Richly textured and fabulously conceived.
Magic and religion struggle to govern a city filled with dark urges in this fantasy series opener.
In the city of Novostopol, Alexei Bryce is a priest of the Curia. The priesthood teaches the Via Sancta, the belief that “all things, however mundane, must be beautiful.” They also tattoo elaborate “Marks” on citizens to dull vices like greed and violence. One night, Bryce and his partner, Patryk Spassov, hunt an Invertido, someone whose Mark has been inverted, most likely by a Nightmage, one of the Curia’s longtime enemies. The Invertido are considered sick, incapable of resisting base desires, and once caught, they are committed to the Batavia Institute. Dr. Ferran Massot runs Batavia, but tonight he hosts a party. He invites Natalya Anderle, a cartomancer, to visit and read his fortune with her deck. Feeling ill, Natalya sends her roommate, Kasia Novak, in her place. Kasia sees misfortune ahead for Massot, who attacks her. With the help of magical dogs called Markhounds, Bryce and Spassov track down Massot before he can hurt Kasia, little fathoming what she’s stolen from the doctor’s home. Meanwhile, the Nightmage Malach holds rancor in his heart after the Curia wiped out his people in the jungles of Bal Kirith. He plans revenge with the help of a woman willing to bear him a special child. Ross drapes a tense political thriller in a trench coat of dark fantasy. A magic system in which ley lines network the city and citizens can tap into three increasingly dangerous layers of power gives characters room to shift allegiances. Touches of noir charge the prose (“Red light bled from Malach’s sleeves. It flickered in the depths of his eyes like a pair of burning embers”), and plot threads twine intricately. A thrilling dynamic exists among the Curia, the citizens they test for Mark compatibility, and those who fail the test—people considered “sociopathic deviants.” Readers should expect the unexpected.
Richly textured and fabulously conceived.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73461-846-4
Page Count: 506
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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