A creative and somewhat offbeat blend of fantasy and SF.
In Lantz’s YA series starter set in a steampunk-ish, magical world, a teenager gathers a band of unlikely heroes to save the world.
Ozwyn “Oz” Ashwood is the heir to the throne of the Dominion of Ashwood, but he’s hiding a dangerous secret. Although he’s Inclined—part of the magical elite—he’s also what people in his culture call a “mute,” as he doesn’t have full control over when or how his powers manifest. He would have ordinarily been put to death, but instead, his father kept his secret and sent him off to Ancona Academy for the Magically Inclined. The story begins when Oz is suddenly kidnapped as part of a sinister plot to start a war with the Dominion of Ashwood; just as quickly, Mal, a fellow student from the Academy, rescues him. She’s an advanced Hexer, with the power to inflict and cure physical ailments. Oz finds her “radiant,” with her “porcelain skin dotted with a tapestry of freckles, [and] silky raven hair highlighted the color of a ripe plum.” He strikes a deal with her in which she will agree to be his bodyguard if he rescues two missing girls. Together with Oz’s hulking cousin, Kyp, they embark on an investigation, finding links to a vast conspiracy as they progress. Eventually, Oz learns that he has a very unusual power: He’s a Familiarist, with “a rare type of magic that allows you to transfer your soul into the body of another creature.” Lantz’s novel is written from Oz’s first-person perspective, which provides readers with a useful point of entry into the fictional world, and it gives the work an engaging, self-deprecating tone that offers levity at just the right moments. The magical school feels a bit derivative, and it strongly brings Hogwarts to mind, but because the book doesn’t spend much time on it, it isn’t overly distracting. The plot gets a bit into the weeds when Oz discovers his new power, but it’s otherwise fast-paced and engaging. Steampunk elements, such as airships, add an intriguing thread that sets this book a bit apart from similar tales.
A creative and somewhat offbeat blend of fantasy and SF.Pub Date: March 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798992832501
Page Count: 250
Publisher: SmallPub
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2025
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
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
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