A complex and intriguing series entry.
A skilled operative finds herself in a new world and must protect its denizens from her own mortal enemies in the third book in Cox’s SF series, following Shadowsphere (2022).
Malidora is the last agent of the Sinavus, an organization that controlled her home world of Isodonia with manipulation and violence. Her traumatic past has taught her she’s dangerous to anyone who grows close to her. On Isodonia, the Shadows invaded and manipulated her to kill her own family. After she defeated a particularly strong Shadow, she was brought into the mindstream, where stronger beings lurk. She escaped and found herself in the Hollow—a universe between worlds—and learned the truth of the Gaith, cosmic gods who intend to destroy her world and others like it. She learns to harness her own energy but barely escapes with her life into the world of Kandom, where the land is split into light and dark areas, with warring peoples on either side. She meets the handsome, strong, and wary Dabradan, a soldier for the light side who takes her prisoner to help him investigate unusual animal attacks. By Dabradan’s side is Evala, a rebellious, perceptive orphan with the ability to detect lies. Malidora quickly realizes the Shadows have arrived in Kandom, and if her new companions don’t heed her warnings, their people won’t survive. Cox returns to the Bewilderness series with a vibrant third installment that will thrill and surprise returning readers. Malidora is a refreshing, confident, and entertaining main character who effectively drives the story and has compelling relationships with other players. Her reaction to and decision in the Hollow are particularly powerful and provide an engaging foundation to her interactions with the people of Kandom. Her curiosity effectively introduces elements of Cox’s intricate worldbuilding, as when Evala explains the light and darkness of her home planet: “Kandom is tidally locked. We always face the sun, just like Underveil is always in the dark, facing away from it.” After an ending that’s both harrowing and heartwarming, fans will eagerly await the next installment.
A complex and intriguing series entry.Pub Date: May 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798986636849
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Silvettica
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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