As usual in Green's books (Death Shall Come, 2017, etc.), there’s a long buildup that just might be supernatural paired with...
Guests of a quaint English countryside inn disappear over the course of an evening, to be replaced by ominous voices in the inn’s walls. Is it a curse or an illusion?
Ishmael Jones has taken his partner, Penny Belcourt, on a weekend getaway to enjoy Cornwall as a normal couple might, even though Ishmael and Penny are anything but normal. Ishmael is an alien imbued with special strengths, skills, and sensitivities but able to live among humans, and Penny, though not an alien, is one tough cookie. Ishmael’s abilities make him a perfect fit for high-level security, and a weekend off with Penny seems like just the relaxing break he needs from his stressful job. The two have been invited to celebrate Albert and Olivia Calvert’s renovation of Tyrone’s Castle Inn. The inn’s troubled history involves Elliot Tyrone poisoning guests at a Christmas meal, then claiming he was only acting on instructions from “Voices.” Since then, other reported murders have been linked to the voices, and the inn is widely considered cursed. Now that Albert and Olivia have lovingly restored the place to its former glory, they’re showing it off to Ishmael, Penny, and several other guests as a prelude to returning it to its original function. Before Olivia can serve dessert, however, she mysteriously vanishes, and it isn’t long before the Calverts’ guests are hearing echoes of voices in the hallways. Ishmael, who’s well-acquainted with the differences between legend and logic (Death Shall Come, 2017, etc.), believes there must be an earthly reason for Olivia’s disappearance and tries to keep the dinner party calm. His efforts fall on deaf ears as the partygoers are picked off one by one, leaving Ishmael and Penny to determine whether the curse is real or there’s a real-world motive for the mystery.
As usual in Green's books (Death Shall Come, 2017, etc.), there’s a long buildup that just might be supernatural paired with a brief conclusion that tells all. Think Scooby Doo starring a superpowered alien in human skin.Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8757-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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
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