It's baffling why this appealingly distinctive offshoot (there are two volumes still to come) of the wildly popular...
This sequel to the fantasy/nonfiction hybrid The Science of Discworld (2014; U.K. 1999), wherein the bumbling wizards of Discworld’s Unseen University accidentally created our universe and the planet Roundworld, aka Earth, first manifested in the U.K. in 2002.
In the first book we learned that the inhabitants of Roundworld will escape the planet via a space elevator before another ice age would have wiped them (us) out. Unfortunately, Roundworld (“It mostly had ice ages, and was less engrossing than an ant farm”) has become infested with elves—Pratchett’s version being thoroughly nasty creatures like psychic leeches that, if left to themselves, will sap humanity’s creativity and drive so that nobody (human, that is) will escape the forthcoming disaster. Thanks to Hex, Discworld’s intelligent, magic-powered computer, the wizards can move through time, so they travel back and banish the elves. However, the humans that result are placid, cowlike creatures, incurious and almost devoid of intellect. Somehow, elves are essential to human development. But how? And what to do? In chapters that alternate with Pratchett’s tale, Stewart (Mathematics/Univ. of Warwick) and Cohen (Biology and Mathematics/Univ. of Warwick) explore, via physics, biology, literature and a dozen other topics, the role of culture or, more precisely, narrative, in fostering curiosity and intellectual development (“we may indeed share 98 per cent of our genes with chimpanzees, but then, we share 47 per cent with cabbages”). Readers who simply want more Pratchett may begin by skimming the more factual sections, but it will dawn on many that the discussions are at least as fascinating and entertaining as the antics of the wizards.
It's baffling why this appealingly distinctive offshoot (there are two volumes still to come) of the wildly popular Discworld yarns took so long to cross the Atlantic.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8041-6896-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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 celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.
After 1,000 years of peace, whispers that “the Nameless One will return” ignite the spark that sets the world order aflame.
No, the Nameless One is not a new nickname for Voldemort. Here, evil takes the shape of fire-breathing dragons—beasts that feed off chaos and imbalance—set on destroying humankind. The leader of these creatures, the Nameless One, has been trapped in the Abyss for ages after having been severely wounded by the sword Ascalon wielded by Galian Berethnet. These events brought about the current order: Virtudom, the kingdom set up by Berethnet, is a pious society that considers all dragons evil. In the East, dragons are worshiped as gods—but not the fire-breathing type. These dragons channel the power of water and are said to be born of stars. They forge a connection with humans by taking riders. In the South, an entirely different way of thinking exists. There, a society of female mages called the Priory worships the Mother. They don’t believe that the Berethnet line, continued by generations of queens, is the sacred key to keeping the Nameless One at bay. This means he could return—and soon. “Do you not see? It is a cycle.” The one thing uniting all corners of the world is fear. Representatives of each belief system—Queen Sabran the Ninth of Virtudom, hopeful dragon rider Tané of the East, and Ead Duryan, mage of the Priory from the South—are linked by the common goal of keeping the Nameless One trapped at any cost. This world of female warriors and leaders feels natural, and while there is a “chosen one” aspect to the tale, it’s far from the main point. Shannon’s depth of imagination and worldbuilding are impressive, as this 800-pager is filled not only with legend, but also with satisfying twists that turn legend on its head. Shannon isn’t new to this game of complex storytelling. Her Bone Season novels (The Song Rising, 2017, etc.) navigate a multilayered society of clairvoyants. Here, Shannon chooses a more traditional view of magic, where light fights against dark, earth against sky, and fire against water. Through these classic pairings, an entirely fresh and addicting tale is born. Shannon may favor detailed explication over keeping a steady pace, but the epic converging of plotlines at the end is enough to forgive.
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63557-029-8
Page Count: 848
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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