Even those immune to the charms of fantasy and operatic tribal warfare can admire Hearn’s skill at juggling so many...
The second installment in Hearn’s The Tale of Shikanoko series about a mythical version of feudal Japan.
Newcomers to the series may initially find it difficult to follow the storyline, which picks up without preamble or recap where Emperor of the Eight Islands (2016) left off. The young warrior sorcerer Shika awakens in the Darkwood and returns to the hut of the sorcerer Shisoku, whom he hasn’t seen for more than a year, with the magic mask Shisoku made for him and that he has broken. The sorceress Lady Tora shows up at the hut, too, and soon gives birth to five demon male children. Before the flames of death engulf her, she charges Shika to raise the boys, who grow with unnatural speed. Shika yearns to find Aki, the princess he loves but betrayed, and Yoshimori, the Hidden Emperor whom he wants to restore to the throne, but first he sets out to regain the estate his uncle has stolen from him. Meanwhile, Aki and Yoshimori find protection among a family of monkeys. Lord Aritomo of the Miboshi has taken political control as the new emperor and sends off his close ally Takaakira to find Aki at her father’s old estate, unaware that Takaakira is harboring Hina, daughter of Aritomo’s slain enemy Lord Kiyoyori. Hina’s self-serving but charismatic uncle Masachika keeps switching allegiances between the warring factions of Miboshi and Kuromori but still loves his estranged wife, Tama, who has won a legal battle against him over her father’s land. Gradually these major characters begin to have fateful interactions with each other, fueled by human love, greed, ambition, and vengeance, while aided or hindered by supernatural forces often hidden within animals or objects. At the center is Shika, whose frequent escapes from death promise a special destiny.
Even those immune to the charms of fantasy and operatic tribal warfare can admire Hearn’s skill at juggling so many characters who defy fairy-tale simplicity.Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-53632-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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