An often entertaining and eventful journey, despite rather familiar genre elements.
Scheppner presents the first volume in an epic fantasy series about a student of magic who embarks on a prophesied quest.
Kazin is a young human attending “the school of black mages.” When readers first meet him, he’s about to take a difficult and crucially important final test, and he and fellow student Max are excited, if nervous. Students are only allowed to take the test once, and it’s known to be tough. Nevertheless, both boys earn perfect scores—an occurrence foretold in the Book of Prophecy: two mages who earn perfect such scores will defeat a dragon to obtain a powerful “dragon orb.” Mage instructor Sandor guides Max and Kazin to the dragon in question, but his intentions aren’t as pure as they seem. Meanwhile, in the nearby minotaur empire, Zylor dreams of avenging his father, Trogor, who was poisoned by his brother and current minotaur emperor Traygor. Zylor plans to defeat Traygor in an “election duel”: “By killing my uncle in a duel to the death, any supporters he may have will have no choice but to change their support.” But it turns out that Traygor is in cahoots with an “inherently evil” group known as lizardmen; such an alliance could destroy the fragile peace that exists between minotaurs, humans, lizardmen, and dwarves. The narrative follows Kazin, Zylor, and others in a straightforward fantasy setting full of magic and action; plenty of spells are cast and the minotaurs’ bloodlust is extensively detailed. Characterizations are typical for the genre, with few surprises (dwarves are weaponry enthusiasts; goblins are dumb and vicious). However, the story moves along at a brisk pace, without wasting pages on lengthy backstories or uninteresting worldbuilding details. The quest is ultimately epic in scale, and there’s no telling when, for instance, an army of skeletons or elves riding centaurs might turn up. The dialogue is a bit predictable at times (“You'll never get away with this!”), but the appeal of the main players will keep readers turning pages.
An often entertaining and eventful journey, despite rather familiar genre elements.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 9781481741002
Page Count: 790
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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