This fourth series entry features a resourceful but not entirely lovable heroine, zany secondary characters, and the...
A brother and sister of fairy-tale fame stumble from one complication to another in their search for a missing magician.
Years after escaping the gingerbread house, Gretel enjoys renown as the best detective in Gesternstadt. But determining whether the sorcerer Ernst Arnold is really dead is quite a challenge, for all that’s left of Arnold in his magicarium is his appendix and his pet bat. The insurance company won’t pay Frau Arnold if her husband isn’t really dead, and she can’t pay Gretel until it’s proven that he is. Though she decides to take the case on spec, Gretel negotiates with the insurance company for payment if she delivers proof of life. She needs the dough: not only does she have to keep her bon vivant brother, Hans, in “weisswurst and ale,” but she’s just ordered an expensive wig to charm the man she loves, Uber General Ferdinand von Ferdinand , away from his fiancee. Gretel finds a map of Arnold’s that sends her and Hans deep into the woods that still fill them with dread. Despite its beautiful hostess, a house of “vernacular architecture” is not the refuge it seems, and Gretel and Hans flee straight into a troupe of perpetually pickled pixies. Reluctant as Hans is to leave his new friends, Gretel has a job to do despite several attempts on their lives (von Ferdinand unfortunately rescues her while she’s not looking her best). Pressing onward with a cheerfully bromidic forest guide, the duo find what they’re looking for in a fanciful village populated with Germany’s Most Wanted and refugees from other Grimm tales. It’s up to Gretel to find a way out in an adventure that unrepentantly defies history (cocktails and cigarette lighters in the 18th century?) and follows up a beloved tale with farce.
This fourth series entry features a resourceful but not entirely lovable heroine, zany secondary characters, and the tendency to go for cheap laughs. Still, give Brockton (The Fickle Mermaid, 2016, etc.) high marks for creativity.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-530-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Fascinating, and not for the faint of heart.
The final part of Islington’s prodigious, sprawling fantasy trilogy (An Echo of Things To Come, 2017, etc.), in which the religious-philosophical-magical-temporal war reaches its conclusion.
Again Islington supplies a synopsis and glossary; they help, but not much. The Venerate, immortal shape-shifting wizards, wield a higher-order magic called kan, which emanates from the Darklands. However, they now serve an evil god and perhaps always have. Four friends have resolved to defeat them. Caeden, a Venerate who once did terrible wrongs in their service, bears the knowledge that he will, or already has, kill his friend and ally Davian. Davian, whose ability to use kan exceeds even Caeden's, becomes trapped in the past, where he must learn how to build kan-powered machines in order to escape. Asha channels the enormous power of her Essence, magic deriving from her personal life force, to maintain the Boundary confining the horrors of the Darklands; the heavy price she pays is entombment within a virtual-reality bubble. Wirr, now Prince Torin the Northwarden, must rally his people to hold off armies of religious fanatics and Darklands monsters long enough for the others to succeed. So what do we have here, a thaumaturgical-alchemical extravaganza? A teenage superpower fantasy to rival Marvel comics? What with the unflagging pace, so many moving parts, and so much intricate, lavish, and sometimes intimidating detail, it's nigh impossible to ascertain whether it all adds up. What matters is the author's unshakable conviction that it does—a conviction that eventually we come to share, if only by osmosis. One intractable flaw: Though there are so many immortals running around, we don't feel the weight of all their years and deeds. It's more like time's collapsed into a dimensionless present.
Fascinating, and not for the faint of heart.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-27418-0
Page Count: 864
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An adventurous fantasy romp only for the die-hard fan.
A mysterious woodsman joins forces with an earnest princess to stop a plot that could ruin both of their kingdoms in this fantasy romance.
Princess Sorcha keeps a close eye on her loved ones, constantly living in fear that her brother and adopted sisters will be taken away from her. When she uncovers a plan to murder her brother and steal his queen, Sorcha throws herself (quite literally) into ruining the enemy’s coldhearted scheme. In the fray, she is taken prisoner to be used as leverage. Her freedom comes at the hands of a man known only as the Woodsman. A Robin Hood–esque hero, he leads a secret rebellion to overthrow the corrupt family in power in his woodland country. With Sorcha’s ability to harness fire and the Woodsman’s talent for communing with nature, they realize their combined magical strength is the key to protecting those they love. Sorcha’s close circle of friends and family rely heavily on previously established relationships from prior books, and the setup is a direct relation to past events. Newcomers to Sparks’ (Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, 2018, etc.) Embraced by Magic series will undoubtedly be lost when attempting to understand character connections and references to previous skirmishes and battles. The relationship between the hero and heroine is background noise to the tangled web of political machinations by cartoonish villains, but the inventive setting and depth of worldbuilding prevent this from feeling too much like a paint-by-numbers, cookie-cutter fantasy romance. But while Sparks’ crafting of distinct kingdoms and fantasy races is the strongest part of the series, this installment carries on the earlier tradition of middling, glacially slow romances.
An adventurous fantasy romp only for the die-hard fan.Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3004-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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