An entertaining blend of SF, fantasy, and history.
Time travelers fight to stop a diabolical man intent on destroying the multiverse in this third installment of Parris’ historical fantasy series.
Kreindia of Amorium, from the ninth century, and Wade Linwood, from the 21st, are synesthetes in love. (Viewing certain shapes causes Kreindia to taste particular flavors.) Their “crossed senses” also give them the ability to travel through time via the astral plane. Since the duo’s confrontation with nefarious synesthete Faron Richter in the previous novel, Kreindia of Amorium (2017),the multiverse has become “unstable” and the timeline has been altered. To fix this, Wade travels on his own to Western Europe in the year 499 to prevent a key battle. However, for the most part, he and Kreindia spend their time checking other historical events to ensure that “all is as it should be” within the multiverse. This isn’t easy when Faron is determined to create chaos by upending a ninth-century peace treaty between Byzantine and Roman emperors. He also has a plan to “wipe out” all other synesthetes in the world, as he considers them lesser than himself. In the course of her time travels, Kreindia is “re-made” into a new person named Amynta, but she strives to keep everything else in history the same until she can vanquish Faron and reunite with Wade. This lengthy tale is full of disparate characters, time periods, and incidences of astral-plane travel. Despite this complexity, Parris makes it all a breeze to follow, as the story tends to stay in one time period during Kreindia’s or Wade’s missions. The characters are a vibrant mix of fictional characters and figures drawn from real life, such as Khans Krum and Omurtag. At the same time, fine details are keen and perceptible: “Suddenly the only sounds were those of spreading cracks giving way to a dissonant clash and a rapid series of thuds as broken metal pieces salted the ground.” There’s a definite feeling of finality at the end, although more sequels could comfortably fit into this expansive world.
An entertaining blend of SF, fantasy, and history.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-942183-06-8
Page Count: 623
Publisher: Blueberry Lane Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A dark fantasy debut featuring a strong and compelling heroine.
The daughter of a rice farmer prevails at the treacherous imperial court of the Azalea Dynasty, where princes and their wives, concubines, and courtiers scheme for power.
When the ailing emperor of Tensha names Terren, his second son, as his heir, a search begins for young women to serve as concubines. Despite reports of Terren’s sadism, Yin Wei, the 16-year-old daughter of a rice farmer, presents herself as a candidate, hoping to secure gifts for her famine-ravaged village and a chance for her younger brother to go to school. When the court’s representative dismisses her as a joke, she responds, “Then let the prince laugh.” Her plea works—and reveals the quick wit and strength of character that ensures her survival in a court where no one can be trusted. After Terren selects Wei to be his Empress-in-Waiting, he regularly subjects her to violence, including that of his magic blades. Fearing for the future of Tensha under his erratic tyranny, Wei determines to compose a heart-spirit poem, which, if used at the right moment, could kill him. Doing so requires Wei not only to learn literomancy—writing poems with the power of spells—in a world where literacy for women is criminal, but also to become deeply familiar with Terren, and thus able to find the words to strike directly at his heart. The story of his past is grotesque, and reveals the way that wrangling for dynastic power destroys families and brings ruin upon a nation; but Terren’s dark history is less compelling than Wei’s steadfast pursuit of it. Resilient and clever, Wei is the heart of the novel, striving to navigate a world of lies and cruelty without becoming cruel herself. She learns to wield power with fidelity to her purpose, and though the novel’s title alludes to her triumph, the story is full of page-turning suspense.
A dark fantasy debut featuring a strong and compelling heroine.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781250406811
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Absolutely superb.
Leaders of Britain’s abolitionist movement join forces with a veteran of the Haitian revolution to push back Napoleon’s deadly forces in Parry’s second Shadow Histories novel.
Napoléon Bonaparte isn’t a particularly talented magician, but his potential as a general and conqueror attracts the attention of the same mysterious figure who manipulated Robespierre to set off the Reign of Terror in A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (2020). When Bonaparte summons a kraken to serve the French navy and later finds a dragon hidden in the sands of Egypt, it’s only a matter of time before France and Europe fall at his feet. William Pitt, meanwhile, is growing weaker by the day as he works to keep a deadly and dangerous magical secret from his enemies. William Wilberforce continues to fight for abolition but is stymied at every turn. Fina uses her magic to help Toussaint Louverture keep hold of Saint-Domingue, but she eventually makes the journey to London and meets Pitt and Wilberforce. With a first-rate blend of political drama and magic battle–action, Parry manages to inject tension and stakes into a historical drama where average readers will know at least the broad strokes of the ending. Effortlessly switching from France to England to Egypt to Saint-Domingue, Parry folds in show-stopping new characters like Kate Dove, a commoner weather mage dead-set on avenging her brother’s death by kraken, and Lady Hester Stanhope, who would become one of the most famous explorers of the 19th century. When the three main characters, Fina, Pitt, and Wilberforce, finally face off with the stranger, the resulting conflict brings the series’ meditations on idealism, the fight for human rights, and the necessary limits of institutional power to a head.
Absolutely superb.Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-45915-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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