First-rate, refreshingly female protagonists worthy of a multivolume fantasy tale.
A handful of adventurers and warriors may be the heroines needed to champion a land besieged by violence and a steady moral decline in this debut novel and series opener.
Longtime friends Ravage and Patsy satisfy the former’s “penchant for vengeance” by chasing a group of bandits who savagely murdered a family. After narrowly surviving clashes with vicious creatures and phantoms, the two women continue their journey through the land of Sapphiron and stop in Menark, a merchant village, for food and supplies. Mercenaries known as the Scarlet Blades, who need no provocation, assault Ravage and Patsy, but powerful female warrior Akella comes to their aid and defeats the men in combat. Akella, one of the (not quite human) Surangi race, is accompanied by her sister Crystal and friend Melody. They plan to reunite with some Surangi in the city of Leesa, but Akella heads off on her own. While she confronts—often aggressively—unsavory men who victimize people (or wolf cubs used as bait for capturing wolves), Ravage and Patsy help the inexplicably disappearing townsfolk of Sigwood. But trouble’s on the way: Scarlet Blades leader Baron Nade, assuming formidable Akella’s a witch, sends sorceress Matearla to hunt down the heroines. Forrester’s fantasy story is dominated by laudable female characters, making it easy to forget that the villains are primarily male—and generally atrocious. Ravage and Patsy are admirable, fearlessly facing beasts in others’ defense, while Akella’s valiance may be questionable: is striking down a man who’s already surrendered, for example, an unnecessarily brutal act? The author excels at describing otherworldly beings (the six-eyed, black-beaked, saliva-dripping tohern), complemented by Isailovic’s crisp, detailed illustrations (one of them stars a wide-mouthed banshee). Not all men are evil, but the standout among the baddies is Matearla, who lists murder “in the top three” of her “favorite activities.” Characters introduced late have little chance for development, but it’s clear, especially with someone’s divine encounter, that Forrester’s priming readers for subsequent installments.
First-rate, refreshingly female protagonists worthy of a multivolume fantasy tale.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5454-5283-7
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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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