A longish, lightish adventure set in a world forgotten by most history books.
Children’s author Spinka (Mother’s Blessing, 1992, etc.) makes a leap to adult fiction with a 14th-century tale of a young Mohawk girl who samples a variety of North American cultures.
As her name implies, Picture Maker knows how to draw. But this remains her name only briefly, for soon after we are introduced to the Ganeogaono people, Picture Maker is abducted by Algonquins and traded off as a slave. Her first master is so cruel that other Algonquins feel pity for her, and no one is sorry when she murders her owner and runs away—though not before she is pregnant. Now called Little One, she finds friendlier Algonquins but stays with them only a short time, fearing reprisal for her crime. She allows herself to be traded to the Inuits in the north, who call her Mikisoq and murder her baby because it’s a girl. When the Inuit tribe splits, Mikisoq goes with the group heading across a frozen ocean. These eventually encounter their first white man, a Greenlander with a knife identical to the one Mikisoq has had since her time with the Algonquins. It’s fate, and Mikisoq, soon to be Astrid, marries the knife-holder, a burly redhead. But will the mini–Ice Age of the 14th century spoil a fairy tale ending? If the cold doesn’t become the death of Mikisoq and her man, maybe the Christians will. The story is epic, but the telling hasn’t grown up quite as fast as Picture Maker has: the cadence has a YA feel, and much information is repeated. The history is complete and unforgiving but sometimes takes precedence over character—only moments after being raped, for instance, Picture Maker describes her rapist as not unpleasant to look at. Consistency may be a problem as well: Picture Maker knows that clams are bivalve creatures but can convey “twenty” only by saying “four hands.”
A longish, lightish adventure set in a world forgotten by most history books.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-94624-1
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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