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 somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
Perfectly fine despite second-book syndrome.
Cerúlia must grow up and learn to fight for her destiny in Kozloff’s (A Queen in Hiding, 2020) second Nine Realms novel.
Her mother, the Queen of Weirandale, is dead, and Cerúlia isn’t a child any more. She’s left her adoptive peasant family in order to escape evil Lord Matwyck’s clutches and eventually escapes Weirandale altogether. Using her ability to talk to animals and several bird-related aliases, Cerúlia manages to trek her way over the mountains and into the nation of Oromondo. Cerúlia knows that the Oros killed her mother, and she wants to avenge her death. She’s heard of a group of raiders who work to disrupt the Oros as they invade and pillage neighboring nations. When Cerúlia finally manages to find them and convince them to let her join up, she discovers not only new friends, but a newfound sense of purpose. But is any of that enough to win back her throne or even save herself from the Oro army? Interspersed with Cerúlia’s plotline are various threads centering on the Oro army and people, Lord Matwyck’s kindhearted son, and the raiders themselves. This is the second of a four-part series, and, as such, it falls into the expected pitfalls. The self-contained plot works, but it inevitably feels more like a buildup to further books in the series than its own story. It rises above filler, though, and Kozloff is clearly laying the groundwork for something good, particularly with the very last chapter.
Perfectly fine despite second-book syndrome.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16856-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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