A playful, action-packed alternate history tale.
This fantasy debut finds a Roman legion battling a dragon at Carthage in 147 B.C.E.
Regulus Marcus Atilius is the supreme commander of Rome’s 7th Legion. He and his second-in-command, Gen. Han Xing, have stationed their forces outside of fortified Carthage, attempting to crush the empire’s longtime enemy. Han’s spies discover that the Carthaginians plan to sacrifice infants during the full moon to access power from a dark god. Disgusted, Regulus is determined to stop the ritual. An eight-man team of combat specialists infiltrates Carthage through its sewers and attacks the chambers of Asdrubal, high priest of Baal. Though the band rescues a slave, Miriam, and her infant son, Issur, the Romans ultimately fail to stop other sacrifices. A magical storm delivers a dragon, which Asdrubal controls mentally. Never one to lead from the back, Regulus joins the fray and is burned badly by the dragon’s fire. The legion itself nearly succumbs to the beast until Othniyel, a Jewish soldier, blows his shofar, a trumpet that can “engage dark forces.” The shofar, combined with physical assaults, sends Asdrubal and the dragon into temporary retreat. Meanwhile, Regulus convalesces with the aid of Miriam’s honey potion and singing. His dream of the Prophet Eliasz (Elijah) is no coincidence, and the leader begins training to fight a more spiritual war. In this energetic novel, Ellis gives readers exactly what his title advertises, aided by crackling narrative turns and historical details. During philosophical moments, his prose can be effectively blunt, as when Han asserts: “What we worship determines who we are and can become. Or perhaps it works the other way.” The dragon, always thrillingly depicted, is “like bombardier beetles,” creating “hydrogen peroxide and other explosive gases inside his body...to produce a boiling, toxic blaze.” The author emphasizes that Regulus and his legion adopt the best from every culture, and this openness carries the day. Light romantic touches round out the narrative, and a winking final line should make even hardened genre fans smile while clamoring for a sequel.
A playful, action-packed alternate history tale.Pub Date: March 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-09930-8
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Altar Stone Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
