An exciting, action-packed fourth installment to a series that keeps getting better.
The fourth book in Duff's (Off Beat, 2017, etc.) Weir Chronicles brings together allies old and new as the battle to save two worlds from an evil clan leader continues.
In the last book, Ian Black learned that the Primary, the leader of the Pur, is as scheming and manipulative as his Duach brother, Aeros. Ian, the Pur Heir, has struck up an uneasy alliance with the Duach rebels, including their Heir, Jaered. They plan to join forces against Aeros, who plans to finish draining the core energy of Earth and his homeworld, Thrae. But before they can do so, Ian wants to go to Thrae to find Rayne, the woman he loves; he learns that she’s in the company of Gwynn, the mother that Ian’s never met. Meanwhile, on Earth, Jaered is teaching the newly risen third Heir, Patrick, how to control his powers, such as teleportation (“shyfting”) and generating energy blasts. It’s slow going—Patrick believed that he was human before he learned that his mother is actually the Duach rebel leader Eve, and he’s still shocked by his true heritage. As all three Heirs and their friends prepare for a final, decisive battle against Aeros and the Primary, new secrets will be revealed. Earlier volumes in this sci-fi series sometimes suffered from a surfeit of exposition and too little forward momentum. This time around, though, Duff’s world is fully fleshed out, allowing for a quick-moving plot that spans multiple locations and even multiple dimensions. Although the cast of characters hasn’t gotten any smaller, they’re all well-developed enough to avoid confusion. Duff is especially adept at action scenes—the book’s many pitched battles are a joy to read—and Rayne and Ian’s romance, which was neglected in the previous book, effectively returns to the forefront here.
An exciting, action-packed fourth installment to a series that keeps getting better.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9970156-4-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: CrossWinds Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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