Readers who enjoy their fantasy fast and furious will find Ryan’s latest to be an immensely satisfying, top-notch adventure...
In the first installment of Ryan’s new fantasy series—essentially a continuation of Vaelin Al Sorna’s story from the Raven’s Shadow trilogy—the legendary warrior, attempting to live a quiet life in the Northern Reaches of the Unified Realm, is lured across the ocean to the kingdoms of the Far West to save a lost love.
Sherin is a healer of great renown whom Vaelin once loved. He sent her to the Far West to keep her safe years earlier, but when he receives word that the tribes of the Iron Steppe have unified under a man named the Darkblade—who considers himself a god—and that Sherin is at the epicenter of an imminent war, he sets off on a quest to find and save her. Accompanying Vaelin are a misfit group of adventurers—including Nortah Al Sendahl, a disgraced nobleman and warrior struggling with his inner demons; Alum Vi Moreska, an immigrant Vaelin freed from slavery; and Ellese, Vaelin’s niece and heir to the Fiefdom of Cumbrael, who is found as a stowaway long after the ship has set sail. Once the group reach the Far West, they discover that Sherin—known as the Grace of Heaven to the westerners—has disappeared with the Jade Princess, an ageless woman who lives in a remote temple above the clouds and is mythically powerful. Though the book is characterized by breakneck pacing, deeply developed characters, and impressively intricate plotlines, it’s Ryan’s (Many Are the Dead, 2018, etc.) subtle focus on vivid worldbuilding (particularly on varied sensory descriptions) that makes this such an immersive read. Although the conclusion is little more than a respite, the nonstop action, richly described setting, and cast of intriguing characters more than make up for it.
Readers who enjoy their fantasy fast and furious will find Ryan’s latest to be an immensely satisfying, top-notch adventure fantasy.Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-49251-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.
The third installment of this fantasy series (The Bone Season, 2013; The Mime Order, 2015) expands the reaches of the fight against Scion far beyond London.
Paige Mahoney, though only 19, serves as the Underqueen of the Mime Order. She's the leader of the Unnatural community in London, a city serving under the ever more militaristic Scion, whose government is based on ridding the streets of "enemy" clairvoyants. But Paige knows the truth about Scion's roots—that an Unnatural and immortal race called the Rephaim, who come from the Netherworld, forced Scion into existence to gain control over the growing human clairvoyant community. Scion’s hatred of clairvoyants now runs so deep that Paige is forced to consider moving her entire syndicate into hiding while she aims to stop Scion's next attack: there are rumors that Senshield, a scanner able to detect certain levels of clairvoyance, is going portable. Which means no Unnatural citizen is safe—their safe houses, their back-alley routes, are all at risk of detection. Paige’s main enemy this time around is Hildred Vance, mastermind of Scion’s military branch, ScionIDE. Vance creates terror by anticipating her opponent’s next moves, so with each step that Paige and her team take to dismantle Senshield, Vance is hovering nearby to toy with Paige’s will. Luckily, Paige is never separated for long from her Rephaite ally, Warden, as his presence is grounding. But their growing relationship, strengthened by their connection to the spirit world, takes a back seat to the constant, fast-paced action. The mesmerizing qualities of this series—insight into the different orders of clairvoyance as well as the intricately imagined details of Paige’s “dreamwalking” gift, with which she is able to enter others’ minds—fade to the background as this seven-part series climbs to its highest point of tension. Shannon’s world begins to feel more generically dystopian, but as Paige fights to locate and understand the spiritual energy powering Senshield, it is never less than captivating.
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-624-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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