A stand-out fantasy novel supported by outstanding worldbuilding and character development.
In Kolven’s fantasy novel, four nations coexist under the rigid laws of a deity known as the Ever-Seer, who requires them to regularly battle each other.
Centuries ago, a deity called the Ever-Seer saved the nations of Ember, Dyre, Aloria, and Telmeer after the apocalyptic event known as the Devastation of the Vynn. The Ever-Seer created a sky-high wall around the nations to protect them from the mythical Vynn of the outside world and issued four decrees: The nations shall war at scheduled times, artifacts of unknown origin shall be destroyed, the nations shall not mix with each other, and encounters with the Ever-Seer or her servants shall not be spoken of. Disobedience is met with divine wrath, either upon the person who disobeyed or their entire nation. Although the Ever-Seer disappeared 20 years ago, and the nations are at constant war with each other (employing varying degrees of force, decided upon by the offensive army in each battle), life goes on. In the Ember Nation, long split into the Ember Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Depths, newly reunited sisters—17-year-old Siphelle Amair and 18-year-old Fiametta “Fia” Ducrow—prepare for their upcoming joint coronation, during which they’ll climb the Ever-Seer’s Tower and be bestowed with a godly amount of ember, the power and energy that supports the nation and that exists naturally in most of the citizens. Meanwhile, Colton Levoux, a Barricade commander, feels a gnawing need to climb the ranks…and doesn’t truly understand why. Kolven’s first installment of his Everlight series is a beautifully crafted and complex fantasy novel that explores themes of power, loyalty, and destiny. The characters and relationships are well developed and compelling, especially in the cases of Siphelle, Fia, and their parents. The prose is evocative and the dialogue flows naturally, but readers will be most captivated by the masterful worldbuilding, which encompasses political and economic systems, mythology, rules of magic, and divinely infused technology: “The [medpack] pouch flared open in midair, revealing a glimpse of the unnatural color…You weren’t supposed to see it.”
A stand-out fantasy novel supported by outstanding worldbuilding and character development.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798994172810
Page Count: 480
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2026
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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