A densely packed middle-grade fantasy.
Gorgons and centaurs and gnomes, oh, my! Young Arthur Grey and the Spyglass Squad must solve a riddle and find an ancient relic.
Finnish (The Society’s Traitor, 2012) sets his second novel about a mystical secret society, Historia, on a fictional island near Crete called Elysium. Twelve-year-old Arthur, his talking dog, Griffin, and his pals, the Spyglass Squad, go there to train. Historia has been plagued by a series of unsolved robberies, losing its investors in the process. Arthur is not just an Initiate there; he’s also a Relic Guardian descended from ancient Nordics. During his long hours of folklore lessons, he longs to learn the secrets of Guarding. One of many odd characters on Elysium, the bulging-eyed Ms. Featherweit, introduces the Initiates to a papyrus sheet covered with a mixture of Hittite, Minoan and Greek symbols—as well as symbols not yet identified. These unknown symbols turn out to be written in an obscure ancient language and are rumored to be the key to locating an undersea labyrinth and the fabled Minotaur, who guards a valuable ancient relic. Arthur and his reluctant friends take it upon themselves to locate the labyrinth and get the relic before a saboteur does, so that Historia will once again be secure. The plot is cluttered with trivia and references to Arthur’s first adventure in Peru, and readers may find it hard at times to follow his character development. Nevertheless, the initially timid Arthur eventually encounters a variety of creatures, perseveres through jousts and sea-horse races and eludes a mysterious white ghost. The real message Arthur has to learn is given to him by a faun: “Brains over strength and giving over greed.” Despite similarities to the Harry Potter series and its plethora of creatures, myth and history, Finnish is a dedicated, inventive author, and many young fantasy devotees will find this novel intriguing once it truly gets underway.
A densely packed middle-grade fantasy.Pub Date: June 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0985220235
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Panama Hat Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
For a novel so filled with debauchery, it could use a few more real thrills.
After his father’s death, Simon Powell moves from sleepy Sibley, Ark., to Los Angeles, where he’s pulled into a seedy underworld.
When Simon Powell was 17, he left home to join the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. He had never considered himself religious, but he hoped the church would help him repress his homosexuality and hide the fact that he was gay from his conservative family. Ultimately, Simon can’t deny who he is and so abandons the church after 10 years. He returns to Arkansas, but when his father dies, he moves to L.A. to reunite with old friends. Once there, he drinks heavily, goes out every night and picks up a cocaine habit. Simon’s friends come and go, many after screwing him over in some way, and his lovers are all interchangeable hustlers. The portrayal of a party boy’s surfeit of sex, drugs and money may be an accurate representation of the ’80s, but it doesn’t make it any more interesting. All of Simon’s relationships are with people who just want drugs or money from him. It’s difficult to become invested in any of the characters; they have no attachment to him and his attraction to them, romantic or otherwise, is equally superficial. He repeatedly makes the same bad decisions in his personal life, readily trusting people who will obviously take advantage of him. When he hits rock bottom after going on a crack binge with yet another young hustler, it’s not surprising or upsetting. One of the most interesting aspects of Simon’s story, his membership in the Unification Church, is not explored enough. He summarizes his time there, but provides disappointingly few memories or specific details.
For a novel so filled with debauchery, it could use a few more real thrills.Pub Date: May 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615559575
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Simon Says
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An interesting yarn in need of a thorough edit and a better exploration of the main character’s motives and personae.
Nelson’s adventure thriller is the captivating story of a dedicated young ethnobotanist lured to work for a wealthy Texas research institute by her former mentor.
Diane, a promising professor who specializes in tropical miracle drugs, finds herself languishing at a Pennsylvania university. Her older husband, Vincent, appears to have a flourishing career, yet his grant funding has been cut. Unexpectedly, the two career academics receive an invitation to a Christmas yacht party in Galveston Bay. Nelson makes it easy to understand why Diane and Vincent leave cold, dreary Pittsburgh for a warm, fantastic world filled with escaped chimpanzees, spectacular sailboats and white-pillared mansions. But their carefree vacation doesn’t last long. Vincent suspects that the director of the institute has murdered one of his former researchers. Nelson writes fluidly, drawing in readers. The novel effortlessly combines romance, drama and science. Fewer scientific anecdotes, however, would improve readability; the narrative lags until Nelson returns to her protagonists. By the time Nelson does pull back to Vincent and Diane, the couple’s marriage has come apart. After Vincent’s boat is reported missing, Diane finally begins to believe that her new employers are corrupt. Implausibly, she stays on in Texas, planning a trip to the Colombian jungle. As Diane inches closer to Colombia, the clichéd descriptions and stock situations mount. These weary the reader and render the story less believable. Finally, Diane reaches her destination, where she reunites with her mentor, Olimpia. As the setting moves into a dream world of a mountainous cloud forest, the novel assumes a rambling quality before its abrupt ending; an ending that includes too many loose ends, possibly reserved for a sequel.
An interesting yarn in need of a thorough edit and a better exploration of the main character’s motives and personae.Pub Date: May 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1466467484
Page Count: 306
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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