Despite the tired gags, a jackalope ride you won’t want to miss.
Corny jokes litter this otherwise enjoyable foray into a fantastical world at war with itself.
Fisher’s tale is set in Gondwanaland (in a nod to all supercontinent fans out there), the main inhabitable land mass on the fictional planet of Inchoate. But all is not well in Gondwanaland. King Fugal V, the evil rule of Sudlant, channels his imperial energies into a series of devastating attacks that ravage Sudlant’s neighbor to the north, Centralia. Forced to flee with his people to the Western Mountains, the benevolent leader of Centralia cedes his kingship and unites his small but mineral-rich nation with the democratic country of Nordlandt. But the alliance only dampens Fugal’s aspirations and he soon begins to develop new plans for invasion. Into this instability enters John Narrowpath, who drops into Gondwanaland seemingly from out of nowhere. Narrowpath is an Appearer, a unique type of mystical traveler, who eventually joins in the fight to fend off Fugal. In Inchoate, Fisher has created a believable and fully developed world filled with medieval-style heroes and fantastic creatures. His story, which seems to take cues from Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant chronicles and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, zips along at an enjoyable pace and features a colorful cast of characters. The only aspect that sullies this otherwise satisfying imaginative romp is Fisher’s corny sense of humor. The author has an ear for terrible puns (the monastery librarian is named Reed Tomes) and obvious references (a wine merchant is christened Shiraz Merlot). Narrowpath rides around on a pair of jackalopes, unusual hybrids more likely to be found on posters in Nebraska truck stops. He names them George and Gracie, after the famed comedy duo, and predictable “Goodnight, Gracie” gags ensue. Readers might find themselves hard-pressed to suppress their groans.
Despite the tired gags, a jackalope ride you won’t want to miss.Pub Date: March 11, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4363-0057-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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