A striking and effectively written fantasy that will force readers to explore serious issues.
A temple slave and a royal bastard battle the corruption of their brutal society in this debut historical fantasy.
In the village of Sefu, 16-year-old Roma serves Mother Lamia, Goddess of Virtuosity. The teen lives in the Lamiapur temple, where girls are auctioned off to men. But three years ago, Roma cut her own face after a patron sexually abused her. While she had hoped to delay her auction, Roma has now learned from Amma, who runs the temple, that she'll be “auctioned on the sixteenth auspicious night of the Festival of the High Lord.” Meanwhile, in the high caste city of Ferozi, Leviathan Blackburn mourns the death of Gabrielle Saheba, the woman who raised him. Leviathan is the only son of the Firawn, who rules the region with an army of vicious Wardens. Because the Firawn sired Leviathan with a casteless woman, he sent the boy away to be trained as an elite Al-Mawt warrior. Now, Leviathan is determined to prove that Gabrielle was killed by the Firawn’s first wife, Mā Saheb. This leads him to wield his savage streak against the patriarchal structures propping up his father’s rule. Yet he knows this life is a prison. Both he and Roma long to shape their own fates, and perhaps together they can. Lal Din crafts a lavishly detailed tale, rich in pre-Islamic Arabian mythology and culture. Beautiful descriptions will transport readers, like the horse, Cinder, who “was a nuance of ash that glistened a molten silver in the ethereal light of the moon." But for all the elaborate clothing and rituals, this world is as cruel as any other. Roma’s adoptive younger brother, Chirag, was “born neither complete male nor female” and is considered an “abomination.” And though magic—like the parasitical “Ghameq,” who feast on violence, anger, and fear—exists, the narrative is built largely around the protagonists’ traumas. The author explores evils like human trafficking and rape, delivering this larger observation: “When people lived primitive lives, striving to cover their basic needs, humanity was bound to shrink.” This is an apt assessment that any sequel will hopefully work to counter.
A striking and effectively written fantasy that will force readers to explore serious issues.Pub Date: March 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-83804-650-7
Page Count: 338
Publisher: White Tigress Press
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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