A slow-moving saga about a beleaguered hero that has yet to catch fire, but shows glimmers of the rip-roaring yarn it could...
Satis’ debut fantasy epic offers a multifaceted tale of darkness and flame, forgotten lands and vanished peoples, corrupt nobles and determined rebels.
The night that Brandyé Dui-Erâth was born, his home burned to the ground around him, killing his parents but leaving him mysteriously unharmed. Growing up with his grandfather Reuel Tolkaï, Brandyé becomes a village outcast, with a boy named Elven Dottery his only friend. As the two boys mature, they discover the vanity and dishonesty of the local nobles, and find themselves caught up in a growing rebellion. At one point, Brandyé observes: “I had no idea our world was one of such terrifying corruption. My grandfather has always spoken of terrible things outside of Consolation, but right here people are dying for nothing but greed!” But dissent is dangerous, doubly so when magical forces and prophetic dreams are involved. When a rescue plan goes horribly awry, Brandyé finds himself alone, without friends or allies. Because the powerful ruler Lord Garâth remains a ruthless and unforgiving man, Brandyé will need more than luck if he is to retain his freedom. He will face even more trouble if, as he suspects, the vengeful lord embraces the dark forces that are slowly encroaching on Consolation. To survive, will Brandyé have to journey beyond the borders of Consolation, into the wild lands ruled by Darkness and strange beasts? Brandyé is the sort of protagonist who is well drawn and competent, while still making understandable mistakes that drive the plot and his development. Unfortunately, that’s not always enough to propel the plot swiftly. Brandyé takes a very long time growing up. That said, Reuel and Elven and their relationships to Brandyé significantly enhance the long beginning of the novel, the first of a projected series. Reuel proves especially intriguing, for it is his stories and writings that sketch in the majority of the wider landscapes beyond their village. And the worldbuilding remains compelling enough to make one wish for more than the bits and bobs that come through, although it seems likely that a great deal more will be revealed about this wondrous realm in future installments.
A slow-moving saga about a beleaguered hero that has yet to catch fire, but shows glimmers of the rip-roaring yarn it could be.Pub Date: July 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4917-3791-0
Page Count: 372
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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