The dense, emotionally fraught worldbuilding continues in this series installment.
In the fourth YA fantasy adventure of Matthynssens’ (Magic Scorned, 2015, etc.) series, a young water mage gains an immense advantage.
Alador has been training for the elite Blackguard in the Lerdenian capital of Silverport. There, he’s been taken under the wing of his villainous uncle, High Minister Luthian, who tolerates the lad, a half-breed Daezun, as he’s capable of wielding magic. Luthian’s goal, however, is to concoct foul weather to destroy the Daezun people’s crops and starve the villagers into submission. Alador, who now possesses the dragon stone of Renamaum, must fulfill the beast’s last wish before inheriting his lore and magical knowledge. Alador and his father, the mage Henrick, travel to Renamaum’s family cave and bring about a brief transformation that reunites the dragon with his mate, Pruatra. Afterward, Alador and Renamaum merge; as a result, the lad becomes a pseudo-dragon and learns a startling secret from the beast. Meanwhile, Henrick gives Alador a tome of necromantic spells that once belonged to the deceitful wizard Rydanth Guldalian, telling him, “It is not the sword or the book that is evil my son, but rather the man who wields them.” Alador accepts it, knowing he’ll need every possible tool to end the enterprise of the Bloodmines, which bleeds dragons of their magic. For this latest outing to the world of Vesta, Matthynssens drops new and returning readers alike into deep narrative waters. The tale starts with a scene involving the Trench Lord, Sordith, as he battles his own men who attempt to assassinate his and Alador’s father, Henrick. Then there’s the Goddess Dethara, who’s darkened the horizon of Silverport by courting the recently manifested pseudo-dragon. Certain narrative threads involving the characters of Mesiande (in Smallbrook) and Jon (in the Bloodmines) remain untouched until Matthynssens finally finds space for them in her methodical tapestry. Although the prose can be a bit bulky, it’s often evocative, as when Renamaum and Pruatra “broke through the clouds and...the stars shimmered in the cool, brisk air.” As the narrative tension grows, so does Alador’s power—but major resolutions await in a future volume.
The dense, emotionally fraught worldbuilding continues in this series installment.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5236-2022-7
Page Count: 462
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2016
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
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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