An inventive but uneven tale that explores the possibilities of creative freedom.
A modern-day fantasy debut focuses on the creation of a new world.
Keely Fletcher is a young writer who finds herself at a literary party. On her way home from the dull event, things take a strange turn. Keely is soon whisked away to a magical world where she, along with a collection of other creative types, is free to make whatever she wants with godlike powers. Keely has been sent there at the behest of a mage from another realm with a fondness for red shoes. She is joined by others, including a painter named Angel Montes and an architect called Reinhold Wynne. Kadro, as the mage comes to be known, keeps this new “Sandbox” and all it contains locked up in a bottle. He explains that he wants to create a new world but “he’s not imaginative enough to do it himself.” Although the world features many nuances, Keely and her cohorts wind up creating real forests of colorful trees, homes, and even living humanoids. But not everything is fun and games. This world also contains monsters, and the creators are not allowed to leave. It is the latter point that upsets many of them. It may sound exciting to fashion a new world, but what does it end up involving in practice? Daveler’s early chapters get the story up and running in an inviting way. What will people like Keely find once they are in the midst of a place that they could hardly ever have imagined? It is an enticing idea with near limitless possibilities, although the results are mixed. While one particularly deviant individual makes his own harem, others chatter about all the things they are missing from their normal lives. But is it really worth complaining about unpaid bills when one could, say, make a talking dragon? It will take some time for readers to process the assortment of intriguing individuals trapped in the bottle (not to mention their rich backstories). The real fun comes in seeing how this Twilight Zone–esque situation will play out. Keely and the others can’t remain trapped there forever. Or can they?
An inventive but uneven tale that explores the possibilities of creative freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73313-452-1
Page Count: 379
Publisher: Block Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2020
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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