Engaging and fun samurai adventures with a captivating cast.
A debut novel focuses on a mythical Japanese hero.
Tarō is the young son of the samurai Lord Takeda. On his seventh birthday, an important day for samurai boys, Tarō is given a sword by his father as part of the celebration, which includes a visit to the Fuji Hachiman Shrine. The sword will be presented to and blessed by Hachiman no Kami, the God of War. But Tarō’s life is turned upside down when his family is ambushed at the temple by rival warlord Lord Monkey. The boy’s parents are killed, but Tarō manages to escape and is eventually rescued by a witch, who becomes his surrogate mother. Tarō’s idyllic life in the enchanted woods, spent in the company of talking animals, continues for years. He grows up to be a powerfully built young warrior with no memory of his previous existence. Then, Tarō saves the life of the samurai warlord Lord Tokugawa from a sorcerous kappa. When Tarō receives an invitation to live in the leader’s castle as a warrior, he eagerly accepts in order to rejoin the human world. He embarks on a daring journey during which he will learn about the samurai and seek revenge. In the company of the samurai Lady Kamehime and his animal companion, Tanuki, Tarō ultimately becomes embroiled in a political struggle for the throne, with the emperor’s life at stake. Spruell’s old-fashioned story with an omniscient narrator is infused with humor and the inspirational pathos of a brave protagonist on a dangerous odyssey. The author reimagines folktales about three different Japanese heroes named Tarō and inserts them into one striking narrative. Spruell cleverly interweaves Tarō’s story with a tale of 16th-century feudal Japan and its three great fabled warlords. The addition of samurai Kamehime to the vibrant cast of characters is a bold move that pays off. Beautiful, stylized images by debut illustrator Outlaw enhance this enjoyable and inventive tale.
Engaging and fun samurai adventures with a captivating cast.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73572-921-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Out of the Blue Productions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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
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
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