A relatively strong offering that should appeal both to those who like their fantasy cynical and those who prefer it...
Prejudice against magic and the secret powermongering of a goddess continue to have repercussions in the second installment of a high fantasy trilogy.
The goddess Akosh’s existence depends on worshipers, and her chosen devotees are orphans. Therefore, she must continue to stir up war and chaos to create more of them. But her stoking of hatred against magic users, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Red Tower, a school for mages, is attracting unwanted attention from vengeful mages, law enforcement officers and governments of multiple countries, and her fellow divine beings, who have sworn not to intervene in mortal concerns. Can she and her network of followers survive the onslaught of the many parties determined to shut them down? And what of the anonymous god who has offered her an alliance; might accepting his help prove more dangerous than refusing it? Meanwhile, the young survivors of the Red Tower seek various new paths, some avenging themselves against the nonmagical people who hate and fear them, one falling under the sway of an ambitious politician, and others forming a community of magic users who at first try to remain secret but ultimately can’t help interfering in the local bandit situation despite the ingratitude of those they rescue. This book is blessedly freer than the prior volume of clunky attempts to associate the story’s issues and events with contemporary political and social problems, other than a relatively well-done exploration of the poisonous consequences of prejudice and how it can be exploited for gain. This is a fairly solid middle volume, with good action sequences, plausible character development, and enough dangling plotlines to motivate the reader to pick up the conclusion. One might certainly hope that Book 3 will clarify the currently murky motivations of Garvey, a mage who deliberately set himself up as a villain.
A relatively strong offering that should appeal both to those who like their fantasy cynical and those who prefer it sentimental.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-55481-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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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