Readers who relish Modesitt's magical battles have waited through two volumes for them to materialize; they will find their...
Third entry in a miniseries (Outcasts of Order, 2018, etc.) within the Recluce fantasy universe; this is the 21st novel overall. The struggle between white chaos magic and black order magic continues.
Beltur, a black mage with the extraordinary ability to blend both chaos and order, and his wife, Jessyla, a healer, have been driven yet again from their home by jealous rivals, unscrupulous rulers, and prejudiced townsfolk. Accompanying them is another refugee family, the black mage Lhadoraak, his nonmagical wife, Tulya, and their young daughter, Taelya, a budding white wizard Beltur is tutoring. They arrive in Montgren at the invitation of the ruling duchess, and they hope to settle in the town of Haven. The duchess's endowment of gold and troopers seemed generous enough, but Haven turns out to be lawless and half abandoned, bossed by thugs and agents of Massyngal, the malign, despotic duke of neighboring Hydlen who has long nursed ambitions of annexing the place. To set the town to rights and defy the armies and chaos wizards of Hydlen, Beltur will need all his considerable problem-solving skills and hard-won expertise as a battle mage. This entry pivots away from the two previous books, which explored complex philosophical and social issues, in favor of more direct action. Beltur, then, must figure out a way to defeat an opponent whose troops and wizards follow orders no matter what. And series fans, understanding that the order in which the books are written bears no relation to the saga's internal chronology, will appreciate the supreme irony that the stronghold known to the future as Fairhaven was founded by black mages.
Readers who relish Modesitt's magical battles have waited through two volumes for them to materialize; they will find their reward here.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20782-1
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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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