Offers an enjoyable romp for high fantasy fans, but lacks rounded characters.
Stephenson and Tedrick (War of the Staffs, 2016) deliver a second installment in their saga of swords, sorcery, and the depths of space.
Picking up where the previous novel left off, the war-torn planet Muiria remains under the threat of Lord Taza, a vampire warlock with the magic staff of a dark goddess and a mighty army. Still, Prince Tarquin—prophesied to destroy Taza—the wizard Celedant, the elven rebel Morganna, and others continue to oppose the vampire, despite his best efforts to kill them. Now the race is on for the virtuous forces to find the lost piece of the Staff of Adaman and turn the tide before it’s too late. At the same time, good and evil engage in a complex dance of coalitions and politics, as each group attempts to bolster its alliances, and Taza tries to frighten the nations of light into inaction. The vampire also plans to travel “through the void in search of new and greater creatures to pit against” Prince Tarquin and his band and “to contact the Shadow Lords.” As tension mounts, the heroes grow closer and learn to lean on one another for support, and sometimes more. But close bonds and noble intentions alone cannot stave off the sinister warriors in the field or the destruction when the two sides finally clash. As in the first volume, complex battle scenes and the myriad races, cultures, and powers in Muiria are strong selling points, and during the quest for the Staff of Adaman, the audience sees even more of this rich, intriguing world. Unfortunately, while the broad scope and multiple perspectives will appeal to some readers, the details may be overwhelming for others, and anyone attempting to read this book as a stand-alone will likely get lost. Additionally, the prose is awkward and excessively specific at times, which can draw readers out of this Tolkien-esque epic: “The prince’s frantic retreat had foiled a deadly blow from her scimitar, aimed at his exposed neck, when he tumbled over a tree root.” Finally, while the story provides more background for the cast’s personal relationships, the characters remain archetypal and simplistic for the most part, making large sections difficult to navigate and showing a lack of depth that plagues the novel as a whole.
Offers an enjoyable romp for high fantasy fans, but lacks rounded characters.Pub Date: July 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61296-905-3
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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