This epic tale introduces a cast as unforgettable as the future world they live in.
In Stoutimore’s fantasy debut, swords and magic clash in an ongoing conflict entangling angels, demons, and humans.
In a futuristic world not too distant from our own, the human Knights of Sadira once fought evil armed with the magic of angels. But it’s been six years since their home and training ground burned, and now Knight Raffi Okamoto treks across a dystopian Japan as a ronin, or masterless warrior. She reluctantly agrees to help an old friend, Quincey Henri, a New Orleans–based mage who co-founded a group of powerful “Craft” (magic) practitioners; he needs all of his magical comrades to aid in combatting sinister witches who have unleashed a daunting soul-eater demon. He enlists Raffi, armed with her katana and her staggering agility, to track down his fellow co-founder, Insaf, a former Knight who’s now missing. A concurrent plot, which takes place decades earlier, focuses on an orphaned girl who’s lost her family and most of her memories. After saving her from vicious masked men pursuing the girl in Neo Tokyo, Asahi, a Yakuza boss, all but adopts her, naming her Aiko and taking her into his clan where she trains to become an assassin. Aiko endures the harsh and often cruel training, driven by her obsession to mete out vengeance against the Yakuza who, she believes, slaughtered her parents. The time discrepancy between these dual plotlines gradually diminishes until they converge in a violent collision between good and evil.
Stoutimore’s novel, the first in a new series, unfolds in an indelible cyberpunk world in which many people’s bodies are augmented in some capacity by “mech.” The story rarely views such technological advancements favorably, as air-car traffic clutters the skies and flashing holographic billboards are a nuisance. The presence of angels and demons functions mainly as a backdrop for Raffi’s and Aiko’s fascinating stories. Raffi comes with a mysterious background; readers know little about where she’s from, and a demonic voice in her head incessantly taunts her. Aiko seems like Raffi’s antithesis, but her past is equally murky. Their connection to one another isn’t terribly difficult to work out, as the author starts dropping huge clues well before the halfway point. Stoutimore includes copious action scenes that hit hard and fast, reminiscent of the lethal face-offs in samurai films, complete with severed limbs, spurting blood, and viscera smacking the ground (“Raffi whipped her weapon in a tight spin and closed her eyes. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve gone unrestrained. I thank you in advance for the chance’ ”). This opening installment, despite its length, leaves much to explore: The other five Knights of Sadira make relatively few appearances, and the novel provides few details surrounding the “eternal wars” between the angels and demons. The smashing conclusion of this opening salvo is sure to have readers on the lookout for a sequel.
This epic tale introduces a cast as unforgettable as the future world they live in.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 979-8368063089
Page Count: 630
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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