An exciting fantasy adventure and a great start to a promising new series.
A young man on a quest for vengeance gets more than he bargained for in this fantasy novel by Blake Penn and Raven Penn.
Three years ago, in the fantastical realm of Evgard, a 17-year-old magic-using “magi” called Asher lost his mother, Zerana, also a magi, when she was killed by the Mage Hunter called the Black Valkyrie. Asher’s father, Akayto, takes in teenage brother and sister Kai and Kari after their parents, who had been assisting an elite group of dangerous magi called the Knights of the Torch, disappear. Asher and Kai spend their days adventuring and thieving to accumulate enough money to move Akayto to a safer place. Their situation worsens when Mage Hunters show up at their front door looking for Asher after he and Kai get caught up in a heist gone wrong. Just as Asher fears he’s been found out, the Drekai—winged, horned, dragonlike people—invade. These strong and fearsome beings are seeking their precious dragon egg, which King Rodan of Drakfell (a “keepdom” within Evgard) has stolen. The Knights of the Torch assemble to find the dragon egg, which is incredibly rare and contains potent magic, before it falls into the hands of the Black Valkyrie, who is also pursuing the object. Asher chooses to join them on their quest, to stop the Black Valkyrie and exact his vengeance. Blake Penn and Raven Penn have crafted a complex world with an engaging cast of characters led by the dynamic and entertaining Asher (“I screamed in terror as I watched Whitestone Hall fade away. Once I was out of earshot and certain that no one would hear me, I cried out. ‘No! I’m too handsome to die!’ ”). His quest to avenge his mother is heartfelt, and he demonstrates great compassion and love for his friends and family. Side characters such as Kai, Kari, the Knights of the Torch, and others are equally fleshed out and support the story. The narrative is fast paced and skillfully interweaves the exposition with the plot and character development.
An exciting fantasy adventure and a great start to a promising new series.Pub Date: March 6, 2023
ISBN: 9798987789520
Page Count: 487
Publisher: Good Lux Creative
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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