A slow but steady introduction to an indelible world.
Many years after a devastating battle, Clans on a distant planet may be preparing for another conflict in this launch of a fantasy series.
There are eight Clans on the planet Jahanet. This opening installment zeros in on four of them, all residing on Jahanet’s largest Domain, Icka. In the present day, three members of Clan Adeian—Draka, Yar, and Scarra—ride separately to the ruins of Lord Matoca’s Kazar (castle). Years ago, Matoca, in an apparent power play, initiated an attack against Clan Veloian. But when Clans Dekam and Arkarian aligned with Veloian, the Adeians lost what came to be known as the Great Battle. Though Matoca called the current meeting with Draka, Yar, and Scarra, no one has seen him since the Great Battle and most people even assume he is dead. Draka first joined Clan Adeian as a bondservant (slave) but has since become a warrior. He has a fondness for Scarra, a woman who’s always shown him kindness, but abhors Yar, who calls him “half-breed” (Draka evidently has the face of an Adeian and build of an Arkarian). But once it’s clear that Matoca is planning to ignite a second battle among the Clans, Draka wonders whether he’ll be able to trust anyone. Smellie (David and the Wizard, 2011) scrupulously details life on Jahanet in this novella. This sets an unhurried pace, with comprehensive descriptions of geography, customs, and terminology, such as cycles (years) and high rock (mountain). Recurrent flashbacks to the Great Battle, however, are often exciting and intense, even if they’re too brief. There are likewise captivating creatures, from Lentars, giant flying beasts with sharp teeth and tails, to the six-legged Zaruses that people ride like horses. While the dialogue is a mix of contemporary and archaic (primarily “thou” or its variations), it’s occasionally stilted. For example, Draka wonders, “What art thou up to, Matoca?” while in some instances “thou” is grammatically incorrect (“What happened to thou?”).
A slow but steady introduction to an indelible world.Pub Date: March 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4974-1910-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enjoyable, worthwhile end to an immersive series.
Cerúlia takes back her throne, but her troubles are just beginning in Kozloff’s (A Broken Queen, 2020, etc.) fourth and final Four Realms novel.
It only takes five chapters for Cerúlia to successfully overthrow Matwyck and take her throne. At first it feels a bit pat for a four-book series to resolve its main plotline so early in its final volume, but it turns out there’s more to successfully ruling a kingdom than putting a crown on your head. Queen Cerúlia has to root out the network of people who supported Matwyck’s coup; she must discern which people genuinely wish to serve her and which are liars waiting to end her reign before it gets going. What’s more, she must address political issues like the growing resentment among the common people toward the aristocracy and deal with thorny issues of international diplomacy. All the while, she has to figure out how to finally be herself when she was forced to spend almost her entire life pretending she was not the rightful queen. Kozloff has great instincts when it comes to pacing, and the novel flies by with a good mix of action sequences and emotional, character-developing beats. Her villains are never one-note, and her heroes are complicated and fallible. Still, it all starts to feel a little paint-by-number. It’s not that there are never any consequences or losses, but eventually it feels a bit too certain that Cerúlia will get it right and things will go her way. Even so, the series ender is just as much fun as the rest of the books.
An enjoyable, worthwhile end to an immersive series.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16896-2
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
With every new work, Jemisin’s ability to build worlds and break hearts only grows.
In the first volume of a trilogy, a fresh cataclysm besets a physically unstable world whose ruling society oppresses its most magically powerful inhabitants.
The continent ironically known as the Stillness is riddled with fault lines and volcanoes and periodically suffers from Seasons, civilization-destroying tectonic catastrophes. It’s also occupied by a small population of orogenes, people with the ability to sense and manipulate thermal and kinetic energy. They can quiet earthquakes and quench volcanoes…but also touch them off. While they’re necessary, they’re also feared and frequently lynched. The “lucky” ones are recruited by the Fulcrum, where the brutal training hones their powers in the service of the Empire. The tragic trap of the orogene's life is told through three linked narratives (the link is obvious fairly quickly): Damaya, a fierce, ambitious girl new to the Fulcrum; Syenite, an angry young woman ordered to breed with her bitter and frighteningly powerful mentor and who stumbles across secrets her masters never intended her to know; and Essun, searching for the husband who murdered her young son and ran away with her daughter mere hours before a Season tore a fiery rift across the Stillness. Jemisin (The Shadowed Sun, 2012, etc.) is utterly unflinching; she tackles racial and social politics which have obvious echoes in our own world while chronicling the painfully intimate struggle between the desire to survive at all costs and the need to maintain one’s personal integrity. Beneath the story’s fantastic trappings are incredibly real people who undergo intense, sadly believable pain.
With every new work, Jemisin’s ability to build worlds and break hearts only grows.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-22929-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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