The lack of new voices notwithstanding, a solid addition to the Wild Cards universe.
The latest anthology in Martin's Wild Cards shared universe—inhabited by a multitude of humans irrevocably changed by an alien virus—features eight never-before-published stories revolving around superheroes and villains impacted by love.
Longtime fans will recognize that most of the authors—including Melinda M. Snodgrass, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Christopher Rowe, Marko Kloos, and Walton Simons—have been featured extensively in previous Wild Cards anthologies. While none of the stories presented here could be considered exceptional, most are satisfying, featuring deeply developed characters and well-constructed storylines. Kloos’ “In the Forests of the Night” is set in an exclusive ecotourist lodge deep in the jungles of Colombia and revolves around Khan, a half-tiger, half-human who is a joker-ace: both mutated and gifted with superhuman abilities. A bodyguard for a powerful crime lord, Khan’s job is to protect his boss during a potentially dangerous business meeting. But when he has a fortuitous sexual encounter with a beautiful stranger named Maryam, she turns out to be much more than she appears. Featuring two memorable and downright cool fight scenes, this story has a fitting conclusion that makes it noteworthy. Murphy’s “Trudy of the Apes” is set in 1957 and follows Trudy Pirandello, a thief whose superhuman ability is to teleport small objects into her hands. After befriending (i.e.: seducing) Jack Braun, a wild card who is the strongest man in the world and plays Tarzan on TV, she follows him to the set in rural Mexico, where she attempts to locate a mythical treasure. The theme of love—and its unforeseen consequences—is on full display in selections like Simons’ “The Long Goodbye,” a heart-rending story about two time-traveling lovers who part ways, and “What’s Your Sign?” by Gwenda Bond and Peter Newman, in which a date for charity between a real-life hero and a famous television fortuneteller becomes more than just a publicity stunt.
The lack of new voices notwithstanding, a solid addition to the Wild Cards universe.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780593357866
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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