This enthralling, sensational tale further bolsters a series about love and superpowers.
This seventh installment of an urban fantasy series finds lovers with supernatural powers surprisingly helpless when mysterious abductors grab one of them.
Quentin d’Arcy may finally be able to work through some things. Long-buried memories of his father’s unimaginable abuse have resurfaced and plagued him with nightmares. But now, Quentin, a wealthy British earl, is back at his San Diego home with his beloved American lover, Laurence Riley. He’s seeing therapists, hoping he can be honest about his psychokinesis. But while Quentin has faced the likes of dark creatures and fiendish sociopaths, he may now be up against his greatest threat—a meddlesome YouTuber. Cameron Delaney believes incidents Quentin has been involved in prove the spirit of the earl’s mother has been haunting him. This internet ghost hunter even stirs up a horde of paranormal fanatics who crowd around Quentin and Laurence’s La Jolla mansion like paparazzi. Surely Delaney will be the first person Laurence suspects when kidnappers get their hands on Quentin. But Laurence should be able to see psychically where his lover is—so why can’t he? Quentin, too, has been having trouble controlling his psychokinesis, which he now can’t access at all. While Quentin tries throwing light on his captors’ motives, Laurence’s search becomes desperate, as most of his friends’ special gifts are useless. He has no choice but to turn to a relative stranger, who may be wielding dark magic, and an enemy whom Laurence probably shouldn’t trust. Answers to the kidnapping plot along with a possible escape may lie in Quentin’s sordid past.
This ostensibly simple caper follows Rites of Winter (2019), which explored the land of the dead. While it seems as if Faulkner has taken a lighthearted detour, this book aptly delves into dark themes that shroud the entire series. Quentin, for example, is a prisoner of familial ties, and Laurence has long represented his freedom. This installment is likewise a prime example of how strongly the author links each volume. There are endless references to past events and characters, from a question in Book 6 that’s still lingering to the name-dropping of an antagonist from the very first novel. Readers will best enjoy this series from the beginning and in sequential order, as they may otherwise find themselves lost. Elsewhere, Faulkner takes a satirical stab at amateur newshounds. Delaney’s desire to inflate his million subscribers on YouTube propels him to frightening lengths and to forgo common sense and decency. At the same time, it’s a welcome sight when characters display skills outside the supernatural. Rodger, one of the superpowered teens that Quentin and Laurence mentor, excels at some old-fashioned detective work that uses his computer expertise, which, rather hilariously, bewilders Laurence. The cast shines, including despicable Delaney; a villain who pops up halfway through the story; and a bevy of returning characters. While the protagonists are, as always, an indelible, series-worthy couple, others stand out as well, such as Laurence’s familiar, Windsor, a charming raven with whom he often communicates telepathically. The ending hints at an evil that the heroes may not have encountered yet.
This enthralling, sensational tale further bolsters a series about love and superpowers.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-912349-17-3
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Ravensword Press
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2022
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
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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