A yarn that’s easy to admire but hard to warm to, although readers who enjoyed the related stories will certainly wish to...
First novel from the author of the collection The Library of Forgotten Books (2011), which contained several stories in the same setting.
Three rival Houses—Technis, Arbor and Marin—dominate the vast, rotting city of Caeli-Amur by means of their scientist-magician thaumaturgists, deadly Furies and other strange creatures warped by the magic or technology they employ. Five years after the Houses fought a ruinous war, they now compete through trade, espionage and murder, employing the services of mercenary philosopher-assassins. The mysterious, insectlike, decadent Elo-Talern lurk in the background. But now the downtrodden workers, crippled by neglect, incompetence and misapplied thaumaturgy, plot rebellion. Some believe that if they can understand and reanimate the huge decaying machines found in the city’s lower reaches, or truly understand the principles of thaumaturgy, they can overthrow the Houses; others consider these approaches hopelessly slow or impractical and advocate direct action via strikes, demonstrations and assassinations. Ambitious administrator Boris Autec betrays his former colleagues as he rises through the ranks of Technis, metamorphosing into one of the ruthless bosses he once hated and feared. Boris offers philosopher-assassin Kata her heart’s desires—freedom from slavery, a villa by the sea—in order to spy on the seditionist movement. Here, she meets thaumaturgist and revolutionary Maximilian, who plans to learn the ancient secrets hidden in the Great Library of the fabled city Caeli-Enas, once home to godlike beings, now drowned beneath the waves and guarded by monsters. Impressively imagined and densely detailed, then, though an underlying logic never materializes. Long descriptive passages embellish the narrative without vitalizing it. Deliberate plotting and coldly unsympathetic characters do little to lift the gloomy atmosphere.
A yarn that’s easy to admire but hard to warm to, although readers who enjoyed the related stories will certainly wish to investigate.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2988-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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