Italy sparkles in this layered 16th-century romance.
In this debut historical fantasy, two young men become apprenticed to a seer during the Renaissance, igniting a rivalry for the man’s daughter.
Savinus di Benevento is a famed and respected seer in Pesaro, Italy, in 1585. He performs readings and geomancy (to help farmers grow crops) with great success and has won the patronage of Conte Leonardo Valperga. Savinus’ only family is a caring, strong-willed daughter named Giulia. Seeking to train a replacement, he tests some teen boys, asking them to discern what objects hide beneath three cups. A 17-year-old named Antonius Sardi proves to be genuinely psychic. But the Conte’s son Nichola is also present, displaying minor talents. Savinus takes on Antonius but realizes, to be diplomatic, he must apprentice Nichola as a second. As the teens begin examining mystical knowledge—the more arcane of which, including transforming into animals, the church considers evil—they both fall for the gorgeous Giulia. Though intelligent, she’s no match for Nichola’s masculine wiles. The two grow closer, much to Antonius’ chagrin. Ever the gentleman, he keeps his intense love for Giulia quiet and focuses on his studies. And yet, his closer bond with Savinus enrages the spoiled Nichola, who begins sabotaging Antonius’ career, first in petty—and then deadly—ways. Murdoch presents a delightful romance, feathered with light touches of fantasy. The development of her love triangle is gratifying, and even secondary characters offer stark dramatic moments; the Conte tells his son: “He has appointed you only out of respect for our family and his friendship with me. Stop complaining and show some appreciation.” Spirit protectors Arion and Agathe reveal a deeper level to Savinus’ work, and in their world lies “a vast shimmering ocean stretched to the horizon, the cobalt waters breaking against the shore with rhythmic sighs.” Best of all, Murdoch delivers wisdom valuable to anyone trying to master a field: “Those who are consumed by negative thoughts about others cannot possibly reach the level of purity required.” Despite a clever, definitive ending, readers may clamor for a sequel.
Italy sparkles in this layered 16th-century romance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Fireship Press
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2017
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
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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