An engaging tale of prophecy and magic with solid characters and mythology.
In the beginnings of a war against a group of mysterious, magical beings, a young woman learns of her own connection to an ancient prophecy in Munger’s fantasy series-starter.
In the Kingdom of Lavonshia’s rural province of Dorak, 21-year-old Aurelia Talbot lives a quiet life with her father in a village called Chelam. It’s a peaceful place, unaffected by war or crime, but other parts of Lavonshia aren’t as lucky. Recently, the city of Saan was decimated, with the entire population disappearing. The accused perpetrators are members of a mysterious nearby group of clans called Gray Cloaks, who have magical abilities and maintain peaceful relations with Dorakians. A group of Gray Cloaks appear in Chelam and announce that the Ka—the king’s army—is headed their way, and that Aurelia’s in danger—and she must leave Chelam with the Gray Cloaks immediately. Aurelia departs with a Gray Cloak named Daphne, accompanied by best friend Eken and Col, the son of Chelam’s most prominent family, who wishes to marry Aurelia. Daphne reveals that Aurelia is at the center of a prophecy about a Storm Grazer: “one who rides the storm clouds and holds lightening in hand.” Meanwhile, the Ka are seeking the missing people of Saan, killing any Gray Cloaks they encounter. Ka soldier Magnus Alwyn is wracked with guilt after his unit massacres a Gray Cloak village, and he isn’t the only disillusioned soldier; later, Daphne saves him and his comrades from a pack of Shadow-Wolves. In this fantasy novel, Munger presents a tale of friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. The author’s love for the genre is palpable on every page; the compelling tale is populated with intriguing characters throughout, and the worldbuilding is convincing and sound. Readers are likely to enjoy the detailed and sometimes playful descriptions of the various players most of all; they include NoNo, a catlike creature who “possessed the peculiar ability to blend in with his surroundings, invisible to any who glanced his way. With a whisk of his tail, he became a stray bolt of cloth tumbling along the street, or a mischief of mice scurrying across a room.”
An engaging tale of prophecy and magic with solid characters and mythology.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781971248011
Page Count: 450
Publisher: True Mark Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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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