An exhilarating tale for fans of sword and sorcery, fantasy, and rich worldbuilding.
Ostracized for his uncontrollable, three-word outbursts, a boy comes of age in a realm filled with magic, evil, and warring gods in this debut novel.
A boy named Larin spends most of his time in a four-block area of a slum known as the Wormpile, a patch kept safe by his uncle, Akul, a formidable ex-warrior with a drug problem. Whenever Larin ventures out of this zone, he is harassed by gangs of bullies sanctioned by Oarl, who rules the Wormpile streets beyond Akul’s bailiwick. Larin loves to read and eventually learns that the mysterious words he speaks mean “The Lord Escapes His Prison.” Eventually, Akul employs Laniette, a wizardress, who suppresses Larin’s verbal eruptions. But during an attack at his uncle’s tavern/temple, the boy’s emotions cause him to speak the words in front of a priest and he is banished from the sanctuary. Later, Larin finds love in Onie, a girl he once thought unattainable, as Laniette teaches him how to wield the power his words bring and find his place in an upcoming struggle to save all of humanity. Meanwhile, war brews on many fronts of Larin’s city. The Lidathi threaten the northern border; to the south, the once-conquered Seridor ominously assemble. Inside the borders, the Morphasti use Nazi-like tactics to set people against one another. In this first installment of a fantasy duology, Rodgers creates an intricate world of fabulous creatures, diverse deities, colorful locales, and spectacular battles. His characters, whether human or Lidathi, are empathetic, realistic individuals. The author’s writing style is spot-on for this fantastic tale, never straying into the type of heroic language that can often turn into a parody of itself. Rather, the prose is crisp and image-filled: “The day Larin first exploded was one of flint skies and a fog that mercifully shrouded the Wormpile’s trash-filled alleys.” Additionally, relationships are well-developed; perhaps the most intriguing is the bond between Lidathi leader Kemharak and his captive Theralle, Lainette’s husband—which leads to an exciting cliffhanger conclusion.
An exhilarating tale for fans of sword and sorcery, fantasy, and rich worldbuilding.Pub Date: March 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9983616-1-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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