An imaginative, entertaining, sometimes over-the-top mash-up of Paradise Lost and The Clan of the Cave Bear.
Primitive hominids get caught up in a titanic war between heaven and hell in this bombastic fantasy.
Gordon’s novel centers on Adam, the son of African Homo Erectus parents, who sports a Homo Sapiens-ish prominent chin, bulging forehead, hairless body, and mechanical aptitude that lets him invent a nifty spear thrower. He also has the marks of a Chosen One: His birth is attended by apocalyptic fireballs; he gets bitten by a demon-headed snake; and he has visions of a flying dragon. Growing up, Adam weathers starvation and cannibalism, a diet rich in bugs and bats, the loss of loved ones to a lion, and a blood feud with his domineering stepfather, Hanok, that leads to violence and estrangement from his clan. Adam then heads eastward to a land called Eden with a demon named Mephistopheles, who promises him knowledge of all the world’s secrets and, more importantly, an introduction to a beautiful woman who shares Adam’s physical traits. Unfortunately, Eden proves to be a sulphureous labor camp where hominid slaves are ruled by preening devils, from Moloch to the winged scorpion Beelzebub. On the bright side, Eve is indeed pretty and nice. After a harrowing tour of Hell, Adam and Eve get an audience with Lucifer himself, who tells them that they will play a leading role in his plan to bring God to the bargaining table—after they undergo a torturous “cleansing” that will remove all love and compassion from their souls. Gordon’s yarn shines in its first part, which paints a gritty portrait of Stone Age life, from the constant search for food and fire to Hanok’s campaign to usurp clan leader Kren, which is told in shrewdly psychological prose (“He would bide his time and lay the groundwork by assuming a self-important bearing, and began to undercut Kren’s authority with a questioning look, or a sad shake of his head, to Kren’s every decision”). The book’s Dantean second part feels less original, with overblown demonic caricatures chortling at their own villainy and a climactic battle of thunderous superpowers. Still, Gordon’s vigorous writing and rich evocation of a Paleolithic world make for an absorbing read.
An imaginative, entertaining, sometimes over-the-top mash-up of Paradise Lost and The Clan of the Cave Bear.Pub Date: May 27, 2023
ISBN: 9798396189256
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 12, 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
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