A solid continuation of a promising fantasy epic; briefly stutters and then accelerates.
Satis (The Redemption of Erâth: History of Erâth, 2015, etc.) continues the epic tale of darkness and death, evil magic and betrayal and ventures further into forgotten lands, among strange peoples.
Brandyé Dui-Erâth has been exiled from his native land, Consolation, one of the last realms not subjugated by evil creatures or dark magic. At first, it’s a struggle merely to survive. After much wandering, however, Brandyé again discovers civilization—such as it is—and cruelty and bondage. He also finds allies, like the kind Khana, and, eventually, in another land, his old friend Elven. The duo is joined by Elyn, a woman he had before seen only in dreams. Together, they must journey to yet another land in hopes of defeating the Duithèn, embodiments of Darkness, before the last of Elyn’s people, embodiments of Light, fade away. It may be that to stop the darkness, Brandyé must find the legendary weapon Namrâth, or it may be some secret power locked within himself. Whichever it is, knowledge and potential allies lie in other, further lands, perhaps in the Kingdom of Erârün, the lands of the Dragon Lords, or beyond. If he can find them. The various lands and beings Brandyé encounters are worldbuilding at full throttle. The different set pieces of history and myth enrich the story, almost to the point of distracting from the plot, which hovers in place during hefty infodumps. It’s a welcome change from the previous book, which skimped on background detail. The inclusion of Elven is welcome; it propels the dramatic thrust of the last book (amid yet more new information) and acts as an interesting counterpoint to Elyn, whose mysterious connection to Brandyé only deepens.
A solid continuation of a promising fantasy epic; briefly stutters and then accelerates.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5234-3687-3
Page Count: 500
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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