An absorbing, well-developed entry in a remarkable ongoing saga.
In Kim’s fantasy sequel, a powerful beast threatens the existences of a dreamlike realm and the waking world.
Whenever Californian James Mun sleeps, he enters a place called the Flowering. There, he belongs to Crew Blue, along with E, Honey, and Lux, whose job is to kill monstrous “moulded” citizens of the realm. Their latest mission involves the Red Calf, a legendary beast that was defeated and imprisoned in a purple orb, but whom the crew has reason to believe is returning to consume everything in the Flowering. If that happens, the realm will gradually disappear, along with the “dimension of human dreams” and even sleep itself; without slumber, of course, humans will die back in Reality. The Third, who’s one of 12 sightless, formidable Shamans, wants the beast’s power, and specifically its golden eye, to restore each of Shamans’ eyesight. However, the Shamans aren’t trustworthy, with the exception of Snow (aka Twelve) who joins Crew Blue and its allies. James and the rest can materialize weapons for battle out of thin air, but defeating the Red Calf will require unwavering teamwork, as well. This sophomore installment, following Eye in the Blue Box (2025), moves at a slow and deliberate pace, notwithstanding a handful of impeccable action sequences. Kim uses the opportunity to dive deeply into characterization. E, for example, has a thorny history with Kit, and is understandably wary of relying on him as a potential ally. Readers also get more than a glimpse of characters’ lives in Reality, where they go by different names. There’s plenty of tension as well, as getting to the Red Calf necessitates encounters with vicious individuals and, in one Crew member’s case, entering a dangerous tournament. Other highlights include an endearing reunion between Bloom (a giant blue wolf and an original Crew Blue member) and his colorful wolf pack, along with well-earned, heartfelt moments as the characters’ bonds strengthen further.
An absorbing, well-developed entry in a remarkable ongoing saga.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2026
ISBN: 9798992555547
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2025
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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