An enthralling coming-of-age story that unfolds in a land both strange and recognizable.
In this epic fantasy by the author of The Sword of God (2009), a boy ascends into adulthood in a world tarnished by others’ bigotry and thirst for political power.
The 12-year-old Olei (who eventually uses his full name, Ologrin, instead of that nickname) lives in Halrin’s Spur, a herding village in the land of Lhosa. When hideous creatures with “twisting masses of horn growing from their disfigured heads” suddenly raid the village, the boy survives, but many, including his mother, do not. Under the tutelage of Tobin, a man who makes cheese for trading, Ologrin is shocked by a bladed attack by a woman he later learns is named Thania. “I know what you are,” she cryptically tells him. Years later, as an apprentice priest in the city of Antola, he nearly succumbs to another assault with lethal intent. Ologrin encounters a friendly soul in Vireo, a woman who’s a Polfre, one of the humans who, according to legend, had lived on Lhosa first and wielded magic. Based on Ologrin’s tanj (a knifelike object from his long-ago vanished father) and subtle physical traits, Vireo determines he’s half Polfre and, as an outsider, is a probable threat. This makes it especially challenging when Ologrin is unavoidably embroiled in politics: Can he change Lhosa for the better when powerful men want to kill him? Krause packs this bulky tale with fully developed themes involving topics such as religion and discrimination. Ologrin, for example, whom some call by the Polfre slur, “maleugenate,” has brown skin, unlike the pale-skinned citizens in other cities. The cast of characters, however, is relatively small. The author concentrates more on relationships than on accumulating characters, so he develops Tobin as a convincing paternal figure and allows a delightfully complex romance between Ologrin and Vireo to unfold. Dialogue throughout is sharp and generally contemporary, which is perfectly suited to the largely familiar world and people of an unspecified time. While Krause leaves room for a sequel or even a spinoff, this novel is wholly gratifying as a stand-alone fantasy.
An enthralling coming-of-age story that unfolds in a land both strange and recognizable.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73454-260-8
Page Count: 534
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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