A free-wheeling, if sometimes meandering fantasy with two captivating heroes.
An adult fantasy novel stars an unlikely duo.
Capes introduces readers to Helisent West of Jaws. Some say Helisent is the most powerful witch in Mieira. Despite such a lofty reputation, Helisent often uses her magic for menial tasks and basic bartering. She can, for instance, clean the laundry at a tavern in exchange for drinks. Helisent has been searching for a witch named Oko for four years. Her reasons for seeking Oko are personal. Samson 714 Afador is also looking for Oko. Samson is a high-ranking wolf known as the “imminent Male Alpha of Velm,” meaning he will one day be the leader of his pack. In his position, he hears “unsolicited opinions and advice almost daily.” Samson searches for Oko, as she is likely the only one who knows the whereabouts of his mother (or her remains). As Helisent and Samson hunt Oko together, questions arise, namely: Can the two trust each other? The history between wolves and wielders (witches like Helisent) is a long and bloody one. As the relationship between the two protagonists deepens, things only become more complicated. Capes’ series opener often puts a playful twist on the fantasy genre. Helisent certainly likes cutting loose with substances like pear wine and a drug called dextro. Who knew witches liked to party? And though witches have their own guidelines to live by, Helisent’s hedonistic inclinations are in contrast to someone like Samson (“Wolves have a thousand rules for everything”). But explaining the intricacies of witches and wolves requires long stretches of exposition. Helisent, for instance, lived in a group called a warren. Everyone in a warren “has a specific responsibility, and every warren has slightly different rules.” Warren duties do not make for the most spellbinding reading. Yet as things turn ever more ribald (as when one character’s “cock twitches at the ready” in anticipation of a sexual encounter), there is much in this novel to keep readers intrigued.
A free-wheeling, if sometimes meandering fantasy with two captivating heroes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798986316703
Page Count: 514
Publisher: Capas LLC
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2023
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
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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