An expansive saga that’s slow to start but ultimately intriguing.
Debut author Gennari presents an epic fantasy novel that focuses on a gifted young man who’s destined for legendary greatness.
Areus is a muscular 20-year-old Torian; his people can live for thousands of years, and most generally enjoy their lives. All has not been well for Areus, as he’s been plagued by a dream of a great king in pain, but he’s also a talented athlete who competes in an event like wrestling called Lúkari. His fighting abilities come in handy when he later faces enemies in the realm of the mortals while accompanied by a wise man named Santia, who’s a member of a celestial order called the Assembly of Light. When the two meet, Santia tells the young man that a powerful evil has returned to the world after a long time away and that “There is more to you than you would like to believe.” Meanwhile, in a land called Denkari, a rebellious young woman named Belvara is troubled by her own dreams of terrible anguish; she’s the niece of a senator and longs to know more about her birthparents. When circumstances bring her into contact with Areus, the two realize that they can communicate telepathically—one of many discoveries they encounter in a vast quest to come. Events move slowly in this saga’s initial pages; the first chapter, for instance, provides readers with the backstory of Hydroland, the largest landmass of Aureus’ planet, which seems irrelevant at first but comes into play later on; later, extraneous details regarding Areus’ Lúkari competitions adversely affect the narrative momentum. Although the stage takes time to set, the introduction of compelling creatures will maintain readers’ interest, including brutal monsters called rifas and a helpful shape changer. That said, some descriptions feel lacking; for instance, one cave is guarded by a “monstrous cave troll and his vicious thylacine pets,” but little detail is provided about them. Still, intriguing information is revealed about Areus, and this, coupled with other discoveries—regarding, for example, the dangers of solar flares—will keep readers engaged.
An expansive saga that’s slow to start but ultimately intriguing.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-6454948-0-8
Page Count: 833
Publisher: Star Rise Publications
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2022
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
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
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