An ambitious but awkwardly executed installment of an apocalyptic saga.
In Logan’s fantasy novel, a man must find lost gold, avoid dark forces, and complete a quest that spans thousands of years.
Zarfidi Virtue has been working with the Knights Templar on their quest to find their lost treasure and build the “last temple in Jerusalem” before “the last Iman” arises “to finally challenge the Christian faith as the dominant religion on the face of the planet.” And it’s not just the human realm that’s involved in this plot to bring about an end to the world: Annie Palmer, an agent of the underworld, is helping Zarfidi for her own ends, and the powerful Princess Meritaten is helping him discover more about his quest. It seems Princess Meritaten knows of gold that was found by the ancient Egyptians in the “Great South Land,” now called Australia, and the gold found in Jerusalem during the Crusades most likely came from the same place. Somewhere in the world is the treasure Zarfidi seeks, but political machinations and an old enemy intent on killing him are among the obstacles to his success. This book is a sequel to Logan’s A Man of Colours (2020), and there’s an initial two-page synopsis of the story so far, but it does little to prepare new readers to be thrown into a story that spans hundreds of years and travels all around the globe; they’ll likely get the most out of this novel if they read the previous work first. Overall, this sequel tells a story that has a truly epic quality. However, its execution could have used some additional polish; for example, the author frequently states what characters are thinking instead of showing it through action. He also has a tendency to switch third-person character perspectives from one paragraph to the next, even if the characters aren’t in the same country. It doesn’t help matters that characters are referred to by their names, their nationalities, and/or their jobs during dialogue exchanges; as a result, readers may find it difficult to follow who’s speaking at times.
An ambitious but awkwardly executed installment of an apocalyptic saga.Pub Date: March 27, 2023
ISBN: 9798823002486
Page Count: 344
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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