A slow, engaging, and violent fantasy series opener.
A mercenary strives to learn his true identity in a war-torn world in this fantasy.
The world of Tiamhaal is ravaged by warfare. Numerous tribes fight for deities like Zmaj, the All God. Gen. Dumar guides a small force outside Satrone, an arid territory ruled by the Kulshedrans. Zoltek, the head of these warriors from Usaj, has allowed a mysterious mercenary named Scar to lead the charge. Scar is pale, hairless, and heals quickly from any injury. When Zoltek’s son, Urdu, insists on dueling the mercenary for the right to lead, Scar beheads the arrogant whelp. Dumar, Scar, and the rest form a plan to secretly capture several towers in an effort to unseat King Gilgamesh of Satrone. If Scar can help accomplish this, Zoltek has promised to ask Zmaj about the mercenary’s true origin. But when the siege of one tower goes wrong, Dumar decides to betray Scar. The mercenary escapes, with vengeful feelings against Zoltek filling his heart. He then meets a Kulshedran named Labolas Sulas, who claims to be on a mission from Gilgamesh to retrieve Scar—whom he calls Brandt. Further, Labolas reveals that Scar is the lost ruler of an ancient nation called Alduheim. Gilgamesh needs Scar to unite all the lands under Kulshedra, God of Truth. Dennis begins his fantasy series with an intriguing mystery to spur his protagonist through a violent world. Conan the Barbarian fans will enjoy the narrative’s dour tone, punctuated by moments of intense brutality, as when Scar “bashed the paladin’s head in with three quick strikes. The helmet made an awful, wet, smacking sound upon rupturing with brains.” Readers will need patience while Scar navigates a world crowded with gods, including Drac and Naga. Scar’s own religious beliefs are: “You should not be concerned with how” someone “feels, so long as he is not imposing on you.” Generally, events sweep Scar along from one location to the next, and the plot unfolds without any direction from the protagonist. In a dream, a being called Eternus renames the mercenary Sarkany, the slayer of dragons. In the following installments, Dennis’ hero will hopefully possess more agency.
A slow, engaging, and violent fantasy series opener.Pub Date: July 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5150-6345-2
Page Count: 393
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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