A lively sci-fi action-adventure that should appeal to teenagers.
Three amnesiac Earth youths with inexplicable superpowers join refugee Kirin on her war-torn world in a conflict that threatens to engulf the galaxy.
In this debut novel, Planet Alluria, in the Argent star system, is wracked by the depredations of a militaristic conquering race called the Ensi. Kirin, a beautiful Allurian teenager, barely survives an encounter with a squad of Ensi when she finds herself on the run with three uninvited guests, all Earth males (in their own teen years). Vaan, Roger, and Sky have no clear memory of their pasts (not even how they came to speak Alluria’s native language effortlessly), only a vague recollection of leaving on a mission into deep space to combat a threat to their planet by near-Godlike entities. And there’s another detail—all of them seem to have different superpowers (throwing fireballs, being able to freeze things, etc.). Moreover, psychic Kirin (whose ability may be the most devastating of all) remains gravely ill with lamiansias, a congenital Allurian degenerative disease, with a dwindling stash of serum that’s the only thing keeping her alive. The quest-style narrative—although none of the characters are sure until the halfway point what they are seeking or why—serves to introduce an array of creatures and beings (and superpowers) slated to be revisited in future installments of a proposed trilogy. Readers know this because of a bookend meta-gimmick in which a nameless “storyteller” dickers with a hired “writer” to get this tale down on paper (hinting that it’s a true account). The plotline involving a paranormal team of teenage heroes could have come straight out of a Japanese anime/manga saga (not necessarily a flaw, although the Earth guys might have benefited from more colorful personalities). And a lizardly ally would fit in well with similar reptilian fan favorites in the Mass Effect gamer universe. A deliberate cliffhanger ending sets readers up for the next volume in an epic that takes a careful, narrow road between the fashionably dark, grim stuff and the LucasArts-friendly space swashbuckling.
A lively sci-fi action-adventure that should appeal to teenagers.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-54934-6
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Zane Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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