A religion-based SF novel that delivers heady thrills and a fair bit of confusion.
In Cook’s fantasy novel, the last Atlantean is kidnapped and enslaved by an alien race intent on destroying humanity.
The Great Flood has ended, and Earth is now in an ice age. While reluctantly listening to God’s commands, Ithyanna Ekkleono (“the only apparent survivor of the Flood who did not take refuge in Noah’s Ark”) finds herself traversing the cold land that will eventually become North America to the future site of Roswell, New Mexico. Ithyanna has barely arrived when a strange craft lands and three gray aliens emerge, using their psychic weapons to take control of Ithyanna’s mind and body. Thus begins Ithyanna’s enslavement by the horrid creatures. She manages to kill two, but the Prefect, the strongest of the three, remains alive and keeps Ithyanna in captivity. The remaining alien’s plan to destroy humanity begins with sowing the seeds of alcoholism in Noah and his family, leading to the eventual downfall of Sodom (which Ithyanna narrowly escapes). Ithyanna knows God has a plan for her eventual emancipation, but she must endure her captivity while witnessing the kidnappings and enslavement of multiple famous humans throughout time, such as Amelia Earhart, Elvis Presley, and Jimmy Hoffa. The Prefect and his off-world alien cohorts are working for Lucifer himself, and it’s going to take all of Ithyanna’s courage and might—plus help from God—to save humanity and obtain her freedom. This is the second novel in the Ithyanna series; readers are strongly recommended to approach the books in order, since Ithyanna has a complicated past that won’t come across clearly for newcomers. The author includes a list of the characters, which comes in handy, as many of them have long names (even God himself shows up in multiple forms, which could lead to confusion). While the book does come with some trigger warnings, they focus more on references to enslavement and might not fully prepare readers to encounter insensitive terms such as “Oriental-looking” and “colored slave-song.” But for readers who desire a wild, out-there SF saga with a heavy dose of religion, this will fit the bill.
A religion-based SF novel that delivers heady thrills and a fair bit of confusion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2024
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
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
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