Other than the intriguing Judas chapters, the story’s narrated in a bizarre and unconvincing second person, present tense...
Still working the boundaries between YA and adult fantasy, Shetterly offers this long-range follow-up—hardly a sequel—to Dogland (1997).
In Gainesville, Fla., “you,” ninth grader and aspiring artist Christopher Nix, flee a bunch of redneck thugs, and find that you can walk on water—although you swiftly rationalize the experience. You meet and fall for beautiful black girl CC, but she inexplicably vanishes overnight. You then learn that you have a benefactor, the rich and powerful Jay Dumont; thereafter, you continue your schooling at the prestigious Academy. Soon you discover that you indeed posses miraculous powers, including the ability to raise the dead. Dumont avers that you must marry, or at least sleep with, his daughter Heller, although you find you don’t want her. Dumont is in fact the highest of the immortal elohim, who serve the god El, and you are his heir. But you learn that your predecessor was murdered; that your Academy friend Elverado was killed for showing too much interest in Heller; and that elohim frequently use their powers for evil purposes. You wonder if you want to serve a god who delights in pain, cruelty and death. Then you unearth an ancient document, written by Judas, recounting the story of Jesus, another elohim—decidedly not the version told in the Bible. You make a momentous decision.
Other than the intriguing Judas chapters, the story’s narrated in a bizarre and unconvincing second person, present tense (so who is the actual narrator?) and treads largely familiar ground; not so odd, then, that the most controversial section is by far the most persuasive.Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-86631-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
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
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
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