An adventure of eye-opening cleverness.
This epic-fantasy debut sees a thief unwittingly unleash a demon that feeds on wizards.
There are thousands of kingdoms in the World Belt. Fistmar, a lieutenant in the Thieves Guild, hails from the opulent city of Aranvail. After copying the secret logbook of his boss, Gloster, Fistmar heads to Schtalegaard. There, he robs the foolish Prince Caolan, who’s passed out after a night of drink and gambling. Fistmar later finds himself imprisoned for the prince’s murder, although he claims he’s not a killer; still, Mikhael Schtalfir, Duke Schtalegaard’s castellan, plans to torture the thief to death. Luckily, Fistmar possesses a false, magical tooth—a gift from the wizard Maevendin—that helps him pick the lock and escape his dungeon cell. Yet as he’s running through the labyrinthine prison beneath the Duke’s castle, the tooth seems to guide him. He finds a chamber of blue stone, and within it is a door that the wizard Faeramivor, who worked alongside Mikhael, warns him not to open. But open it he does, releasing a demon that explosively drains Faeramivor’s essence. Fistmar uses the ensuing chaos to head for Aranvail, seeking to clear his name of the Prince’s murder. However, a trio of warrior spirits tell him, “You freed the demon, and in doing so, you were bound to it.” In this striking debut, author Macdonald breaks from the epic-fantasy herd with electric prose and a true sense of the cinematic. Major characters receive memorable introductions, including Miranna, the famous, beautiful gambler whom Fistmar loves; and Norvik, who reluctantly helps him escape Aranvail’s treachery. The demon is fabulously described: “Teeth swam beneath its skin, to sometimes tear through in rictus grins, or to fly forward on tentacle limbs.” Macdonald also has great fun with magic, employing portals controlled by warlocks called the Scarlet Brotherhood, and Soulstones that can transfer spirits to fresh bodies. The worldbuilding and plot never compete with each other, resulting in an excellent series foundation.
An adventure of eye-opening cleverness.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9979231-1-7
Page Count: 462
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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