First of a new doorstopper fantasy series from the author of Dreamseeker’s Road (1995), etc. Desert kingdom Ixti’s regime is aristocratic; in frigid, neighboring Eron, people are organized into craft guilds confusingly called “clans.” Arrogant young Eronese craftsman Eddyn rapes and impregnates the beautiful Strynn. To preserve the Balance, the Clan chiefs decree that Eddyn’s cousin, Avall, shall wed Strynn, and all three will be posted to Gem-Hold for the winter. Here, they’ll mine gemstones and make articles for King Gynn’s royal regalia. Avall’s sister Merryn, having humiliated Eddyn during ritual war games, goes to War-Hold. Hunting in Ixti, Prince Kraxxi accidentally impales his younger brother, King Barrax’s favorite, and flees. Merryn apprehends Kraxxi and, unaware of his identity, takes him as her lover. Avall, meanwhile, discovers an extraordinary gemstone that feeds on blood (a familiar Deitz icon).When Avall and friend Rann both feed the gem, they’re also able to share their minds! Soon Avall finds that he can telepathically contact Merryn, too! Eddyn continues to skulk and spy on Avall and Strynn; he touches the gem, but it hates him. Avall decides that the Clan bigwigs must be told about the gem, and leaves with Rann. Eddyn does inform trainee priest Rrath about the gem; but Rrath’s clandestinely involved with a secret society that orders the pair to pursue Avall through the snow. Avall, sharing with herder woman Div, learns that the carnivorous birkits are both sentient and telepathic, so when Eddyn and company attack, the birkits defend them. Avall, wounded, falls into an icy river. Kraxxi flees from Merryn, but King Barrax’s chief torturer captures them both. Some promising ideas, set forth at interminable length, with youthful and largely indistinguishable characters; a sketchy backdrop; and not even a token ending. Your move.
Pub Date: April 13, 1999
ISBN: 0-553-37863-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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