Though somewhat longwinded and slow, this novel is a magical trip worth taking.
A wood nymph raised among humans discovers her powers and magical purpose in Hopkins’ fantasy epic.
One night, a fey infant is born from a tree, and four druids arrive to take possession of her. When they are chased by monstrous gnolls, the baby is lost crossing a rushing river, having turned into a fish and eluded the druid carrying her. After turning back into a little girl, she is raised first by a priest, who names her Piper, and then by the cruel guildmaster of Penderyn, Dahlia Tulan, who renames her Silbrey and trains her as an assassin. Silbrey escapes Dahlia’s custody through marriage, but Dahlia retaliates by having Silbrey’s husband murdered. When Silbrey seeks out Dahlia for revenge, she encounters the legendary High General Bren Caius. Bren gifts some land to Silbrey and her children that lies near an enchanted forest, which puts Silbrey in touch with her long dormant fey abilities. Armed with her new self-knowledge, Silbrey sets out to save the land from the upcoming brutal wars, accompanied by her children Gydan and Yurig, who have magical destinies of their own. This is an ambitious fantasy novel on a grand scale—the pacing sometimes drags, but the worldbuilding is conveyed with surgically precise attention to detail. While epic in scope, the story still finds time for moments of human intimacy: “Like Al’taru, a mother’s love was nothing in itself. It was the in-between, the invisible borderline that connects and makes things possible.” Silbrey is a prickly protagonist, carrying years of pent-up anger, and her journey of self-discovery makes her flaws compelling. Gydan is complex enough to carry her own series; her magical abilities and perceptiveness serve as elegant counterpoints to her mother’s story. Though quite long, this novel is only the first in a series. Readers who become lost in this world won’t want to miss the following books.
Though somewhat longwinded and slow, this novel is a magical trip worth taking.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9798218186432
Page Count: 618
Publisher: Seven Coins Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2025
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
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
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