A darker, more grounded entry—with a royal hero—that approaches this strong saga from a new angle.
This third volume of Neill’s (The Voyage of the Elawn, 2016, etc.) fantasy series focuses on a young prince desperate to heal the malady that makes him an outsider.
Queen Airre’ Soliegh of Antas died giving birth to Prince Haille Hillbourne. Also known as the King’s Woe, the child suffers seizures and must be bound in his crib. When Yana Yansalyl, a newly appointed member of the King’s Council, arrives at the castle, she soothes a crying Haille while storms rage outside. Eleven years later, the young prince considers Yana his foster mother, but the curse of his seizures has left him taunted and guilt-ridden. After an incident involving Katlyn Barnes, a classmate from the Academy House, Haille must work in the library as punishment. He encounters a folio that mentions the Font of Jasmeen, “a boon to those afflicted with sicknesses and maladied from birth. For those who touch its waters will be granted any wish.” He also runs into Katlyn again, who convinces him to steal the page naming the Font’s location on Morbright Mountain. Later, Haille finds his father’s letter requesting that the prince be accommodated at Master Chambridge’s home for the afflicted. Rather than face this fate, Haille and Katlyn escape Antas and journey east to find the miraculous Font. In this third Elk Riders adventure, Neill turns from his heroine Gabriella and explores the wider realm of Anthor, where armies mobilize and the legendary vigilante Avenger Red proves “the bane of child slavers.” Fans accustomed to the author’s lilting, evocative prose won’t be disappointed: “the wind made a soft whistle in the branches and summer fattened spiders spun shining webs in the windows of crypts.” This volume revels in more swordsmanship than sorcery, giving Haille’s allies Cody Youngblood, Valateen Mandaly, and the elk Adamantus a workout. The line “Man is not measured by his brawn only but how he can love and be loved by others” appears early, hinting at the tender finale.
A darker, more grounded entry—with a royal hero—that approaches this strong saga from a new angle.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5391-6566-8
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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