A vigorous, first-rate sequel.
Teenagers on a strange planet search for a way back to Earth while battling villainous slavers in this second installment of Gale’s (World of Dawn: Arise, 2017, etc.) YA sci-fi series.
In the previous book, set in 2017, 17-year-old Tanner; his friends Colby and Simon; and sisters, Anna and Tabby, got in a car accident and somehow found themselves on the World of Dawn. The new planet has its share of dangers, particularly giant creatures, such as horse-sized scorpions. But the group has fortunately made a few allies, such as Glooscap of the Sawnay people. He, Tanner, and all of the others are journeying to meet with the mysterious Women of the North, who may be able to help the teens get back to Earth. Then they receive a message from the Sawnay village, saying that a traitorous man named Cawop is manipulating the people into appointing him the new chief. As the group debates changing direction toward the village, they stumble upon some evil slavers attacking a band of nomads called the Denoon. Tanner and the others thwart the assault, but a slaver abducts one of Tanner’s friends and escapes, which precipitates a rescue mission. When it becomes clear that the slavers are plotting “to wipe out the Denoon,” Glooscap and the teens must decide to either move on or stay and fight. Gale’s boisterous series entry is brimming with danger; at one point, Tanner even discovers that the enigmatic One Who Sees All has put a bounty on him, personally. The teens—and readers—continue to learn more about the World of Dawn, encountering familiar mythological creatures and fellow Earthlings from past eras, including one man from the year 1070. Bloody action scenes abound, resulting in the death of a member of Tanner’s group. However, the author does occasionally offset the violence with humor; in one standout scene, for instance, Tanner faces a brutish slaver who’s listening to Michael Jackson’s 1982 song “Thriller” on an apparently stolen Sony Walkman. The novel ends with lingering questions and undeterred baddies, with an eye toward a future installment.
A vigorous, first-rate sequel.Pub Date: April 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5434-2521-5
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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