Young heroes shine bright in an otherworldly tale that leaves many questions unanswered.
Fraternal-twin siblings may be the only ones who can save their realm in Sostman’s fantasy series-starter.
Seventeen-year-old Rioyn Orro dreams of protecting his realm of Seivan. It would entail joining Sansyre University’s Order of Soldiers, but his father, a general who finds his son too impulsive, won’t approve his enrollment. Rioyn plans to join anyway; histwin, Ayva, who thinks of herself as a “nerdy book girl,” is already signed up for the Order of Galilei. As each sibling gears up for their orders’ tournaments, their realm suddenly comes under attack. A sinister brother and sister, wielding dark Ascendances (magical abilities), lead the Starless Army, which consists of soldiers whose “lacquered black eyes” indicate apparent mindlessness. Rioyn and Ayva have their own Ascendances, like many in Seivan, but neither has mastered them yet. To restore peace in their realm, they’ll need to find the Iyanndyre Born, a fabled and enigmatic figure. With their loved ones in peril, the twins trek across a mountain range to reach the towering Iyanndyre monolith. Sostman’s novel throws numerous obstacles in the siblings’ way; their journey to the Iyanndyre structure, for example, is rife with life-threatening dangers. However, the characters also struggle with more relatable troubles, such as Rioyn’s craving for his father’s approval and Ayva’s wish that she was popular, like her brother. However, much of this opening installment is deliberately cryptic about key topics, such as who or what the Iyanndyre Born is and how the mysterious Infinite Void relates to Seivan and “the Outer Realms.” The alternating narrative perspectives, primarily the twins’, provide useful insight. Unfortunately, they also reveal Rioyn as a selfish and largely incompetent character; he’s essentially a detriment to the mission, especially compared to the siblings’ traveling companion (and Rioyn’s embittered ex) Falla Kai. An effervescent secondary cast includes villains with startling, well-developed origin stories, as well as Jax Risor, Ayva’s love interest and Rioyn’s best friend. The final act answers a lingering question while also deepening other mysteries.
Young heroes shine bright in an otherworldly tale that leaves many questions unanswered.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798992113518
Page Count: 417
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2025
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
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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