Remarkable humans and fantastic creatures headline this delightful, enchanting tale.
In Lescart’s fantasy novel, a royal official embarks on an otherworldly expedition to track down a magic carpet.
Majhar Ayûn, Grand Vizier in the Indian kingdom of Madraptur, tells the Maharajah about a master weaver who reputedly infuses magic into carpets. The prince, who’s obsessed with collecting objects perceived as “unobtainable,” demands that Majhar bring him such a carpet linked to the Tree of Life.Under the threat of decapitation, Majhar agrees. He crosses a desert to reach the mountains, where some say the master weaver lives. But it’s not a matter of Majhar simply picking out a magical rug, as he must first make a sacrifice (“a living offering,” a mysterious boy says. “From you”). Once he accepts this carpet, he’s to follow a set of rules somehow tied to his newly assigned companion, Tyro, a young drake bat who talks and can spit fire. Majhar just wants to get the magic carpet back to Madraptur and delivered to the Maharajah, and thereby keep his head. Certain individuals, however, know that he’s transporting an enchanted item that can defy both time and space. On his journey back home, Majhar has run-ins with all sorts, including a sorcerer, a marionettist, and even a couple of mischievous desert foxes. While not all of them aim to cause Majhar harm or steal the magic carpet, there’s a good chance they’ll at least slow him down. Luckily, he’s helped by two things he’s bonded with: the drake bat (“Tyro will stay close,” the creature promises) and the carpet itself.
Lescart’s entertaining story often adopts a lighthearted tone. The creatures are described endearingly—foxes’ ears are “twitching with alert,” their eyes “shining in the moonlight.” The human characters are multidimensional; Majhar is a reluctant hero who’s nervous most of the time, and the villains don’t immediately present themselves as diabolical. They all combine to form a colorful, multispecies cast that gives this adventure welcome energy. The novel drops readers into a plot right alongside Majhar, who travels to see a master weaver he isn’t sure he’ll find to retrieve an item he doesn’t believe will be genuinely magical. It’s understandable that Majhar is intermittently baffled when characters tell him things like “The impossible becomes possible, the possible crumbles… And maintaining this dance is where true power lies.” The narrative deftly blends real-world excitement and spiritual concerns—at one point, Majhar visits an extravagant temple; the seemingly mystical animals (not just Tyro) leave Majhar wondering if he’s awake or only dreaming. Throughout the novel, the author’s simple prose beautifully depicts the Indian setting: “Little by little, in the pale morning light, everyone resumed their usual routines. Ropes were untied, blankets shaken, mounts saddled. The wind, now reduced to a warm breeze, left a strange clarity in the air, the desert granting them a brief respite.” The final act superbly conveys the unexpected ways in which the characters’ personal journeys end.
Remarkable humans and fantastic creatures headline this delightful, enchanting tale.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798323111756
Page Count: 314
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2026
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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