The ultimate crossroads for fans of werewolves and medieval sorcery.
In this debut fantasy, a shape-shifting sorcerer attempts to develop the skills necessary to thwart an ancient prophecy.
In the realm of Eversora, on the island of Lyrea, 15-year-old Darius is the son of a blacksmith. The boy’s best friends are books and knowledge, since the other teens shun him for not having a mother. His father, Keron, is the blacksmith for Baron Jesha, who oversees the mining town of Sinac. When Darius wonders what happened to his mother, Keron decides he’s old enough to know the truth. First Darius visits the library in Baron Jesha’s castle. On the way, he encounters a young girl with hypnotically green eyes. Further strangeness occurs inside the castle when Darius accidentally locates a chamber protected by magic. Inside is a book that won’t open. He brings the volume home, and his father explains that only nueri—shape-changing wolves—or people with majik in their blood, could have entered the chamber. Keron then tells him that the foul snake people, the Ananta, once enslaved a tribe of nueri called the Szahn. Darius’ mother, Virana, belonged to the Szahn. She left Sinac with the tribe, and the book is her journal. Later, Keron acquires a troublesome wolf pup that’s been caught nearby. The pup bonds with him and says that she is Dyla, Darius’ sister. That Keron possesses no knowledge of having had a second child with Virana is the grand intrigue in DaShaun’s grisly, toothsome novel. He places Darius at the convergence of several fantasy tropes, including Keron’s sorcerous bloodline and the prophecy stating that a child born of man (and another born of the soul) will destroy the Szahn. DaShaun sets a large stage meticulously, but once the action starts, the plot delivers thrills with monstrous gusto. The transformation sequences are visceral, as when one character “could feel ligaments and tendons snapping away from their connections, twisting inside his skin.” Further components like elemental lineages and a set of triple moons make for a magically layered narrative.
The ultimate crossroads for fans of werewolves and medieval sorcery.Pub Date: March 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5227-0987-9
Page Count: 338
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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