A somewhat perplexing but engaging start to what’s sure to be an epic fantasy saga.
A princess explores her mysterious past in this debut fantasy.
Princess Cruentus Fate of Macellarius is a mere 7 years old when her father sells her to a brothel. But her twin, Prince Abyssus, has a theory that the king isn’t even their father; indeed, Fate remembers only the last two years of her life. Fortunately, the brothel’s madam and the other girls are kind, and Fate joins them in the Rebellion against the Council, which governs the empire of Mu. As the brothel won’t auction off Fate until she’s 16, she tries winning the affections of Prince Caeles Hero of Nitor so he’ll bid on her. But a potential marriage to Hero comes with its own set of problems. Since he’s “Tainted,” he reputedly spreads miasma (spiritual blood) that negatively affects others. Meanwhile, Fate gradually learns about her past, mostly through Abyssus’ journal. Though they’re supposedly both Ancients with elemental capabilities, Abyssus suspects they may be something else entirely. But even more answers may lie in Fate’s bizarre, lucid dreams in which interactions with gods and folklore characters seemingly are connected to her lost memories. Yin and Yang fill their series opener with cryptic passages and events, such as someone Fate has just met saying, “You and your brother have always been dear to me.” This book doesn’t answer all of the questions, though the ending wonderfully sets the stage for the authors’ planned 60-volume series. Still, there’s laudable character development in this installment. Fate feels a genuine fondness for Abyssus and Hero and discovers a rival for the latter’s affections. Menaces also crop up throughout (for example, a “gargantuan” and intimidating royal guard) along with instances of violence. The authors’ lucid prose frequently evokes the senses, particularly during Fate’s surreal dreams: “The sound of breathing echoed and trailed, then silence returned….Above her, stars twinkled, and beneath her feet, a dark swirling vortex spun as it reached down into endless black.”
A somewhat perplexing but engaging start to what’s sure to be an epic fantasy saga. (dedication, map, acknowledgements, author bios)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62253-877-5
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Evolved Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2020
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: yesterday
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