Readers just can’t get enough of Singh (Silver Silence, 2017, etc.) and her exquisitely rendered paranormal romance.
Holly Chang, formerly known as Sorrow, is still coming to terms with the brutal attack that left her uniquely immortal, but when she discovers there’s a hefty reward for her capture, she has to work with the powerful but aggravating vampire Venom to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Nearly four years have passed since Holly Chang was attacked by the psychotically insane Archangel Uram and forced to drink his blood, changing her into an immortal being who’s not quite vampire but definitely not human. No one is quite sure what to do with her, but she knows it’s time to move away from the deeply angry and violent persona Sorrow and reconnect with her old self, including re-establishing ties to her human family. She also thinks her journey may be tied in a very deep—and possibly romantic—way to Venom, the vampire member of the powerful Seven, immortals who serve Raphael, the Archangel of New York. Venom is also a unique being, more vampire than Holly but also possessing snakelike aspects, like the capacity to mesmerize and a poisonous bite, two paranormal facets that Holly shares, though no one is sure why. Holly is learning to control her strength and these elements, but everything is disrupted when she's nearly kidnapped and learns there’s an enormous bounty to capture her alive. Meanwhile, Holly is feeling a psychic pull to Europe, and she worries that somehow Uram may be trying to control her from beyond the grave. As Viper and Holly race for answers, they may find salvation in each other by healing their profound, shared sense of otherness. Another Guild Hunter title replete with complex worldbuilding and the perfect balance of horror, heroism, passion, honor, and, always, always, a message of redemptive love.
Readers just can’t get enough of Singh (Silver Silence, 2017, etc.) and her exquisitely rendered paranormal romance.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-451-48824-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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