A well-crafted debut with believable political intrigues, solid worldbuilding, and original characters.
A brother and sister trained from birth to protect their ruler find their skills—and their assumptions—tested in Hawke's debut novel.
Jovan and Kalina are noble-born siblings whose family has long performed a secret duty: to guard the Chancellor against covert threats, especially poison. Jovan is the "proofer"—the preparer or tester of everything the ruler eats or drinks, aided in this task by his incredible memory. Kalina should have had Jovan's role, but her physical frailty forbade it; her determination led her to learn other aspects of spycraft from their teacher and uncle, Etan. Idealistic, good-hearted Tain is their childhood friend—and the heir to the powerful Chancellor position. When Etan and the old Chancellor both fall to poison, Jovan, Kalina, and Tain are all thrust into responsibilities they thought were years away. The three friends must question everything they know about their world and each other as they struggle to solve the murders of their predecessors, keep the city from falling to a rebel army, outwit career politicians twice their age, and survive ongoing threats on their lives. A tightly wound and ever escalating plot is complemented by the cast's refreshing nuances—Jovan is implied to be on the autism spectrum, and Kalina's training as a spy hasn't made her superhuman, just all the more conscious of her limitations. None of the main characters are terribly good at inflicting violence on other people but must rely on their wits, charm, and moral compasses to overcome their more ruthless enemies. Even when magic comes into play the story never loses its essentially human and relatable scale, making it stand out from more sprawling, cinematic fare.
A well-crafted debut with believable political intrigues, solid worldbuilding, and original characters.Pub Date: July 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7653-9689-1
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
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
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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