A promising first installment of a fantasy series about saving two worlds that needs to evolve to become fully realistic and...
A debut middle-grade novel features magical lands, childhood adventure, guardian spirits, and the love of family.
This first volume in a projected fantasy series introduces readers to Wyatt Tobiah, the youngest of four brothers, after Gallard, Maelog, and Augustus. The boys live alone with their father, Dalton, after their mother died nine years ago. Though their father loves them all very much, his career in the energy sciences keeps him extremely busy, and the boys are often left to their own devices. They end up exploring an abandoned manor house, where a mysterious mirror turns out to be a portal to another land. Talia is described as a peaceful and perfect place, and moreover, after her death, the boys’ mother, Arianna, became queen of this realm. The boys travel to Talia and are amazed (“They saw only untainted beauty. The whole land of Talia was unbelievably lush, green, and pristine. There were flowing waterfalls, trees swaying in the wind, rolling hills, and flowers everywhere”). They are told that they must help Arianna save Talia—and ultimately their own world as well—from the malignant machinations of Lucempest. If the boys succeed, not only will they save two worlds, but they will also help their father with his life’s work. And that work, clean energy, is very much at the center of this story. Pollution and humanity’s role in spoiling the planet figure prominently in this wild, tangled tale, a point that is made strongly and often, frequently in a somewhat heavy-handed and didactic manner. At one point, Gallard even gets an essay test on the subject. The formality of the dialogue unfortunately enhances this flaw. Though the main protagonists are young boys, neither they nor anyone else in the tale ever use contractions, giving their speech a robotic, unrealistic air. That’s too bad, because the emotional core of the book resonates powerfully, both in the clear concern for the environment that shows in the bones of the work and in the deeply loving—if occasionally unbelievably idealized—Tobiah family.
A promising first installment of a fantasy series about saving two worlds that needs to evolve to become fully realistic and unreservedly magical.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4848-7328-1
Page Count: 270
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.
After being murdered and inexplicably reborn, a heavy metal musician sets out on a journey of self-discovery with nothing short of the future of humankind at stake in the first installment of Sanderson and Orullian’s Strata Wars saga.
Jack Solomon is not having a good day. After moving to London from the mean streets of Los Angeles and starting a metal band called the Hounds of Winter, he’s been kicked out of the group just weeks before they’re scheduled to open for Black Sabbath at Wembley Stadium. While Jack is walking with his good friend Henry Wilkinson—a father figure of sorts who has mentored Jack over the years and owns the music venue the Iron Horse—they are both shot and (seemingly) killed. Then Jack regains consciousness and finds himself in a hellscape with a massive mountain of fire in the distance and countless human statues everywhere. After Henry appears in the vision, telling Jack, “You’ve got more to do,” Jack awakens in front of Henry’s flat, unharmed but covered in blood. With Henry’s body missing, Jack begins to understand his new reality: He’s a thanatist (don’t call him a necromancer) and Henry’s venue hides an entrance to the Strata—“several long periods of London history that have coalesced to form layers of the past.” The Strata are inhabited by gruesome creatures and millions of memories, and Jack discovers that someone wants to take over the Iron Horse, with its staircase to every level of the Strata, and begin a revolution where music (curated by a madman) can change the future of humanity. The many shoutouts to legendary bands notwithstanding, this novel is powered by two elements: the exceptional worldbuilding of the subterranean Strata, whose potential is virtually limitless; and Jack’s deeply personal healing journey, which includes forgiving others—like his mother, who abandoned him—and himself. Jack’s story arc is comparable to his adventures in the Strata: The deeper he descends into the Strata, the deeper he delves into himself.
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668068144
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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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