Protracted but deliciously creepy explorations of the macabre.
In Mavrodi’s (Apocalypse, 2013) first installment of a series, the devil’s own son causes multiple grotesque events.
Fishing alongside his trusty Great Dane, Fedor is having a pleasant time until he witnesses a troubling scene: “He recognized the elusive, infernal posture—the icy, frozen restraint and the stillness of the ghoul who had just risen out of the grave.” Fedor flees his campsite only to return the next day and find that his friendly dog has changed (“the stillness of the dog was unnatural”). Fast-forward to Viktor, a computer programmer going through a rough patch with his wife, Masha. After their apartment is visited by a “grim-looking old man,” Viktor is launched into a state of paranoia, amplified by a Great Dane Masha brings home. He dreams his wife has sex with the dog; afterward, Masha and Viktor engage in lovemaking that leaves Viktor feeling “as if it was not him who made love to his own wife but someone else.” Soon, the previously barren Masha announces she is pregnant. Other characters find themselves in similarly fantastic and unfortunate situations; for example, Igor sells his soul on television and deals with the consequences, and Andrey struggles to survive an unforgiving forest. The stories—interspersed with conversations between Lucifer and his son—contain their share of terror and brutality. Fans of Tales from the Crypt-like fare will find a similar world of the hapless and the morbid, such as a man who sees a note, signed by his wife, which approves the use of his body for necrophilia. The dialogue needs trimming (one character explains, “There’s 10 grand in every pack. Here, hundred euro bills in every pack, 100 euros, 100 bills in a pack, 100 times 100—10,000”), but an overall sense of desperation will rivet readers.
Protracted but deliciously creepy explorations of the macabre.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-942981-32-9
Page Count: 498
Publisher: W & B Publishers Inc.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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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