A creative but overstuffed conclusion to the series.
The Highgladeseries concludes in this third and final tale of factions battling across a vast fantasy land.
As Jennings’ newest installment opens, the fate of the Athrani people hangs in the balance of a dying warrior, the noble hero Miera. Having sealed off the Otherworld—or so she hopes and believes—she breathes her last, and we are dropped into the ruinous landscapes of the world she left behind. In the wasteland of Khulakorum, Seralith Edos—or “Sera,” as readers come to know her—is mourning the death of her father figure, Gen. Aldis Tennech. Our first encounter with her is more somber than when we meet Alysana, who quickly wins readers over with a bit of cloak-and-dagger action (literally) to fell a guard and release prisoners we can only assume are wrongly jailed. The very next chapter, we meet Duna (each chapter features a different character’s perspective), who can’t help but be memorable, given that she is recently ascendant to throne of Haidan Shar. Next comes Thornton and his Hammer (hmm…) of Worldforge, followed by Kethras and then Asha, each of them a sort of demi-god whose help—or interference—plays out with drastic consequences throughout the battles that pepper this series. Jennings’ prose is typical warrior-fantasy fare, “She had dealt with power-hungry madmen before, but admittedly, this was her first time dealing with a power-hungry madman who also happened to be a god.” The well-imagined plot unfolds with nonstop action: Families are torn asunder, characters once thought dead are reincarnated in shady deals, and the bonds of loyalty and notions of honor and nobility will be tested in battle. But this third installment simply has too many perspectives for readers to truly connect with any of them. Though much thought has been put into this storyline and the humans and gods who live it, the end result feels unfocused.
A creative but overstuffed conclusion to the series.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781954676756
Page Count: 590
Publisher: Indigo River Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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