A slow-paced fantasy series installment that lacks a truly climactic showdown.
The third volume in Bowen’s (Servants and Followers, 2014, etc.) epic-fantasy Legends of Arria series.
This latest installment continues the saga of the new Knights of Arria and the citizens of the town of Coe Baba. As the book opens, the residents are recovering from a violent clash with the evil Doomba and his followers. As the people blame one another for the destruction, a small group realizes they have something in common: They all have different kinds of magical powers. They form an unlikely, somewhat fractious alliance to protect their community from the forces of the evil Doomba. Meanwhile, Basha and Oaka (with their friends Monika and Gnat) continue on their own quest for Tau’s Cup, but now that they know they are also the fabled Knights of Arria, they must learn how to properly wield their swords and magic. The group faces trying times as they struggle to use their powers while also dealing with Doomba and his followers’ threats to their survival and freedom. The book’s conclusion sets the stage for at least one more book in the series. Readers of the previous books will welcome this installment’s familiar characters and notice a few new ones, including the bard Jobe, who joins the Knights; they may also be interested in how magic plays a more prominent role. As in past installments, the points of view and settings jump around, and the story progresses slowly, in part, because of these shifts. The book also often presents characters’ thoughts in a clunky fashion: “Monika was not certain if she could truly love [Basha], especially when he was so attached to Jawen and had started out on this quest, after all, to retrieve Tau’s Cup for Jawen so that they could get married.” The author uses ellipses repeatedly to create tension (“She couldn’t risk everything, not even for…”; “I just want to…”), which further slows the pace. As a result, readers eager to learn the fates of Basha and Oaka may become frustrated.
A slow-paced fantasy series installment that lacks a truly climactic showdown.Pub Date: July 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500425333
Page Count: 488
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
