Series fans will want to investigate, but the gloss is definitely off.
Third in the series (Thieves’ Quarry, 2013, etc.) about magic (“conjuring”) in the turbulent, dangerous pre-Revolutionary Boston of 1769.
One-time sailor and convict, now thieftaker, Ethan Kaille uses conjuring—a practice many consider to be witchcraft, punishable by burning—to help him track down stolen goods for reward while fending off his archrival Sephira Pryce and her gang of thugs. Despite a smallpox epidemic, British redcoats still occupy the city. Samuel Adams and his revolutionaries continue their activities and again attempt to recruit Ethan, though that subplot advances no further. Church ministers ask Ethan to investigate a series of bizarre grave desecrations involving the theft of body parts and snippets of clothing and the marking of the corpses with ritualistic designs. At first suspecting body-snatchers, Ethan soon learns that the victims are reappearing as horribly disfigured ghosts, incurring the fear and mistrust of their families. On top of that, Ethan's spells are no longer reliable. Evidently, a powerful conjurer is at work, and it doesn’t take long for Ethan to discover his opponent’s identity since the two of them clashed in the past. But what does the hostile conjurer want, and how is he causing spells to weaken? Ethan may need to enlist the help of the city’s other conjurers—his friend Mariz, who unfortunately takes his orders from Sephira; Janna Windcatcher, an old and experienced herbalist; and Gavin Black, who’s lost his powers altogether and refuses to become involved. Once again, the historical verisimilitude and atmosphere are major advantages, along with the Latin spellcasting and rather more contemporary gumshoe-noir tone. Given these promising ingredients, however, Jackson’s attempt to weave an original plot with depth and allure just fizzles.
Series fans will want to investigate, but the gloss is definitely off.Pub Date: July 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3818-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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