A crafty, twist-laden tale that effectively introduces a complex fantasy series.
In this debut fantasy, a young woman dreams of a magical realm and learns about her connection to it.
Krystal Monarain is an amateur photographer who works at Dahlia’s Tea and Book Shoppe in Colorado. Lately, she’s been dreaming of a manor filled with fantastical individuals who are unable to see her. One night, a man with half of his face badly scarred does spot her. This is Draqa, loyal employee to Gov. Sius Mavell Evi. Draqa explains to Krystal that she’s “soul-traveling” to the fae world of Arai and that she must be half fae. Krystal is stunned because she does indeed have pointed ears that she hides beneath her hair. As they enjoy each other’s company, Draqa suggests visiting her world of Taevalear one day—just before an alarm clock wakes her. Krystal resumes her humdrum life until one day, at an outdoor market, she encounters Draqa. He’s arrived via a secret forest Gate. She learns more from him, including that she shares her surname with a minister who was assassinated 24 years ago. More information whets Krystal’s appetite for adventure, but Draqa is forbidden from bringing anyone through the Gate. When she sneaks through after him, Krystal discovers entanglements of which she’s never dreamed. Fenn’s fantasy series opener adds pleasant twists to several genre tropes, including that Arai is not a medieval world but is on pace technologically with Taevalear. There are, for example, solar panel devices known as sonnesand personal communication devices called aspectacasters. Unfortunately, Arai also features prejudice against groups like the “yilura,” who can be jailed for “shapeshifting without a permit.” Casual readers may feel inundated by the narrative’s political aspects, which arrive in force early on. Patience is needed as the story arc of Ambassador Javis Zevos slowly intertwines with that of the protagonists. Krystal’s relationship with Javis changes as she begins dreaming of his tragic past, which reveals a battered soul. And while Draqa is often appalling, as when he says, “A random child is not that important,” the author carefully redeems him. A surprising epilogue foreshadows darker happenings in the sequel.
A crafty, twist-laden tale that effectively introduces a complex fantasy series.Pub Date: April 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-578-38842-7
Page Count: 452
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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