Sharp worldbuilding, authentic characters, and thoughtful explorations of prejudice and misogyny bode well for future...
This second installment of an epic fantasy series that draws on the history and culture of the Mughal Empire (Empire of Sand, 2018) takes place a decade later.
Unlike her sister, Mehr, who remembered their Amrithi birth mother and the rituals of their people, Arwa has done her best to embrace the Ambhan heritage of their nobleman father and follow the guidance of her Ambhan stepmother. But when a dark force slaughters her husband and all the soldiers under his command, Arwa owes her survival to her Amrithi blood, literally, as shedding it can ward off the spirits known as daivas. The new widow resolves to put the magic of her blood into the service of the Ambhan Empire, which has suffered a material and spiritual decline since the death of the Maha, the empire’s near-immortal founder. She joins the emperor’s bastard, Zahir, in a dangerous quest in the titular realm of ash, a dream world where one can encounter and absorb the memories of the dead. Arwa’s blood eases the path to the Maha’s memories, which Zahir believes can save the empire. But the other memories they encounter, and the political turmoil surrounding the emperor’s decline, send them on an even more dangerous—but far more redemptive—journey. Arwa’s gradual rebellion against the society that crushed her mother’s people is an intriguing counterpoint to her older sister’s more overt resistance in Book 1; Arwa must battle her own ignorance of her heritage as well as the forces arrayed against her due to prejudice and her placement in a noble court during a fight for the succession. She is a well-drawn and sympathetic character; even in 2019, readers will understand a situation in which a woman is forced to suppress personal qualities to fit an approved model of a smiling, submissive helpmeet. The novel is also a nicely crafted exploration of the implications of the previous volume; after centuries in which the gods were impelled to dream the positive fortunes of the Ambhan Empire, more negative forces are now in play to balance the scales.
Sharp worldbuilding, authentic characters, and thoughtful explorations of prejudice and misogyny bode well for future volumes.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-44975-5
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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