Serviceable prose, and a young protagonist who’s refreshingly unmannered: overall, a smoothly crafted if not highly original...
Stand-alone fantasy, first published in 1996 in the author's native Australia (Hades’ Daughter, 2003).
Young Garth Baxtor, apprentice to his physician father, is gifted with a healing touch above and beyond other healers in the kingdom of Escator. Accompanying his father on his annual mission to the Veins, a mine worked solely by condemned prisoners, Garth discovers that one of the inmates has tattooed on his arm the image of a mythical beast, the Manteceros: a tattoo restricted to the rightful king and to his direct heir. The prisoner can only be Prince Maximillian, who disappeared as a young boy nearly twenty years ago. Shocked, Garth conceals his discovery even from his father; but upon their return home, he begins trying to find out what he can about the Mantoceros—and a strange rhyme the prisoner had recited before Garth had to leave him. With the help of a young marsh girl, Ravenna, who has the power to enter the land of dreams, and of Vorstus, abbot of an order dedicated to the royal house, Garth realizes that King Cavor, current ruler of Escator, must have had Maximillian captured and condemned to the mines (those wearing the Mantoceros tattoo are protected from murder). The three decide that when Garth returns to the Veins with his father, they will free Maximillian so that he can challenge the usurper and, with the help of the Manteceros, perhaps regain his throne. Naturally, there are various complications, a few too many of which long-time fantasy readers are likely to see coming; in the end, the conspirators achieve their goal, justice is restored, and the story ends without any apparent need for a sequel.
Serviceable prose, and a young protagonist who’s refreshingly unmannered: overall, a smoothly crafted if not highly original fantasy.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-765-30449-X
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2003
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
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
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