a frightening knack for skillfully applied violence. Having firmly established his fantastical world and its major players, Kearney settles in here for bloody-minded human realpolitik. Rol is a ruthless privateer neither asking nor giving quarter as he strives to rid the sea of the Bionari Empire ships trying to find his home, the well-hidden pirate haven of Ganesh Ka. Given Kearney’s knack for the ebb and flow of naval combat, readers may be disappointed when he turns Rol landward toward the Bionari civil war that was festering at the end of the last novel. Rol’s one-time love, the beautiful assassin Rowen (who may share his half-divine bloodline too closely for comfort), requires his help. The King of Thieves, an old nemesis who is now Rowen’s ally of convenience in her claim to the Bionari throne, comes to Ka to plead for Rol’s assistance. For all Kearney’s stylistic flair, there’s little romanticizing of battle here: The dehumanizing mass violence of organized warfare has rarely been portrayed in fantasy with such clear-eyed cynicism. Despite this tough realism, the long-desired reunion of Rol and Rowen still strikes a few sparks in a harsh land.
Energetic stuff, with the promise of much more to come.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2006
ISBN: 0-553-38363-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
Here's the novel that, out of 2500 submissions, won the ecological-minded Turner Tomorrow Award—and caused a mutiny among the judges when it was awarded the $500,000 first prize. Is it that good—or bad? No, but it's certainly unusual, even eccentric, enough to place Quinn (the paperback Dreamer, 1988) on the cult literary map. What's most unusual is that this novel scarcely is one: beneath a thin narrative glaze, it's really a series of Socratic dialogues between man and ape, with the ape as Socrates. The nameless man, who narrates, answers a newspaper ad (``TEACHER seeks pupil...'') that takes him to a shabby office tenanted by a giant gorilla; lo! the ape begins to talk to him telepathically (Quinn's failure to explain this ability is typical of his approach: idea supersedes story). Over several days, the ape, Ishmael, as gruff as his Greek model, drags the man into a new understanding of humanity's place in the world. In a nutshell, Ishmael argues that humanity has evolved two ways of living: There are the ``Leavers,'' or hunter-gatherers (e.g., Bushmen), who live in harmony with the rest of life; and there are the ``Takers'' (our civilization), who arose with the agricultural revolution, aim to conquer the rest of life, and are destroying it in the process. Takers, Ishmael says, have woven a ``story'' to rationalize their conquest; central to this story is the idea that humanity is flawed—e.g., as told in the Bible. But not so, Ishmael proclaims; only the Taker way is flawed: Leavers offer a method for living well in the world. After Ishmael dies of pneumonia, his newly converted pupil can only ponder the ape's parting message: ``WITH GORILLA GONE, WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?'' A washout as a story, with zero emotional punch; but of substantial intellectual appeal as the extensive Q&A passages (despite their wild generalities and smug self-assurance) invariably challenge and provoke: both Socrates and King Kong might be pleased.
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1992
ISBN: 0-553-07875-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
Shannon’s prose style is serviceable, but her legion of fans will once again be here for the propulsive plot rather than...
Paige Mahoney, the Pale Dreamer of The Bone Season (2013), returns in this second volume of a projected seven-volume fantasy/science-fiction epic.
The novel begins with Paige’s escape to London as she eludes pursuers of all stripes and becomes public enemy No. 1. On the plus side, she’s with a gang of clairvoyants, and her cohort is headed by Jaxon Hall, one of the mime-lords of the title. (Mime-lords and mime-queens are leaders of clairvoyant gangs who form a subgroup within the various cohorts.) London becomes the main setting of the novel, and it assumes various guises, some comforting but most harrowing. Cohorts inhabit spaces that seem vaguely familiar (Covent Garden, Camden Town, Soho) yet remain mysterious and sinister. Readers of the first volume might also remember the emphasis on a specialized and arcane vocabulary applicable to the alternative universe the author creates. The glossary is again a welcome necessity. The prime mover of action here is Paige’s relentless pursuit by Scion, a governmental organization that sees her as a threat to its status and power. Eventually Paige meets up again with Arcturus Mesarthim, her Warden and a Rephaite—a physically immortal being. He has some advice for her—to be wary and to “manipulate [her] mime-lord…as he has spent his life manipulating others”—good advice for a world that is arcane, complex, multilayered and at times almost incomprehensible.
Shannon’s prose style is serviceable, but her legion of fans will once again be here for the propulsive plot rather than lyricism.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62040-893-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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