Fast-paced, with nuanced characters and believable parallels to our own world.
In Beaumont’s fantasy novel, war erupts over control of the Stars.
The author skillfully explores the philosophical implications of power in her created world, the Star-Riven Settlements, in which each region uses their given Stars—asteroid-like objects that fell from the sky—differently. The two Stars of Gemynd enable its rulers to subjugate an adjoining region, Rask. Rask accepts its lesser status until dire circumstances compel its people to revolt, refusing to provide labor and goods to Gemynd any longer. Parlenta considers itself superior because it mines its Stars and sells the resulting product, Astamitra (a drink that fosters communion with the Stars), to the Gemyndians. In contrast to the rest, Aisren’s Stars are available to all in the form of energy. The story’s two principal characters come from opposite socio-economic backgrounds. Einya, from wealthy Gemynd, is newly trained as an Astrologer, one of an elite group with access to the cave housing the sacred Stars. Einya hopes to elevate her Raskian lover, Tollska, by wedding her, but Tollska has different plans, sacrificing herself to a loveless but expedient union with Einya’s cousin, Pearth, the leader of the Constellan Guard. While Einya and Tollska try to work from within to prevent a civil war, Einya’s brother travels to Parlenta, seeking an alliance with that region against Gemynd. A startling discovery by Einya furthers the ongoing crisis: Communicating directly with the Stars, she finds that, contrary to long-standing mythology, Gemynd isn’t the favored land at all. The Stars are neutral, caring only about “memory and truth,” desiring merely to be “historians.” But rulers such as Pearth shun that revelation, rounding up and executing Raskians under the guise of keeping the peace. Beaumont’s narrative mostly moves at a gallop. The characters, often hurtling through dangerous situations, are compelling and multidimensional; for example, Tollska, though in love with Einya, feels unexpectedly attracted to the unlikable Pearth. The story could have reached a smoother finish; it ends abruptly on a jarring note (Beaumont has a next installment planned).
Fast-paced, with nuanced characters and believable parallels to our own world.Pub Date: April 24, 2021
ISBN: 9781957537818
Page Count: 266
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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