The plot thickens and danger mounts in the series’ best installment thus far.
Revelations abound in this third volume of Duff’s (Off Beat, 2017, etc.) Weir Chronicles as erstwhile magician Ian Black learns that he may be just a pawn in someone else’s game.
Earth is in grave danger, as evil Duach leader Aeros is draining its core, causing worldwide storms and earthquakes. In his role as Pur Heir, Ian must fight these forces by drawing on his own supernatural connection to the Earth. A summons lures him to Africa, where an experiment with lightning supercharges his own “core”—the source of his powers. Then Aeros’ son Jaered, the Duach Heir, shoots him with a dart that causes his core to overheat, leaving him close to death. His only chance at survival is Rayne, the woman he loves but is unable to touch due to her unique power-draining abilities. She’s already moved out of Ian’s mansion, despairing of their relationship ever succeeding, but his friends persuade her to come back and attempt to drain his core completely, despite significant risks. Later, she travels to Thrae, the Weir’s home dimension, and is shocked to learn of the existence of another Heir from Ian’s mother, Gwynn, among other news. She and her sisters—Jaered’s mother, Sophenna, and rebel leader Eve—hatched a plan long ago to “bring down two tyrants and set our worlds back on an evolutionary track that should never have been tampered with.” Duff definitely hits her stride in this book, as several deep secrets come to light. A change of scenery to Thrae proves to be especially effective, giving the reader further insight into the Weir’s history and way of life. As Ian and Rayne’s romance takes a back seat, Rayne’s decision to attempt to heal him becomes a crucial turning point for them both. The new setting and plot developments are both surprising and compelling, and they bring fresh life to a series that had begun to run low on conflict. At the end, Duff leaves plenty of questions that readers will want to see answered in subsequent books.
The plot thickens and danger mounts in the series’ best installment thus far.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9970156-0-7
Page Count: 348
Publisher: CrossWinds Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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