Exciting, sexy, psychologically acute, this first entry in a planned series should garner fans eager for the next volume.
In this urban fantasy tale, a half-demon’s human life is upended when an assassination attempt sends her back to her former lover, a Prince of Hell, for help.
“I should have known he’d be trouble as soon as he walked into my workshop, but I couldn’t have known he’d be the death of me.” Gripping from its first line, this debut novel never slows down, delivering plenty of action as Muse (or Charlie Henderson, her human name) tries to figure out who’s trying to kill her and why. Child of a human mother and demon father, she was considered an abomination and “sold at birth as a plaything for lesser demons.” Her cruel owner named her Muse as a joke before Akil, a handsome and formidable demon, rescued her. Muse and Akil were lovers, but five years ago, Muse broke away to live independently, working as a blacksmith. But soon after a threatening visit from Stefan—a tall drink of icy water in a red leather coat—Muse’s workshop blows up, and the only person she can ask for assistance is Akil. Is Stefan an assassin or someone she can trust? Will Akil provide real help, or does he only want to control Muse—or worse? Though Muse longs for a normal life, she’ll need to draw on her demonic half’s scorching power to survive her search for answers. DaCosta (Girl From Above, 2015, etc.) skillfully doles out bits of Muse’s back story as she gets in and out of trouble and back again, with much deft characterization and thoughtful, lucid consideration of how demons operate fitted in among all the exciting action. The setup is intriguingly psychological, reminiscent of Jessica Jones, the comic-book/Netflix series that uses the mind-control concept to explore abusive relationships. Something like a mistreated and angry inner child, Muse’s demon half is the locus of hugely potent, hot, enraged, erotic energy—but it’s also her weapon. Realizing that she needs her demon is essential to Muse’s survival.
Exciting, sexy, psychologically acute, this first entry in a planned series should garner fans eager for the next volume.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4942-4235-0
Page Count: 242
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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