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
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
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