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ECHO OF A HERO

Name: ECHO OF A HERO
Author: Pearson Myles
ISBN: 978-1-73245-060-8

SPIRITS OF POWER

by Pearson Myles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2019

Good action and character development but the storytelling could have been tighter.

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In this YA SF novel, the first in a planned series, a teenager develops special abilities that could help an insurgent movement.

The city of Villhilium was destroyed by fearsome, black-armored “relegators” who killed or drove away the “plenaries,” a guardian race. Now, 20 years later, humans are forbidden to even mention the plenaries. In Newark, New Jersey, middle schooler Austin Bennett struggles with low test scores and a lack of friends aside from his best pal since childhood, Kate Summers. The boy suffers a string of misfortunes: His mother dies in a car accident that paralyzes him; he’s hit by strange lightning that leaves no traces; and he later wakes up with his bed on fire. But these strange events lead to enormous changes for Austin—he’s able to walk again, for one, and he soon discovers other, new abilities. By the time he’s 17, he’s able to run at superspeed. He joins a resistance group dedicated to bringing down the relegators that includes Maisie Orchid, a 16-year-old girl whom he admires for her daring acts. The rebels’ chief nemesis is Solon Blak, who’s described as a “sable pillar of foreboding” with a corpselike face. As Austin and the insurgents learn more about the plenaries, they also train themselves in the use of their abilities, work to rescue friends, and plot to take down Blak and his powerful orb. In his debut book, Myles does some complex worldbuilding and is consistently thoughtful about its implications. For example, it’s established that plenaries can reincarnate, and the author effectively addresses the disturbing aspects of the process; for example, one character wonders if others simply see him as a “mistake or an echo of someone they used to know.” The well-described action scenes add excitement to the narrative, and the varied characters receive strong backstories. At times, though, the many pages of explanation of how things work—such as powers, devices, and reincarnation—can become overwhelming. Even so, readers will find that they still have to piece together what “relegators” and “plenaries” are.

Good action and character development but the storytelling could have been tighter.

Pub Date: March 19, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-73245-060-8

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2020

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.