A vigorous yarn that mixes stout swashbuckling with moody reflection.
A youngster who wants to be a soldier achieves that goal with bloody and troubling results in Taylor’s dystopian novel.
This action-packed story, set in the distant future, posits a post-apocalyptic, low-tech empire of Sagittarius on the Canadian prairie with an astrological religion that requires babies born outside a monthlong window to be sacrificed. Sagittarius is locked in perpetual war with the nation of Scorpio to the north and has enslaved the people of Taurus to the south. Centering the story is Saya, a Sagittarian tween who dreads having to hold to proscribed feminine roles of housekeeping and childbearing and longs to be a soldier. Saya’s gender nonconformity only seems to be accepted in an observatory run by freethinking astronomers. The young narrator’s soldiering wish comes tragically true when marauders, said to be Scorpions, destroy the town, and orphaned Saya is inducted into the Sagittarian army under a new name. Sai becomes a fierce fighter with sword and bow who’s abused by other recruits but gets respect from officers who address Sai by he/him pronouns. Most of the novel follows Sai’s military career, which undermines the protagonist’s vengeance motive. Sai loves slaughtering Scorpion soldiers in gory battle scenes—the Scorpions’ poison-coated swords inflict particularly grisly wounds—but this zealotry wavers in situations involving civilians, including a 3-year-old Taurian boy. Also influencing Sai is Fion, a gay officer whose soul-searching conversations feed Sai’s disaffection. Taylor’s ruminative, queer dystopian fable feels like a mashup of elements of the Hunger Games series, Mulan, All Quiet on the Western Front, and the daily horoscope. The writing is engrossing and punchy—“ ‘Suck it up,’ Fion scolded me with a biting, severe voice. ‘You’re a soldier now’ ”—and the action energetic: “I…lunged at the Scorpion fearlessly, ducked under his swing, and thrust my blade into his gut. I ripped my sword to the side and relished the sight of his frightened eyes dying.” However, the book’s gender-related themes sometimes feel underdeveloped alongside the narrative’s extensive carnage. Still, Sai’s journey makes for a resonant, absorbing read.
A vigorous yarn that mixes stout swashbuckling with moody reflection.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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