A series of overblown set pieces waiting for Cecil B. DeMille or Industrial Light and Magic to bring them to life.
Poisoned Pen kicks off its Haunted Library of Horror Classics with a berserk Orientalist fantasy that’s the best-known work of Beckford (1760-1844).
Vathek, Caliph of the Abassides, is a prince seriously addicted to gambling, feasting, and fits of rage. A visit from a stranger from India who renders him ill and then heals him opens his eyes to the possibilities of further decadence beyond the five palaces he’s already dedicated to the delights of the senses. But the stranger is actually a Giaour—that is, an unbeliever—in the service of Eblis, the monarch of hell, whose goal is to tempt Vathek to damnation by getting him to break more and more taboos. It’s a project in which his unwitting target participates enthusiastically. He renounces the teachings of Islam, sacrifices 50 innocent children to death, and agrees to worship the Giaour on the strength of the Giaour’s promise to bring him to “the palace of subterraneous fire” where Soliman Ben Daoud has stored the talismans that will allow him to rule the world. His attempts to steal the seductive Nouronihar from Gulchenrouz, the cousin to whom she’s been promised, are so persistent that Nouronihar’s father, the emir Fakreddin, is driven to drug both lovers so they’ll appear to have died—a plan that falls through despite Fakreddin’s best efforts. One of Mahomet’s Genii asks permission to approach Vathek in the hope of changing his mind before it’s too late, but it’s too late, and he’s condemned to the eternal fires.
A series of overblown set pieces waiting for Cecil B. DeMille or Industrial Light and Magic to bring them to life.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-9974-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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