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Tales of the Zodiac

THE GOAT'S TALE

From the Tales of the Zodiac series , Vol. 1

A lively, if often generic, novel about a hero who’s a Capricorn; fantasy fans should be eager for Volume 2.

A sprawling adventure about a daunting quest offers an astrological twist.

In this first volume of a projected fantasy series, debut author Hetherhouse introduces Ser Gruffydd of the Green, a young man raised as a goatherd before attending a prestigious academy for knights. Gruff lives in what seems to be a distant future returned to feudal times. Plastic is a fading memory; a small, elite group hoards the wealth while peasants starve; and everyone lives in fear of a far-off threat known only as the snow savages. When Gruff displeases the king by besting the prince in a tournament, he is sent away from the kingdom on an impossible mission: travel across the frozen wilderness to the maybe-mythical land of Brightstone and bring back the Son of God, a mysterious deity rumored to live there. Gruff thinks that, in some ways, he’s lucky (“The harshness of a goatherd’s life has prepared me for the wilderness in a way that nothing else could have: the butchery of animals, the preparation of forage, the building of shelters and tolerance to the cold were all things that I didn’t need to learn”). The following story stretches over more than 450 pages, packed with the familiar trappings of epic fantasy: a joking sidekick, close calls with menacing strangers, and a golden city with a dark secret. Hetherhouse’s writing is often grandiose, as when Gruff states without irony: “Until these heavy legs can lift these bloodied feet no more, I shall continue to put one in front of the other.” It’s no coincidence that Gruff mirrors the goats he herds; the depiction of the stubborn, pragmatic hero hews exactly to the astrological stereotypes of the Capricorn sign. Though Gruff’s stony fortitude and utter lack of humor border on caricature, Hetherhouse’s clever astrological conceit effectively frames the story. Questions of how human personality forms and changes loom large, and Gruff’s struggles to reconcile his rigid moral code with the religious fanaticism he encounters and the basic necessities of survival are the book’s most enticing facets. “A tribe will always refer to their neighbours as savages,” Gruff reflects. “They will always mythologise and fear the great unknown.” Such attention to philosophical nuance adds depth to this otherwise standard tale.

A lively, if often generic, novel about a hero who’s a Capricorn; fantasy fans should be eager for Volume 2.

Pub Date: May 8, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-5121-0707-4

Page Count: 468

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2015

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PEMMICAN WARS

A GIRL CALLED ECHO, VOL. I

A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.

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In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.

Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.

A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.

Pub Date: March 15, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: HighWater Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018

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THE DA VINCI CODE

Bulky, balky, talky.

In an updated quest for the Holy Grail, the narrative pace remains stuck in slo-mo.

But is the Grail, in fact, holy? Turns out that’s a matter of perspective. If you’re a member of that most secret of clandestine societies, the Priory of Sion, you think yes. But if your heart belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, the Grail is more than just unholy, it’s downright subversive and terrifying. At least, so the story goes in this latest of Brown’s exhaustively researched, underimagined treatise-thrillers (Deception Point, 2001, etc.). When Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon—in Paris to deliver a lecture—has his sleep interrupted at two a.m., it’s to discover that the police suspect he’s a murderer, the victim none other than Jacques Saumière, esteemed curator of the Louvre. The evidence against Langdon could hardly be sketchier, but the cops feel huge pressure to make an arrest. And besides, they don’t particularly like Americans. Aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, Langdon flees the flics to trudge the Grail-path along with pretty, persuasive Sophie, who’s driven by her own need to find answers. The game now afoot amounts to a scavenger hunt for the scholarly, clues supplied by the late curator, whose intent was to enlighten Sophie and bedevil her enemies. It’s not all that easy to identify these enemies. Are they emissaries from the Vatican, bent on foiling the Grail-seekers? From Opus Dei, the wayward, deeply conservative Catholic offshoot bent on foiling everybody? Or any one of a number of freelancers bent on a multifaceted array of private agendas? For that matter, what exactly is the Priory of Sion? What does it have to do with Leonardo? With Mary Magdalene? With (gulp) Walt Disney? By the time Sophie and Langdon reach home base, everything—well, at least more than enough—has been revealed.

Bulky, balky, talky.

Pub Date: March 18, 2003

ISBN: 0-385-50420-9

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003

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