A sci-fi adventure with action, fantastical creatures and worthy protagonists that will likely make readers want to know...
Molinar’s debut sci-fi adventure offers the tale of two brothers who travel to another world, where survivors of ruined cities battle ferocious beings and sinister forces.
Illinois teenagers Marcus and Ty Mitchell stumble upon a strange, orblike artifact in the middle of the night and suddenly find that they’re not on Earth anymore. Instead, they’re in a barren land, the remnants of the ravaged city Spartanica. They befriend Bellana, Spartanica’s last remaining resident, and a group of children who’ve fled the “detention fields.” The brothers look for a way home, and soon arm themselves for a rescue party when Bellana is taken captive. This YA novel sets a steady pace, with each chapter consisting of Ty’s, Marcus’ and, eventually, Bellana’s alternating perspectives. Its highlights include merciless villains such as the Desrata, whose beastly appearance fits their abbreviated moniker (“ ’rats”); impressive weapons called draiders and lofters that make very loud noises; and a gradually deepening plot, as the brothers receive hints that their arrival in Spartanica wasn’t mere happenstance. Molinar adds his own invented language, particularly with measurements of time such as “jorno” (day), but he also provides plenty of context and explanation to avoid confusion; the exclamations “fazah” and “gehanna,” the latter of which is clearly an expletive, are the most fun. The brothers are dependable leads, particularly Marcus, who develops from a snarky sibling to a gallant hero thanks to his newfound “hyper-strength” and his coziness with one of the escapees. Ty, reputedly a genius, is also the younger of the two, and his frequent whining—such as his insistence that the detention-field fugitives are actually serial killers—is often comical but sometimes exasperating. The story leaves a few issues unresolved, such as how Ty and Marcus got to Spartanica in the first place, and tosses in a cliffhanger, so another book is sure to follow.
A sci-fi adventure with action, fantastical creatures and worthy protagonists that will likely make readers want to know what happens next.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1493717156
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Sapertys Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Long, slow stretches mar a novel that portrays life in the English countryside during the early days of World War II.
Injured fighter pilot Mark Brabham recuperates at his uncle’s home in rural England in this World War II historical novel.
While the men (and some women) fought, those left behind (the old, the young and the female) did what they could to keep the home front secure, including guarding the coast and rooting out spies and enemy insurgents. Brabham, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot who learned to fly at his grandfather’s knee, eagerly enlisted in the RAF when he came of age but was shot down two months after joining his squadron. After his badly burned body had time to heal, the rest of his recuperation was spent at his pastor uncle’s home at Lavering-on-Sea. In short order, he was put to work helping out as much as a severely burned soldier could. In between trips back to the hospital, he spent his days leading the Scouts, helping to patrol the coastlines, and spending time with Elizabeth, a working-class evacuee who was working at a local farm and leading the Girl Scout troop. There are periods of excitement here, so the author clearly knows how to build tension, but it often takes too long for something to actually happen. Summers clearly cares about his subject; he offers a rare glimpse into life on the home front—from patrolling the beach to gas and meat rations to the town’s easy acceptance of London evacuees. He also has a strong protagonist in brave, personable Mark.
Long, slow stretches mar a novel that portrays life in the English countryside during the early days of World War II.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-1452072326
Page Count: 396
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A bracing homage to Homer and the Greeks.
A rollicking new chapter in an ambitious, multivolume extrapolation on Greek myth.
For those who slept through Classics 101: The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, an epic conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans during which the Greeks besieged Troy in an effort to save Helen, a beautiful woman who had been captured and held by the Trojan Paris. In the third installment of this particular story, the hero Petraeus attempts to complete his unlikely transformation from slave to king in a seven-book series existing in the same universe as Homer’s classic. Johnson’s novel takes place in between the kidnapping of Helen and the beginning of the war; in it, the Greek king Agamemnon asks the up-and-coming hero Petraeus to pursue Paris and Helen and retrieve the Greek beauty. However, if the novel owes much of its substance to the Iliad, it takes its form from Homer’s other great epic, the Odyssey. Like this second pillar of ancient Greek literature, this novel tells the story of an epic sea voyage that sends its hero careening around the Mediterranean on his winding way to track down the lost pair. During his entertaining, circuitous journey, Petraeus solves a murder, cavorts with Amazons, receives gifts from the Egyptian pharaoh Ramasses, and survives a brush with death at the hands of the evil Ba’al. Most of Johnson’s fresh tale is of his own making, but it takes enough cues from standard Greek lore that mythology buffs will have fun tracking down his more oblique references. Furthermore, though his story is epic in scope, Johnson’s attention to detail imbues his novel a pleasant sense of balance. His brief but thorough meditations on the art of shipbuilding or the intricacies of ancient commerce are as fulfilling as his rip-roaring stories of naval battles, bounty hunters and skin-of-the-teeth escapes.
A bracing homage to Homer and the Greeks.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1456771225
Page Count: 239
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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