A complex fantasy full of multifaceted characters and intriguing landscapes.
All's not fair in love and war in this fantasy sequel.
Camich Major, a royal son of Conica, is home for his brother’s entitlement ceremony when events take a tragic turn. His stepmother and lover, Lili, is murdered and Cam is forced to flee the kingdom with his younger siblings to protect them from the political machinations of their older sister, Balia, queen of Conica. Thus begins Cam’s epic journey across the lands of Conica as he struggles to ensure the safety of his loved ones and seek vengeance for Lili’s killing. In his quest for revenge, he learns that there may be a connection between the deaths of his parents and the murder of Lili. And as he searches for the poison that killed his lover, he encounters a diverse group of men and women who reside throughout Conica. There are Plainsmen, Everforesters, and Rainforesters. They are marked by distinct color shadings, dress, and cultural norms. Cam must navigate the expectations and customs of each group of Conicans, which results in side trips, distractions, and delays in hunting down the killer. All the while, the ruthless Balia arranges marriages and executions to secure her power at great cost to both her enemies and allies. Sponsel creates a detailed and colorful world in this sequel to Legacy of a King (2017). The tale is full of complicated political and cultural interactions, which bring the story alive but also can cause some confusion. It’s a world full of unfamiliar names and places, and some terms, such as “ingene,” would have benefited from more explanation. But the author’s characters are nuanced and fully fleshed out. Balia remains a formidable adversary. Unbeknown to Cam, she has kept a pawn to use later in an ultimate act of retribution. In addition, Cam’s tragic and abiding love for Lili is a constant and powerful plot thread.
A complex fantasy full of multifaceted characters and intriguing landscapes.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5320-8124-8
Page Count: 362
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 2, 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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