In this fantasy novel by K.I.S., two brothers pursue their destinies.

The author’s Chronicles of Aitarbith series continues in this second installment, likewiseset on the eponymous fantasy continent with its many kingdoms and varied climates. This volume shifts focus from the healer Ata, the main character in the preceding entry, to center around a young apprentice magician named Briin and his older brother Hiirn, who are as close as twins even though Hiirn is the elder by three years; he often helps his sensitive brother overcome panic attacks (when they were little children, he’d “stuffed his tiny fist into Briin’s shrieking mouth and been savagely bitten bloody—all to no avail, for Briin had continued to shriek like a stuck pig and awoken the entire household”). As the novel opens, Briin is having increasingly vivid dreams in which he’s fighting his way through a dark wood, pursued by monstrous creatures called the Gruxhoon. The narrative splits between the adventures and perils of each brother, with Hiirn meeting his future wife Meira of the exotic Irie race (“he had known their marriage was inevitable and right, and so had set out to make it so”) and Briin studying to become a magician despite his unconventional approach to understanding his world’s magic. The author’s prose style is often turgid with fantasy-lit archaic language (“you ruffian” and the like) and filled with cliches, like “beg, borrow, or steal” or “discretion is the better part of valor.” But, like its predecessor, the novel is written with heartfelt energy that carries the narrative along. Briin is particularly well realized—his brother must warn him that the old master magicians “don’t respond well to being shown their own inadequacies by a mere novice.” The relationship between the brothers, often played out over correspondence, is touchingly rendered as the author further fleshes out this intriguing fantasy world.

An engagingly intimate chapter in this intricate, sprawling fantasy series.

A fantasy in which a princess must save the lives of her kingdom’s rivals.

As this first book in the author’s Chronicles of Áitarbith series opens, an unassuming young peasant woman named Anita is working as a drudge in the kitchens of Hårbørgen Palace on a day when the whole of the House of Hårbørgen, rulers of the kingdom of Cinnae, are gathered for supper. This cast of characters includes both “beautiful but sullen” Prince Tensso, heir to the throne, and his older half brother, Lord Svensso, general of Cinnae’s eastern armies. Anita’s proximity to the banquet table was planned. Her name is actually Ata, born to unmarried parents and the niece of Addai, ruler of Cinnae’s great rival, the kingdom of Pandi. She’s come here in disguise to spy on the House of Hårbørgen, sending reports back to Pandi through a magic called Commanding at which she’s “average at best.” Even when her mission is discovered by wily Lord Iansso, there’s still hope for a future in which Cinnae and Pandi form an alliance against the monstrous Gruxhoon, who (Ata suspects) are even now massing their forces for an attack on Cinnae. Suddenly, that attack happens, and Ata finds herself on the run, protecting young Cinnaen princes Jansso and Elsso (“two little boys who didn’t deserve to die for being who they were”) and trying to find her way back to Pandi, along the way discovering many things about herself and even her own native magic system. The author broadens and deepens the history and court politics in a convincing combination of narrative energy and warm human moments. For example, Ata touchingly reflects on the nights when her royal uncle would secretly visit her: “Sometimes stroking Ata’s hand or hair softly, he would leave before anyone could know he spent so much of his preciously finite time with his sister’s bastard he was not meant to love.” The worldbuilding, set on landscapes not unlike our own, and the storytelling will make readers eager to follow young Ata on her next adventure.

A gripping, well-paced first installment with a resourceful female lead.