Despite its prequel feel, there’s good groundwork for a sensational, lasting series.
A young bladesmith and a healer journey across a barren, post-apocalyptic world in the author’s debut adventure novel.
In the year 2117, the world closely resembles the Middle Ages, having suffered global collapse and a dwindling population—an event called “the Reduction.” Latin, who trades his blade-sharpening skills for goods, agrees to help Autumn, an herbalist whose rejection of a marriage proposal has her on the run. Billy, the rebuffed, is a man with authority, and he sends his guards to seize Autumn. She and Latin travel to Arden, Del., in search of refuge with Latin’s uncle. Bryan’s novel, the first in a series, is short, and to good effect, it concentrates on the lead characters and their trek rather than the world’s disastrous condition, briefly chronicled at the beginning. Latin and Autumn face numerous dangers and challenges on their way to Arden—the persistent need for food and shelter; the risk of infection from injuries; and Billy’s henchmen, the dreaded horse-riding Skullers. Certain specifics of the world get light coverage, however. Bryan reveals little about either Billy or the Skullers, for example, but the couple’s fear of both seems warranted; the baldheaded, leather-bound men shoot at them without provocation. Both Latin and Autumn have unusual back stories that give them dimension: Latin’s parents have disappeared, never having returned from the market, and Autumn’s medicines are quite effective, but the girl, even when asked directly, avoids explaining what’s in the variously colored vials. Perhaps future installments will resolve these mysteries. The leads are commendable, smart enough to be continually wary. Autumn will likely win over readers first; Latin, adept at bow and arrow, kills to protect the two, but he’s shaken by his own actions, and it’s Autumn who coolly validates the deed: “It means we get to live and they don’t.”
Despite its prequel feel, there’s good groundwork for a sensational, lasting series.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615758664
Page Count: 122
Publisher: R. M.\Bryan
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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