This well-crafted epic fantasy about a mentor’s travels veers off the path at just the right moments.
A novel follows a priest of the goddess Imn-ashu as she fulfills her duty as a Seeker and wields her faith against demons descending on the world.
Jaena travels the countryside searching for children who have inherited taylen, the ability to learn magic. The priest’s senses lead her to the village of Bless-us-goddess, where she quickly finds Wiel, a boy who she believes is a taylenor. Wiel’s parents object to Jaena's taking him away, but when she tells the boy the truth about his condition, he agrees to accompany her to a hospital. Unfortunately, the gift of learning magic is bittersweet: It comes with a deadly illness that only a few—like Mage Herrein, who employs Jaena as a Seeker—have ever survived. Jaena hopes that with her help Wiel will live and become a Mage instead of wasting away like countless others. On their journey, Jaena catches sight of a hulking, wolflike animal among the trees, which reignites her fear that demons have returned to the countryside. In theory, Mage Herrein can defend the city of Uthen, but his strength against demons and the Eastern Mage has been untested for over a hundred years. With the help of her charming friend Metten and the nobleman Halpen, who has a vestigial trace of taylen, Jaena tries to turn the dark tide that threatens to overwhelm the city as she guides Wiel to what she thinks is a safe harbor. In a welcome change to the typical hero’s journey, Lutz’s (Sword of Jashan, 2019, etc.) epic fantasy deftly explores the perspective of a guardian and mentor rather than a talented young charge. Jaena’s palpable sense of duty toward Wiel is a much more intriguing story thread than the catastrophes that serve as a call to adventure in many fantasy novels. The author delivers strong worldbuilding and a fast-paced plot, which serve the book well even when it edges toward standard fantasy fare. In addition, examinations of the characters’ complex emotions add depth when some of the twists in the tale are not hard for readers to foresee.
This well-crafted epic fantasy about a mentor’s travels veers off the path at just the right moments.Pub Date: July 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948374-17-0
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Hydra Publications
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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