An entertaining adventure novel flooded with manic action.
Kestrel’s debut historical novel follows young Finn from his Scandinavian homeland to the ranks of the Rangers in the new America.
When brash young reporter Henry Raymond travels upstate from New York City to a remote Catskills resort to seek out the elusive and legendary Mr. Morton, Morton recounts for him in epic detail the story of Finn, a young Scandinavian. Born into a small, rustic village in the Finnish countryside, Finn longs for the life of a warrior and hunter, but he’s held back from his ambitions by his mother who does not want him to inherit the deadly fate of his warrior-father, which she has painstakingly withheld from Finn. Fate proves to have an ironic twist, however, as Finn’s village is sacked by invading Russians and Hessian mercenaries. Finn’s instincts enable him to survive the onslaught while most of his fellow villagers are killed, including his mother and his young love. While being chased out of Finland by Johan Kopf and his men, Finn takes to a life at sea until he lands in Britain. Once again proving his bravery on the battlefield, Finn loses hope of becoming an officer in the British army when he is pressed into the navy on a slave ship bound for America. Finn’s encounters in America include meeting George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, but when he becomes an Army Ranger at Fort Edward in upstate New York, the pace falters. The novel, set in the late 18th century, is stylistically more like medieval romances of King Arthur’s court. Events and time move quickly; little time is spent on setting or emotional state (though there is plenty of explicitly detailed violence), and characters often appear suddenly, without context or introduction. While this keeps the adventure and action moving, the convenient manifestations of Finn’s enemies appear contrived. The frame around the story eventually reveals an interesting narrative twist. One cannot help but admire Finn’s resilience, despite his melancholic musings.
An entertaining adventure novel flooded with manic action.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615730080
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Timothy Kestrel Arts & Media
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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