A grand otherworldly adventure with an appealing protagonist at the helm.
A young man scours unknown lands hunting for legendary runes in Gardner’s debut fantasy novel and series launch.
Nall lives in peace and solitude on remote Clearwater Island. His parents died when he was a boy, but the 22-year-old is close with several islanders, particularly Tengar, the childhood friend he’s fallen for. Nall craves adventure out in the bigger world and finds his chance with a vacant spot on a merchant ship. The action picks up when the crew docks on the Southern Continent and Nall meets treasure hunters Bright and Steiner. They’re looking for famed explorer Ohlegan’s mysterious, powerful runes, which he has hidden in “dangerous and isolated spots.” Bright and Steiner know where one rune is, but the remaining three are secreted on other continents. They take to the seas, traverse a barren desert, and try not to incite locals at pubs. In exotic locations (such as an ancient temple), the three men, soon joined by a fourth adventurer named Ruby, tackle potentially deadly puzzles and navigate mazelike interiors to unearth the runes. Gardner eases readers into this story with the warmhearted, instantly likable Nall and his quiet life. As his journey begins, the mysteries enjoyably pile on, including the runes’ ties to an uninhabitable “Lost Continent” and a stranger apparently shadowing the treasure hunters. The author’s straightforward prose presents an unknown world with sights that feel familiar, from a rusty-colored river and forests to Clearwater’s annual festival. At the same time, Nall and company run into several packs of ghastly creatures—ones that move with “contorted and spasming” legs and horned, spike-tailed beasts that spit a “vile brown liquid.” A few answers gradually come to light, some coming from Ohlegan’s journal excerpts (though he certainly doesn’t give the precise location of the runes). Many threads are left hanging, and it’s clear that the hunters’ quest is far from over.
A grand otherworldly adventure with an appealing protagonist at the helm.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780578350554
Page Count: 201
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2024
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
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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