A vibrant, elucidating LGBTQ+ fantasy.
In this third volume of the Immortal Beings fantasy series, deities inhabit human bodies, fall in love, and strive against bigotry.
Three thousand years ago, in a region called Zhongtu, An Ning awakes in a field of ash, inhabiting a man’s body. She has no other memories of her identity prior to waking other than her name and gender, but she has the magical power to shape clothing from soot. She learns that the village of Xiling has been burned by the God of Destruction and befriends Lady Guiying, a courtesan. When An Ning explains the circumstances of her awakening, Guiying declares her a new god. Soon, An Ning is known as “the Peace Bringer” in the village of Ningjingcun. One day, Karana—who’s the God of Destruction but chooses not to use the title—approaches the village. When he sees someone who reminds him of An Ning, whom he knew millennia ago, he calls her name. Startled, An Ning uses divine magic to teleport to Karana’s side, then faints from the exertion. Karana carries An Ning to her house and remains until she wakes. So begins an unconventional and magical romance that feels like destiny at work—yet Karana keeps his past from An Ning, including her role in it. The truth emerges as the Sundered Cult, seeking vengeance for their deceased Sun God, attacks female monks and deities. Pawlicki’s third series installment is emotionally resonant as both a fantasy and as an exploration of transgender identity. The chapters often shift between An Ning and Karana’s third-person perspectives, and when following An Ning’s actions, the narration uses the pronouns she/her/hers. When following Karana’s, An Ning’s pronouns become he/him/his, portraying Karana’s inaccurate perception. Magical elements, such as Bulgae fire dogs, are well integrated into the narrative. Bits of wisdom weave through the story in lines such as “You cannot control what another believes.” The work’s tragic portrayals of body dysmorphia will be familiar to many readers and may create clarity for others. A magical plot development toward the end reveals how one’s viewpoint on gender is informed by society and also changeable with an open heart.
A vibrant, elucidating LGBTQ+ fantasy.Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-957279-02-2
Page Count: 345
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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