An engaging and epic yarn that explores the history behind the magic of Camelot.
In the first volume of a saga chronicling the exploits of a knight of the Round Table, Sir Percival returns to Albion only to find that much has changed.
After 10 fruitless years of searching for the Holy Grail, Sir Percival arrives in Albion alongside his loyal companion and fighting partner, Capussa. Unfortunately, Arthur Pendragon died while the knight was gone, and the rest of Camelot with him. His queen, Guinevere, hides in a monastery, alone but for a few trusted ladies and a network of spies. Albion is ravaged by violence at the hands of the cruel Morgana and the Norse raiders that she employed as sellswords to defeat Arthur. Rather than a witch, Morgana is actually a Roman princess and assassin whom the king in Constantinople sent to Albion so that she could kill a wise man called Melitas. In Albion, Melitas is better known as Merlin, Arthur’s most trusted adviser. While Merlin remains alive, Morgana won’t leave Albion in peace. When Percival learns of the tragedy that has befallen his country, he sets out to find his queen—with whom he always had a special bond—and report to her. He recalls his feelings for the young Guinevere a decade ago (“His days and nights were haunted by her enchanting laugh, mesmerizing smile, and noble soul”). But Morgana refuses to have a knight of the Round Table back in the country, inciting the beaten-down people of Albion to rise up against her iron fist and reclaim their freedom. Another big battle is coming, and soon. O’Keefe (Helius Legacy, 2012) takes elements of Arthurian legend that most readers are familiar with and grounds them in the harsh, historical reality of the time period. The story of heroic Percival and his quest to save the land—and the lady—he loves is suitably epic and full of adventures, not to mention colorful characters. Percival is appropriately noble and easy to root for against the utterly evil Morgana, but the real star here is the knight’s fiery friend, the warrior Capussa, whose sharp sense of humor should make him a favorite of readers. At one point he tells Percival: “Well, now that you’ve decided to start a war, do you mind overly much if I propose a plan to win it?”
An engaging and epic yarn that explores the history behind the magic of Camelot.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62634-309-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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