An imaginative but stilted novel blending SF, horror, and fantasy.
A demigod goes to war against a vampire from space in Lopez’s debut SF novel.
The planet of Ninivon is ruled by a tyrant: The alien Vampire and his blood-drinking, purple-eyed soldiers arrived from space and conquered the free nations, human and humanoid alike. Zeno fought the Vampire’s forces as a member of the Rangers—the elite fighting force of the Republic—but after hearing reports of the death of his closest friend, Alexandra, he quit the war. Now, 10 years later, he serves as a librarian in the semi-independent city of Sarpedon, keeping his head down so as not to wind up in one of the Vampire’s feeding camps. He’s on the verge of suicide when he has a vision of Alexandra, in the form of an owl, who reveals to him that she’s still alive. Soon after, Zeno gets word of a rebel group called the Blue Order that has begun launching terrorist attacks against the Vampire’s rule. It turns out Alexandra is fighting with the rebels, and though Zeno questions their tactics, he’ll do whatever he can to keep Alexandra safe from harm. Meanwhile, Zeno begins to see the sign “Σ” everywhere, a mysterious symbol associated with the wisdom goddess Sofia. The followers of the goddess believe that Zeno is descended from a special bloodline and that he alone can defeat the Vampire and liberate Ninivon. But is he up to the task? Lopez’s muscular prose succeeds in creating a sense of wonder in this Greek-tinged sci-fi epic: “Some of the Stokians standing along the halls held some kind of trumpet-like instrument. They now raised these and blew them. Zeno had never heard such a sound before. It was neither pleasant or unpleasant. It just was, and was otherworldly. It was a sound from outer space.” Unfortunately, the proportion of in-world mythology to character development is out of balance; readers will frequently find themselves sifting through expository esoterica when they would rather just get to know Zeno and Alexandra as people.
An imaginative but stilted novel blending SF, horror, and fantasy.Pub Date: July 15, 2024
ISBN: 9798891320512
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 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.
