An often compelling story of Satan’s falls, despite some hackneyed plot devices.
McElroy follows in John Milton’s footsteps in this slick, contemporary recreation of the war for heaven.
Readers have probably heard this story before: An upstart angel gets too big for his britches and attempts a heavenly coup. War ensues, but chaos is averted as hordes of superpowerful rebels are thrown into a fiery pit. That McElroy has the courage to take on this oft-told tale speaks both to his daring and to his ambition. Often, he’s up to his divine task. He writes confidently—sometimes brilliantly—and his story of arrogance, spite and betrayal has a truly epic feel (“A path had just been paved for angels to look at their own desire and decide what they were missing”). As readers shuttle between the two camps, they’ll think as often of Homer as of the Bible. However, when the author zooms in and focuses on individual characters, his touch is less deft. Unlike Milton’s Satan—whose diabolical allure is part of the thrill of his 1667 poem Paradise Lost—McElroy’s Lucifer is overweening and cardboard flat. All thoughtless pride, he makes his first appearance in the novel as quite literally a rock star, playing a heavenly guitar solo only to seethe when he’s upstaged by God; “I am the highest angel in Heaven,” he mutters. Readers next find him overseeing the construction of his own throne, asking a minion if it is “worthy of sitting next to God’s.” The Lord is also somewhat two-dimensional and has the trite habit of speaking in Bible verses. However, the author’s characterization of Lucifer’s foil, Gabriel, is subtler and thus more gripping; like the Amish craftspeople who leave a flaw in each quilt, the humble angel resists perfection. It’s a nice touch, but the novel can’t help pounding it home—sometimes quite literally: Working on a heavenly building, for example, Gabriel knocks a joist slightly askew, and walking by a pristine stream in paradise, he kicks dirt into the flow. Overall, McElroy’s retelling of the traditional Christian tale is detailed and sometimes thrilling; however, it might have been excellent if it had been a bit more original.
An often compelling story of Satan’s falls, despite some hackneyed plot devices.Pub Date: March 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1612541549
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
