by Hope Schenk-de Michele Paul Marquez Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2015
A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.
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Debut authors Schenck-de Michele and Marquez’s urban fantasy novel about Lucifer’s daughter and a peculiar shop.
Lucinda’s Pawnshop & Antiquary is no ordinary secondhand store, much in the way Lucinda Trompe is no ordinary proprietor: “Half mortal, half immortal, she had been sired by Lucifer on a human mother—THE human mother. The woman the Torah called ‘Eve.’ ” Gifted with the ability to change form and manipulate regular mortals, Lucinda spends much of her time selling specific items to the latter. These items work as “soul magnets,” which in their own special ways work to do the bidding of Lucifer. After all, “Lucinda’s father was hell-bent (she loved that expression) on bringing mankind not to its knees, but to its grave.” With an elaborate plan that involves a group of young witches, Morgan le Fay’s Book of Shadows, a cursed pocket watch, and unrest in the Middle East, humanity seems to be in trouble. It’s trouble that Lucinda initially aids, though her infatuation with a beautiful man named Dominic Amado, and has the potential to disrupt even Lucifer’s well-laid plans. Lucinda is of course half human, a reality that occasionally allows her to subvert her father’s intentions. Hatching an intricate plot, the story progresses from different angles at a cracking pace. While the concept of Lucifer’s daughter falling in love with a modern man as she works at a magical secondhand store could have easily become awash with urban fantasy clichés, the story maintains an original feel. Touching on historical figures such as Averroes and Francis Galton, the real is woven seamlessly with the fantastical, such as when a young witch conjures a water horse—“She flung it at the first wave of men, twisting it until it looked less like a horse and more like a horrific, gleaming tornado with a wide, open vortex.” Though a passage involving a dutiful young soldier and his feuding parents seems forced, the overall story proves itself to be both genuinely surprising and, if one can imagine the devil’s daughter falling in love, touching.
A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1939457363
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Bird Street Books
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by TJ Klune ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
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
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PERSPECTIVES
by Christopher Buehlman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 2012
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
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