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
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
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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