A compelling coming-of-age fantasy, despite some pacing problems.
In Hunsaker’s fantasy novel, the first in a series, a group of young initiates must brave a deadly magical cavern to gain the powers needed to protect their island.
Set on Avskild—a magical island protected from a world crawling with monsters—the narrative follows a group of teens preparing to earn their powers and defend their home. At 18, every student at Castle Vrodrmust enter Vanalf, a mysterious, dangerous cave that either grants them the magical abilities necessary to become a “Grimnir” or doesn’t let them leave at all. Hallik, a natural leader and determined overachiever, refuses to wait another year to earn his magic and find out what happened to his missing father. When the island’s protective shield is breached by “draugr,” undead beings formed by evil and hate, the safety of everyone within its walls is threatened (“a corpse stood before them, sallow, water-logged skin hanging from its body, eyes pale white, shattered teeth protruding behind tight lips that barely existed”). Hallik and a motley group set out to restore the shield before the island is overwhelmed by the opportunistic monsters—but first, they must brave the depths of Vanalf. Hallik is a skilled, responsible, and driven protagonist motivated not only by duty to his land, but also by the desire to prove himself. He sets himself apart through his quiet leadership—serving water to tired students, keeping pace with the slowest runners, and refusing to let his ambition overshadow his loyalty. The novel’s first half focuses heavily on training, lessons, and worldbuilding, which sometimes makes the story’s length feel like a bit of a slog. The action doesn’t really pick up until later, which might test the patience of readers eager for the real danger to begin. Overall gripping and heartfelt, this first installment in Hunsaker’s series is rooted in the quiet power of those willing to lead before they’re asked to. Hallik’s journey is only beginning, but it’s already one worth following.
A compelling coming-of-age fantasy, despite some pacing problems.Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9798987518281
Page Count: 444
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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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