A bloody—and entertaining—tale about a gritty warrior in eighth-century Germany.
A royal scout considers switching allegiances in this third installment of a historical fantasy series.
The Frankish King Karl has nearly brought the rebellious Saxons to their knees. The Christian king is not a merciful one: When he captures hundreds of pagan Saxon warriors in battle, he has them beheaded in order to strike fear in those who still oppose him. The brutality is too much for Gerwulf, the king’s royal scout, to bear. The half-Saxon, half-Frankish Gerwulf is a Wulfhedinn—a warrior possessed by a wolf demon—and he attacks the king in anger. Imprisoned for his transgression, Gerwulf is rescued by his friend Brother Pyttel, a Christian monk who isn’t above murder when it’s convenient. Pyttel hopes to end the war with no further bloodshed, though he is disturbed that the pagan gods now seem to speak to him more than his Christian one. Gerwulf has no further agenda other than tracking down Vala, a priestess enthralled to the war goddess Walkyrie who happens to be carrying his unborn child. In order to possess Vala, Gerwulf may have to join the father he was raised to despise, lead the wolf-warriors he has long forsaken, and switch sides in a war that has already seen so much death and betrayal. Can a man who moves so easily between kings and gods ever find the peace his mind desperately desires? Spader’s prose summons northern Germany in the eighth century in all its muddy, blood-soaked splendor. In this world, the spiritual and the physical are blurred, and even Pyttel’s Jesus can manifest as a bloody pagan apparition: “Then the Shepherd’s hood fell back, and his halo faded into a crown of thorns. The thorns grew longer, penetrating his scalp. Blood flowed, streaking down his face. Christ had paid dearly for our sins. So would I. ‘Your blood will not atone for the blood that has been spilled,’ the Shepherd said.” As in the previous volumes, the book’s alchemy comes from the blending of history—Karl is a version of Charlemagne—with gory sword-and-sorcery elements. Those who know what a seax is will enjoy the continuing adventures of Gerwulf.
A bloody—and entertaining—tale about a gritty warrior in eighth-century Germany.Pub Date: June 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9971535-6-9
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Quillstone Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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