A challenging read outside of mainstream contemporary sci-fi, but readers with a fondness for the early classics will find...
Iyyam’s sci-fi novel, the first in a planned trilogy, has hints of Dune and Discworld as a destiny is fulfilled amid an interplanetary war between the peoples of Prul and Bekod.
Siglez Ipt falls to the ground on his home planet of Prul with no knowledge of where he’s been for the last decade. Sped on his way by a seemingly omniscient Playwright, who appears to be writing Siglez’s story like the Fates of Greek mythology, Siglez is greeted as a prophesied leader in Afadral. He’s given three tests to prove that he is fit to lead his people on their quest to obtain a seed from the sacred Johr tree on the neighboring planet of Bekod. After passing the tests with suspicious ease, he survives an assassination attempt by the aBekod military leader Intak Jav and then heads into a ritualistic set of battles overseen by Tirla Kto and Sra Ja, the Minders of the respective iPrulautu and aBekod armies. But it seems that the Johr tree might have a stake in the matter. The space-opera plot doesn’t feel too original, and the prose often recalls the flowery, high diction of early 20th-century sci-fi, à la E.R. Eddings or even C.S. Lewis. Meanwhile, the Mars-like landscape and fauna of Prul recall that of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom, and the 60-plus pages of appendices, maps and local linguistics echo Tolkien. However, the occasional flashes of humor and descents into the vernacular, as well as commentary on writing and storytelling, might leave readers wondering: Is this old-fashioned fantasy or a satirical take on it? Are the tongue-twisting names and phrases in darnathuPrul and SeloBekod (thankfully, translated) to be taken seriously, or are they—as parts of the story imply—parodies of sci-fi/fantasy excesses? Is this a confusing, convoluted book or a cleverly written spoof of one?
A challenging read outside of mainstream contemporary sci-fi, but readers with a fondness for the early classics will find themselves right at home.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491713570
Page Count: 414
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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