Undoubtedly the series will continue to satisfy many fans, while those less than totally enthralled may well find their...
This rather tepid third entry in the Millennium’s Rule fantasy series (Angel of Storms, 2015, etc.) picks up five years after the events of the previous book.
All that remains of the Raen, the sorcerer who ruled all the worlds for a thousand years before self-immolating, is the fire-shriveled hand kept by his assistant, Dahli. The Raen’s natural successor, Rielle, refused to help Tyen and Dahli revive him—the body the Raen proposed to use turned out not to be a blank template as he claimed but a young man wiped of his memories. Now Tyen and Rielle, the most powerful sorcerers still extant, have become lovers; neither has any ambition to become the new Raen. The usual pattern of narrative sections alternating between Tyen and Rielle manifests itself. Both hope for peace and cooperation among worlds. But the Raen’s apparently omnipotent controls and enforcement died along with the sorcerer himself, and chaos looms; especially dangerous are magic-powered attack robots that enterprising sorcerers have developed from the useful toy insects designed by Tyen. Canavan extends the story of Qall, the boy Rielle rescued from the Raen—a thread that seems to dwell on how tiresome he’s growing up to be. Tyen and Rielle do a lot of mental recapping and twiddling, possibly as a largely ineffectual effort to make the book independently intelligible. So, while sometimes as involving as before, the narrative lacks the clarity and urgency of purpose that distinguished the previous book, with any developing excitement or tension squandered; only the protagonists are vigorously drawn enough to carry readers through the less compelling parts in any case.
Undoubtedly the series will continue to satisfy many fans, while those less than totally enthralled may well find their attention beginning to wander.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-20928-1
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
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
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