A satisfying installment of a YA adaptation of an ancient Indian epic.
Sheth (Shadows of the Sun Dynasty, 2016, etc.) focuses on the exploits of Rama in this second volume of the Sita’s Fire Trilogy.
In the continuation of her retelling of the Ramayana for YA readers, the author recounts the exile of the green-skinned Rama and his powerful wife, Sita, to the forest, away from the civilized lands of the Ayodhyans. The son of King Dasharatha, Rama was meant to ascend to the throne before Dasharatha’s wife, the devious Kaikeyi, engineered that the heir be banished for 14 years. With his new bride and his brother Lakshmana, Rama wanders in the wilderness. It is a time of adventure and growth for the hero: battling his perennial enemies, the blood-drinkers, and encountering wondrous creatures such as the giant Viradha, the vulture king Jatayu, and Shurpanakha, sister of the demon king Ravana. Rama gains the experience he will need if he is ever to fulfill his family’s prophecy: that a man of his line will be the one to finally kill Ravana, the 10-headed king of the blood-drinkers (“Every son of the Sun dynasty since Anaranya felt the burden of those words: would he be the one to do the unimaginable and slay Ravana?”). With Sita by his side, Rama feels prepared to meet any challenge. If he were to lose her, however, his destiny might be forever altered, and this is a fact that has not escaped Ravana’s notice. Accompanied by the delightful full-color illustrations of Johansson, this installment of Sheth’s trilogy replicates the immersive world enjoyed by readers in the previous volume. The author adeptly fleshes these ancient mythological figures into rounded, relatable characters who feel as human as any other in contemporary YA fantasy. Sita, with her complex emotions and conflicted history, is an especially compelling personality, and Sheth gives her ample page time to tell her story in her own words. Whether readers are familiar with the Ramayana—an Indian epic that has been popular throughout South Asia and beyond for centuries—or they are discovering these characters for the first time, the novel delivers time-tested stories playing out against a distinctive fantasy world.
A satisfying installment of a YA adaptation of an ancient Indian epic.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60887-660-0
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Mandala Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.
This debut novel, the first of a projected trilogy, blends science fiction, fantasy, gothic chiller, and classic house-party mystery.
Gideon Nav, a foundling of mysterious antecedents, was not so much adopted as indentured by the Ninth House, a nearly extinct noble necromantic house. Trained to fight, she wants nothing more than to leave the place where everyone despises her and join the Cohort, the imperial military. But after her most recent escape attempt fails, she finally gets the opportunity to depart the planet. The heir and secret ruler of the Ninth House, the ruthless and prodigiously talented bone adept Harrowhark Nonagesimus, chooses Gideon to serve her as cavalier primary, a sworn bodyguard and aide de camp, when the undying Emperor summons Harrow to compete for a position as a Lyctor, an elite, near-immortal adviser. The decaying Canaan House on the planet of the absent Emperor holds dark secrets and deadly puzzles as well as a cheerfully enigmatic priest who provides only scant details about the nature of the competition...and at least one person dedicated to brutally slaughtering the competitors. Unsure of how to mix with the necromancers and cavaliers from the other Houses, Gideon must decide whom among them she can trust—and her doubts include her own necromancer, Harrow, whom she’s loathed since childhood. This intriguing genre stew works surprisingly well. The limited locations and narrow focus mean that the author doesn’t really have to explain how people not directly attached to a necromantic House or the military actually conduct daily life in the Empire; hopefully future installments will open up the author’s creative universe a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the novel turns out to be the prickly but intimate relationship between Gideon and Harrow, bound together by what appears at first to be simple hatred. But the challenges of Canaan House expose other layers, beginning with a peculiar but compelling mutual loyalty and continuing on to other, more complex feelings, ties, and shared fraught experiences.
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31319-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.
More steampunk adventures of a samurai prognosticator, his clockwork octopus, and his human lovers.
Five years after her charming debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (2015), Pulley brings back the main characters for another scramble through the dangers and consequences of clairvoyance. Readers of the first book already know the big reveal: that Keita Mori—the eponymous London watchmaker—has an unusual memory that works both backward and forward. (Readers new to the series should put this book down and start with Watchmaker.) This time Pulley sets the action principally in Japan, where Mori; Thaniel Steepleton, a British translator and diplomat; Grace Carrow Matsumoto, a physicist; and Takiko Pepperharrow, a Kabuki actress and baroness, are working together to foil a samurai’s power grab and turn away a Russian invasion. At least, that’s what Mori’s doing; the others are rushing blindly down paths he’s laid out for them, which may or may not get them where he wants them to go. But if Mori knows what’s coming and what steps they can take to change the future, why doesn’t he just tell them what to do? The answer is half satisfying (because, as in any complicated relationship, communication isn’t always easy; because the characters have wills of their own and might not obey) and half irritating (because if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a story). Pulley’s witty writing and enthusiastically deployed steampunk motifs—clockwork, owls, a mechanical pet, Tesla-inspired electrical drama—enliven a plot that drags in the middle before rushing toward its explosive end. Perhaps more interesting than the plot are the relationships. The characters revolve through a complex pattern of marriages of passion and convenience, sometimes across and sometimes within genders and cultures, punctuated by jealousy and interesting questions about trust.
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63557-330-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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