Drudgery, not fun.
The Scrolls of the Ancients is listed as the final installment of The Chronicles of Blood and Stone trilogy, although Del Ray announces signing Newcomb for three more volumes.
The trilogy has not been a clean sweep with readers. Many rate its endless first 1,234 acres of exposition right up there with mowing the lawn for two weeks. And now we have a further 550 acres adding their swells of excitement. Newcomb chronicles the history of “endowed blood” in Eutracia, explaining how the prophesied two Chosen Ones, Prince Tristan and twin sister Shailiha, face the country’s devastation. “Endowed blood” means that magic is passed on only in the pure azure blood of the Chosen Ones. Considering that Tristan was forced by the vile Coven of Sorceresses to murder both his father and mother, thus losing his kingdom, it’s no surprise when his own son, Nicholas, becomes Tristan’s worst enemy. It was the disguised sorceress Natasha who lusted to mingle her blood with the Chosen Ones. At first, Tristan wanted only to slog through his years on the throne, then retire and lead the Directorate of Wizards. But in the fall of Eutracia, the Directorate of Wizards is wiped out, except for Tristan’s talkative tutors, the elderly wizard Wigg and the Wizard Faegan, who returns from exile. Can order be restored to Eutracia? Well, not when Nicholas leads an army of wizards and posts a reward for the capture of Tristan. It is Nicholas who has depleted the magic luster of Eutracia’s Paragon Stone. Only the recovery of the Scrolls of the Ancients, an almost unreadable magic tome, can restore the Stone to its full power. But first there arises Krassus, the demonslaver, whose fleet takes Eutracians in chains to the evil Citadel, a place crawling with living nightmares. There also arises the fierce Tyranny, a female privateer, to help Tristan battle the demonslavers. Despite horrors, all ends serenely.
Drudgery, not fun.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-44896-0
Page Count: 550
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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