While difficult to decipher in places, this wild tale about a goddess delivers surprising insights.
A fantastical novel offers myths and adventures.
Lemon follows up the first volume in this series with the further escapades of the goddess Gaia Ladrieh. This sequel begins with Gaia seeking “new Wisdom from amongst those inhabitants of the Falen World.” In order to do so, she ventures beyond the Great City of the Pyramids. What she discovers disappoints her. She is immediately struck by a place where “toxic fumes dominate the air.” Later, she is enraged when, after trying the water, she finds it “tastes of gasoline and the oil of those virulent machines of the Dark Age!” Then, on the island of AIA, Gaia encounters more problematic circumstances. Things get so bad that she is driven to tears. Whatever is a goddess to do? She returns home, where “the Rites oV—DIONYSUS IX were to be performed.” The descriptions of these rites are dense with dialogue, instructions, and poetry. They also include multicolored text that is not always in English. Different signs of the zodiac make appearances as well as a flute-playing serpent. There is a banquet with Jupiter and a “Mistress oV—the NIGHT! oV—the Woodland GOD!” It all culminates in an appeal directly from the author on the importance of eccentricity. For readers, piecing the tale together is a bit of a challenge. Aside from text that is at times indecipherable, some spelling and word choices make for a difficult read. For instance, it is proclaimed at one point that “COLORED beyond!—DAEMON-Z’I’ON’z Portal, Crowned oV Many Colored leaves, S=HE Stands.” This line, like many others, requires careful reading to ascertain just what is going on. Yet the outlandishness of it all is far from bland. The work, when examined patiently by the uninitiated, is even thought-provoking. Gaia should be upset. When people attempt to perform rites for her on AIA, the action is interpreted as madness. But who are the truly mad? The ones fouling the water or the ones trying to honor the sacred? As the text points out, “Cannot we cease such shallow dramas wading in childish depths…within the DREAM POOL?” Perhaps readers should listen to the flute-playing serpent’s tune.
While difficult to decipher in places, this wild tale about a goddess delivers surprising insights.Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2021
ISBN: 979-8456529961
Page Count: 207
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
