An often engaging tale that should keep readers hooked with a blend of magic, high-stakes action, and the continuing growth...
A 16-year-old, his parents, and his magical sprite girlfriend are threatened by a conspiracy of corporate villains on Earth and an Emperor from another world in the second book in Goodell and Bright’s (The Harmonies of Magic, 2017) YA fantasy series.
In the previous installment, most of the action took place on Earth’s unseen twin planet, Bespri, the home of sprites and of magic made possible by the mysterious Harmonies. There, teenager Ben had found himself in the middle of a conflict between the land of Feyr, ruled by an authoritarian Emperor, and the land of Caldae, whose benevolent queen was leading her people into democracy. Having played a major role in preventing the Emperor from suborning the magical Harmonies, Ben and his newly reunited parents now assume that the Emperor’s threats to their well-being are over. In this outing, Goodell and Bright prove that assumption wrong, mixing action (including some mild violence), suspense, and character-building dilemmas into a renewed conspiracy involving the scheming Emperor; Ben’s computer scientist mother, Kate Palmer; and a secret artificial-intelligence project. Ben, in training to become a Guardian of Caldae, returns to Earth with the object of his affection, the strong sprite princess Mizli, to deal with kidnappers, an increased number of Feyrens on Earth, and a plan that could affect life on both planets. In the struggle, Ben discovers his own nascent magical abilities, and, without any off-putting preachiness, the authors once again weave character-building messages into the plot: specifically, Ben and Mizli’s challenges with self-doubt and the value of critical thinking and informed decision-making. The story is deepened by its vivid settings, strong female characters, the diversity of Bespri’s inhabitants, the Caldens’ efforts toward democratic government, and opportune appearances of enigmatic, wisdom-imparting beings. However, the authors might have considered trimming some expository passages and frequent statements that Ben is bored with school. Also, stronger proofreading is a must, as a good portion of the second chapter is repeated whole-cloth.
An often engaging tale that should keep readers hooked with a blend of magic, high-stakes action, and the continuing growth of its likable teen protagonist.Pub Date: June 3, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 244
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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