Imaginative storytelling that delivers memorable characters, human and otherwise.
A princess finds hidden strength and purpose in a kingdom filled with intrigue and treachery.
In this debut YA fantasy, Seeling delivers creative tweaks to familiar tropes of the genre, building a compelling world of magic, warfare, powerful evildoers, indelible dragons, loyal horses, and a princess and others tested by adversity. While the last section of this three-part epic occasionally loses momentum due primarily to overt proselytizing (Christian-based but not named as such), the author successfully navigates multiple interwoven plotlines. Love (romantic, platonic, and parental) is a recurring theme. So are betrayal, transformation, and self-discovery. Although Seeling’s villains are one-note (an evil queen, a sadistic emperor, a pair of tyrants), her heroes have strong emotional dimensions. Among them, timid book lover Princess Isladora must overcome fear, physical weakness, and a traitorous queen to save her father’s kingdom. Meluha Crocus, an ancient spirit held captive in Isladora’s magic ring, offers wisdom and guidance. Tobin, the commoner who comes into Isladora’s life, finds his nobility in words and deeds. Half dragon, half human Ariah and her wyvern (dragon) companion, Json, must escape their enslavement to fulfill a destiny they never imagined. Commander, the deposed leader of the wyverns, finds a new life underground and a nurturing imperative to aid tiny “Annites” as they face the threat of extinction from “Protectors.” (The despotic ruler of these potent Protectors, refusing to acknowledge the Annites’ existence as sentient beings, plunders their subterranean habitat for magic “frost.”) Unfortunately, Isladora begins sermonizing in earnest in Part 3 (“Meluha Crocus was the antithesis of religious, and she knew he was in pain because he wanted to believe. She prayed that God would show him the way”). Still, one of the surprises Seeling has in store for readers reveals how Meluha came to be entrapped in a ring. Other twists: the truth of Isladora’s parentage, how the wyverns bond with their half human companions, how the Annites thank Commander, and weapons and fight training. The most cinematic element in this far-reaching plot is the strange trajectory of Json and Ariah’s relationship.
Imaginative storytelling that delivers memorable characters, human and otherwise.Pub Date: April 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64702-190-0
Page Count: 572
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.
When Vis is copied into two other realities, he must stop a god from repeatedly culling almost everyone back home.
Thousands of years ago, to prevent the Concurrence from enslaving everyone, the world was split into three near-identical copies: Res, Obiteum, and Luceum. To exist in all three worlds, to wield Will there, is to achieve synchronism. After the events in The Will of the Many (2023), which cost Vis his arm and the life of his friend, Vis achieves Synchronism. While Res-Vis must continue to play Hierarchy politics to find his friend’s killer, Obiteum-Vis finds a ruined world, where the dead are reanimated and used by Ka, the Concurrence, and the only other person to exist in synchronism. Meanwhile, Luceum-Vis is forced into a dispute between druids, their High Council, and their kings—with one king intent on killing him—and Vis has no idea why. On all worlds, Vis is as shrewd as ever, weighing his options, planning ahead, and doing what he must to survive. However, he, too, slowly diverges, doing things he swore he never would: cede his Will, use Will to control someone else, and reveal his true name. If at least one Vis cannot use his synchronism and power of Will to kill the Concurrence, no Vis will be safe, and another Cataclysm will cull those he loves on Res. Book Two of the Hierarchy series is a speculative fantasy that is at once Egyptian post-apocalyptic, Celtic medieval, and Roman dystopian, thanks to the multidimensional setting. Although the sprawling narrative at times overextends itself, Islington rewards patient readers with a compelling story, a cast of complex and diverse characters, and a glimpse into how far a good man can go before he’s lost. A symbol at the start of each chapter delineates which world and Vis it’s about. Readers should read The Will of the Many before attempting this volume, or they may be confused for the first several chapters and beyond.
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781982141233
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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