Solid, if unexceptional.
A conspiracy to eliminate magic threatens all the lands of the west in Part 1 of a sequel series to The Age of Darkness trilogy (Chaosmage, 2016, etc.).
Ten years after the Sorcerer Balfruss defeated the evil mage known as the Warlock and ended a devastating war, most people still fear magic’s destructive power. When a golden-masked Seeker discovers magical ability in a child, many would rather see that child dead rather than whisked off to the mysterious Red Tower to hone their powers. Overt resistance to magic and Seekers is growing, secretly encouraged by anti-magic fanatic Torran Habreel and his network of operatives. Unbeknownst to Habreel, one of those operatives includes a power-hungry goddess exploiting Habreel’s campaign for her own purposes. Meanwhile, a small group of mages and their allies struggle to stem the tide of rising prejudice and hate before it’s too late. The characters—especially a young student mage seeking to understand her place in the world and an ambitious investigator with a dark past—are relatable, and the story moves along at a decent, action-punctuated clip. However, readers who look to fantasy for escapism probably won’t find it here: our news feeds are already full of zealous, furious mobs who hate those they perceive as different, their bigotry stoked by the powermongers who seek to profit from it. Those who enjoy exploring current social ills through a fantastic lens might find this book of interest if they accept the not-so-subtextual association of magical gifts with homosexuality—magical kids are “born that way,” but Habreel suggests that Seekers are actually making kids magical instead of simply sensing the magic within them, similar to the way homophobes believe adult gay people indoctrinate children into their “lifestyle.” At one point, the author even uses the phrase “don’t ask, don’t tell,” albeit in a different context. But this association isn’t particularly fresh, either, having been amply explored by the X-Men comics for decades.
Solid, if unexceptional.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-55478-7
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
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
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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