The intriguing beginning of a promising fantasy series.
Kuster’s fantasy novel, the first installment in the Weaver series, follows three siblings as they navigate a tumultuous realm that sees supernatural abilities as inherently evil.
Triplets Emiel, Meliana, and Kerick DeLuvena own a successful vineyard on the island of Isthius. Emiel, the head of the family at 22 years of age, is the youngest winemaker on the island. With his wedding looming, Emiel and his siblings are preparing for a monthlong celebration. But the island’s populace quickly devolves into chaos when squads of Breakers show up, searching for Bloodweavers—those with the ability to manipulate living things. (“The touch of a talented Bloodweaver could incapacitate a person in seconds. Stop a heart. Destroy a mind.”) Kerick, who’s over seven feet tall, knows he has the ability to weave, and he’s terrified that he’ll not only put his own life in jeopardy, but those of his brother and sister as well. When he tells Emiel about his power, he demonstrates it for him and accidently creates a massive sinkhole into which Emiel disappears, presumably dying in the fall. Kerick and Mel soon become targets of the Breakers, who’ve heard rumors about the triplets’ grandparents’ weaving powers. Kerick vows to somehow find a safe haven with the Ravel, a resistance movement that sees those with weaving abilities as beneficial to society. Mel attempts to save her lover, Ismene, after she is tested and imprisoned by the Breakers. Fantasy fans will find a lot to like here. The rich worldbuilding is arguably the novel’s biggest strength, but the well-developed dynamics between the main characters, particularly Mel and Ismene’s complex relationship, are also compelling. The narrative has an impressive pace fueled by intertwining and action-packed plotlines that maintain the pedal-to-the-metal momentum. Unfortunately, the conclusion is both predictable and somewhat unsatisfying, as it’s more of a cluster of cliffhangers than an ending.
The intriguing beginning of a promising fantasy series.Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9798347018512
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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