An LGBT fantasy-tinged story collection that, despite a few stumbles, delights and entertains.
The stories in this collection track a philosophical imp who harvests teeth, a strange creature from the New Jersey Pinelands, a magical yearbook and something sinister in the sewer.
Cecil is an African-American gay teen conflicted about his identity. After a fight at school between another gay youth and a homophobic bully in which the gay lad loses a tooth that Cecil picks up, a tooth sprite shows up in Cecil’s bedroom. He helps Cecil to understand both himself and people’s need to define everything through words. Jameson is a gay youth whose boyfriend sees something down the sewer, something that may be related to an old urban legend. Amelia is a young lesbian who feels she may not have an imagination until she meets Stephanie, who spurs her imagination in the most extreme way possible. These are just a few of the characters in these 13 LGBT young-adult stories. Berman’s Vintage: A Ghost Story (2008) was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy; he brings the same fertile imagination that he employed in that story to many of the entries here. The characters are all gay teenagers. Except for a few, most are happy and secure with themselves and are confident young people, either with a loving partner or seeking one. Thus, like many classic fairy tales, these stories star strong men and women who seek love and happiness in an uncertain world and must overcome obstacles (a fire-breathing dragon or magical yearbook) to find them. The collection shines when it mixes the commonplace with fantasy; without the flash of the unusual, as in “All Smiles” and “Cruel Movember,” the plots fall flat. Stories that abandon the modern aspect completely, such as “Thimbleriggery and Fledglings,” seem forced in their use of imagery and plot. Several tales set in the modern day, such as the quiet, subtle “Three On A Match,” pulse with the excitement and surprise of the best fairy tales.
An LGBT fantasy-tinged story collection that, despite a few stumbles, delights and entertains.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59021-282-0
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gun battles and gore invigorate this amped-up sequel.
In this sequel to Shifters (2014), a pair of superpowered siblings prepare for war against an empire of fascist aliens.
Teens Ryland and Tanner Ascunse of Wethersfield, Connecticut, have just learned that they are Shifters, originally from the planet Gaia. They possess superspeed (among other powers) and belong to a race of aliens that wants to destroy its own children thanks to a prophecy claiming that a child causes the downfall of the Shifters and the rise of the powerless Ordinaries. After defeating an invasion force of adult Shifters in Washington, D.C., Ryland, Tanner, and their small band of superpowered teens are publicly branded as terrorists and blamed for the attack. Once they escape government lockdown, they drive toward their friends’ home, where an army of Shifter kids has gathered to train. Clay, a competent (and gorgeous) pilot, informs them of the step-by-step strategy to wage war against the adult Shifters; this first involves flying to the mining world Six to disrupt the Shifter empire’s fuel supply. Ryland and Tanner, meanwhile, have vengeance on their minds. The villainous Navin slaughtered someone dear to them, and Tanner’s girlfriend, Devon, has been taken hostage. Going on the offensive, the siblings also realize that one of them is surely the child mentioned in the prophecy—and the other is expendable. In the second volume of their epic YA sci-fi series, the Pershings crank up the emotional intensity and violence while trying to keep their protagonists lovable. The teens still mock each other as they trade narration duties; Tanner, for example, tells Ryland, “You can’t just start with us on another planet without explaining how we got here.” There’s also a suitable amount of jaw-dropping detail, like the mention of a Shifter battleship that “creaks and moans as it...stands angled high in the air, impossibly on its end.” Frequently, however, too many supporting characters rotate in and out of focus, and the story feels like a Doctor Who episode on fast-forward. Nevertheless, the fallout from a savage climax asks fresh questions that will lure readers back for the next volume.
Gun battles and gore invigorate this amped-up sequel.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1502921048
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A classical, if uneven, fantasy story in which characters embrace their best selves, virtue triumphs, and selfless love...
A prince and princess learn the value of love and compassion.
In his fantasy novel, Jannetta (Ella-Maria Goes to Heaven, 2013, etc.) introduces Melkio and Elliza, heirs to the kingdoms of South and North Cordiva. Although the two kingdoms are rivals—Melkio’s father kills Elliza’s in the book’s opening pages—the two royals form an immediate bond when they meet as children and later connect as young adults. Melkio, tired of being a disappointment to his father, Esham, runs away and encounters Elliza, who poses as his servant when they find themselves guests of a treacherous noble who tries to usurp Esham’s crown. With Elliza’s help, Melkio defeats the rebellion and learns to forgive his father, and the young couple marry. The story’s focus then shifts to Elliza’s sister Abby, suddenly struck by an unexplained illness and bitter about the limitations it brings to her life. She gradually finds happiness through helping others, including Pastole, son of the traitorous noble and a prisoner in her castle. Elliza and Melkio join Abby and Pastole in a quest for a supernatural cure for Abby’s illness, traveling to an underworld guarded by magical creatures and proving their worthiness through a series of sacrifices. Fans of swordfights and castles will find plenty of both in the tale, along with sweeping pronouncements like “In that singular moment meant for revenge, I instead found clarity.” The writing is bumpy, with both clever turns of phrase (“your generosity will be like waves crashing on the beach”), including well-executed, punlike chapter titles, and clumsy modern lines delivered by quasi-medieval characters (“before I go in there with my guys”). The book is part of the mainstream fantasy tradition, with its world made up of royalty, peasants, and rural communities, and the outcome of clashes between good and evil is predictable. The supernatural element is somewhat incongruous, as it appears only in brief references in the work’s first half, but effectively plays its role in the tale’s resolution.
A classical, if uneven, fantasy story in which characters embrace their best selves, virtue triumphs, and selfless love overcomes all barriers.Pub Date: June 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5301-4585-0
Page Count: 206
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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