A derivative take on the magical boarding school novel that offers little entertainment.
In this YA fantasy novel, students attend a magical boarding school where they learn spells, play Mageball, and contend against evil forces.
Soon after Greg Warren’s birth, his parents received letters informing them that he was gifted and would receive private school scholarships. Greg and his friends—Annie Petersen, Zach Talbut, and Annabelle “Belle” Blue—are in their last semester at Bourdinbaugh Preparatory Middle School in Milwaukee. Upon graduation, they’re chosen for the prestigious Hazelwood Academy. When the new school year begins, they travel by a special train, in which Greg and his friends learn that magic exists. Outside the Academy is Hazelwood Village, where shops selling magical items line the cobblestone streets; the school itself is “like a castle…and like a modern commercial high-rise,” with a surrounding forest. The luxurious, co-ed dorm rooms include four-poster, canopied beds and other perks. The foursome meets other students, some friendly, some less so, such as “Magical-Born” Alec Sterling, who sneers at those born to “Normals,” like Greg. As the students learn and practice magic, choose a “Magical Focus” (an “Elemental Spirit” connected with an object), and play Mageball, an evil cabal is hatching a plot against the magical world. Meanwhile, Greg goes on a quest to help strengthen his Magical Focus. In his debut novel, Bandor owes many obvious debts to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, with elements similar to the Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts itself, Hogsmeade, Quidditch, Muggles, and more. Bandor does elaborate more on just how magic works; for example, humans have an “ætherial” core, but need an elemental spirit to amplify it, and this ties in well with the story. However, these explanations are dull, and Bandor lacks Rowling’s lightness of touch; there’s much leaden jollity, and Bandor’s adolescents blush and giggle with tiresome frequency. The style, too, lacks grace, as when Greg explains a cheese grater to Annie, who blushes (of course) and notes “the efficiency with which Greg utilized the grater.”
A derivative take on the magical boarding school novel that offers little entertainment.Pub Date: March 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5232-9041-3
Page Count: 402
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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