Will be enjoyed most by readers interested in seeing a seemingly normal man rise to a prophet.
Gerovac’s (The Great Angel War, 2014) second novel in a trilogy concerning an unlikely prophet and his mission to stop Armageddon.
Tasked with being “God’s last prophet,” Thomas Mumin is on a mission to prevent the Antichrist from being born. While practicing “no specific religion” (albeit believing in God and accepting Jesus Christ as his savior), Thomas has done his best to understand the Bible, to lead a good life, and, after a nearly fatal car accident in the prequel, to do the work of God. He journeys to Vatican City to speak with the pope, but he gets more than an audience: he’s hit over the head to see whether he’s a demon. Having passed the test, Thomas comes to realize that Lucifer is attempting to create the Antichrist using modern-day science. Will Thomas and others on his side—including a savant named Myrrh, who “sees everything as a probability”—be able to stop this momentous event, or will they succumb to the many demons around them who are willing to resort to all manner of trickery? More Dan Brown than Umberto Eco, the story takes readers down a number of avenues via both action—“He then reversed his spin, bending low and coming up, hitting the fourth bully under the chin and knocking him out”—and Google searches. Despite Thomas’ Everyman attitude—“I am but a humble servant of the Lord,” he points out—events unfold quickly. Though the adventure is alive with the cunning ways of the devil and his helpers, the journey has its share of speed bumps, often due to dialogue that tells readers what’s already known, as when Thomas remarks: “We’re okay. We ran here to check on you and make sure you are okay too,” followed shortly thereafter by “I’m glad everyone’s okay.” As meek as he may seem at times, Thomas proves to be a hero who’s both believable and worth rooting for, a man just humble enough to carry the spirit of a genial holy messenger.
Will be enjoyed most by readers interested in seeing a seemingly normal man rise to a prophet.Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1680283853
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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
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