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
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
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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