A worthy series kickoff with riveting characters and a world that readers will want to explore.
Debut author Hummel launches a sci-fi/fantasy series with the story of a young man in a post-apocalyptic America who bonds with a dragon.
Twenty-something Jared Cartwright is on his own in a far-future New York City that’s been ravaged by past nuclear wars. To avoid death by radiation, all humans, including Jared, must periodically inject themselves with microscopic nanites. One day, while searching for supplies, Jared finds a strange rock that generates electricity and visibly agitates the nanites in his injector. Out of curiosity, he injects these nanites into the rock, which turns out to be an egg. A fire dragon hatches; she goes by the name “Scarlet” and communicates with Jared telepathically. Because of their bond, Jared makes a formal vow to Scarlet’s dragon-queen mother to guard and protect her daughter. Fortunately, he also develops newfound abilities—for every hostile, mutated creature he kills, he earns nanites to bolster skills, such as “Heat Sight” and “Maximum Muscle.” Jared furthermore makes it his mission to aid Scarlet in her quest to help dragons re-emerge—as they’ve been hiding from humans underground for millennia. Along the way, Jared and Scarlet face numerous antagonists, including mutated monsters and other human survivors. Hummel’s tale is rife with elements of the LitRPG genre, which offers a fusion of sci-fi/fantasy literature and role-playing games. At the same time, the author also creates intriguing characters and an engaging fictional world. Although the narrative provides little backstory for Jared prior to his parents’ deaths, it meticulously establishes his and Scarlet’s camaraderie; this is helped by the fact that each character typically knows that the other is in trouble almost instantly. There’s also a potpourri of mutated beings, including a group of enslaved humans and some beasts whose mutations seem suspicious. Despite the fact that the story offers abundant exposition (via telepathic conversations), Hummel sets a firm pace that puts the heroes into frequent battles and confrontations with other perils.
A worthy series kickoff with riveting characters and a world that readers will want to explore.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73233-742-8
Page Count: 492
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Arden has shaped a world that neatly straddles the seen and the unseen, where readers will hear echoes of stories from...
Arden’s supple, sumptuous first novel transports the reader to a version of medieval Russia where history and myth coexist.
In a village in the northern woods where her father is the overlord, Vasya, a girl who has inherited her royal grandmother’s understanding of magic and the spirits that inhabit the everyday world, is born to a mother who dies in childhood. Raised by a kind father, an anxious and spiteful stepmother, a wise nurse, and four older siblings, the feisty and near-feral girl—“too tall, skinny as a weasel, feet and face like a frog”—learns to talk with horses and befriends the household and forest spirits that live in and around the village. These, say the handsome young priest who has been exiled to serve their household, are demons and deserve to be exorcised. The battle between Vasya and driven Konstantin, who spends his free time painting icons, fuels the plot, as does the presence of two of the old gods, who represent death and fear. Arden has obviously immersed herself in Russian history and culture, but as a consummate storyteller, she never lets the details of place and time get in the way of a compelling and neatly structured narrative. Her main story, which has the unmistakable shape of an original fairy tale, is grounded in the realities of daily life in the time period, where the top of a large stove serves as a bed for the elderly and the ill and the dining hall of the Grand Prince of Moscow reeks of “mead and dogs, dust and humanity.” Even minor characters are given their own sets of longings and fears and impact the trajectory of the story.
Arden has shaped a world that neatly straddles the seen and the unseen, where readers will hear echoes of stories from childhood while recognizing the imagination that has transformed old material into something fresh.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-88593-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
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PROFILES
After years of unprepossessing folderol—the wearisome Nine Princes in Amber retreads are depressingly typical—Zelazny bursts forth with, well, ``Victorian light supernatural fantasy'' just about covers it. Narrator Snuff, a guard dog who performs complex thaumaturgical calculations in his head, has many duties: to keep various Things firmly trapped in mirrors, wardrobes, and steamer trunks; to accompany his master, Jack—he of the magical blade—on weird collecting expeditions into the graveyards and slums of Victorian London; and—for a single hour each night—discuss the day's goings-on in human speech. Snuff's neighbors include: Jill the witch and her familiar, Graymalk the cat, with whom Snuff forms a friendly alliance; Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula, a werewolf, and a satanic vicar. The witches, detectives, doctors, vampires, etc., along with their equally industrious familiars, trade information and scheme for advantage as the full moon of Halloween approaches; at that time, a magical showdown to decide the fate of the Earth will occur. Some of the characters are ``openers,'' determined to open a magical doorway allowing the Old Gods to reoccupy the Earth; others are ``closers,'' equally resolved to keep the magical door nailed shut; and a few are involved yet stand outside the Game altogether. Snuff's problem is to discover who is which. Sparkling, witty, delightful: Zelazny's best for ages, perhaps his best ever.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-12508-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993
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