An imaginative, if somewhat dense, epic with meticulous worldbuilding.
In Goldsmith’s debut fantasy series starter, a storyteller must prevent catastrophe by keeping the land’s now-forbidden mythology alive.
The world of Aerda has enjoyed peace and harmony for centuries, maintained by nameless storytellers called rookes. Then an imperial takeover brings new technologies, the suppression of religion, and the systematic assassination of rookes to destroy Aerda’s old mythology. Fifty-seven years later, an ancient spiritual order, the Seven Aspects of the Relic, delivers a distressing message to the last remaining rooke: The dragons of Aerda are coming out of hibernation, and the only way to prevent them from destroying everything in their path is for the rooke to tell the forbidden stories to everyone who’ll listen: “Dragons slumber to the tune of their tales. When their stories cease, when the magic of creation is extinguished in the people of Aerda, they awake.” The rooke sets off on his journey, accompanied by a bevy of assistants, followers, and protectors, including the scrivener and guardian knight Kentigern Dagan Leesh, master puzzle solver Ghita Mist, imperial defector Tavares Flaco, and the rooke’s two adopted sons, 15-year-old Thiago and 11-year-old Kostas. In city after city, the rooke recounts mythical tales of the enigmatic sorceress Phaedra and the lost land of Alleysiande to tavern audiences, encouraging them to break free from the oppressive regime of the Three Empires. But spies aim to crush the growing rebellion. Over the course of the novel, Goldsmith presents an intricately crafted fantasy tale about oral storytelling tradition, oppression, and the existential threat that technology can present to creativity: “I used to paint,” says one character. “I don’t know why I gave it up. I guess it seemed useless once technology learned how to do it.” In addition to the primary arc, the rooke’s tales are effectively interwoven throughout, further immersing readers into the fictional world of Aerda. However, although the overall story is intriguing, some readers may find it difficult to follow at times, due to an overcrowded cast of characters, all of whom seem to come with their own side plots.
An imaginative, if somewhat dense, epic with meticulous worldbuilding.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798988155508
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Kpm Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2024
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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