An often lurid and disturbing blend of horror and magic.
Two young brothers battle ghouls, monsters, and sadistic sexual predators in Carlton’s fourth horror-fantasy series installment.
Fourteen-year-old Nick Emerson, who has prophetic visions and can stop time, and his telepathic 9-year-old brother, Frank, exist in the world of the immortal, elflike Sidhe. As descendants of the legendary Irish hero Oemir, they help the Sidhe kingdoms of Fierowen, Akirowen, and Bedowen fight an evil coalition comprised of the Sidhe kingdom of Nahroehn; pallid goblins called schades, who flay their victims; and lethal black clouds called vestiges. Ill-considered spells lead to Nick’s and Frank’s ancestors—all the way back to Oemir himself—reincarnating in the boys’ minds and memories; the youngsters can also physically shape-shift into their forebears. As a result, the boys’ own psyches get shoved aside; Frank’s gets more crowded when Nick’s soul detaches from his body and enters his brother’s. Because of these psychospiritual contortions, the boys lose their fraternal bond and frequently take on adult personas and physiologies. The story splinters into many subplots that keep the various characters busy and elaborate on Sidhe-related developments, such as a looming incursion of dragons. Carlton’s prose remains strong, conveying grisly moments in evocative, tactile language, especially when describing schade violence: “Occasionally he felt fingers and hands on his bare skin, clutching, grabbing, holding or stretching, all sensations were usually followed by a cold piercing and hot slicing.” This latest series installment, however, pursues the series’ muted theme of sexual abuse, which occurred in characters’ pasts, down a graphic path that readers will find problematic and upsetting. For example, Princess Leanna of Bedowen rapes Nick while giving him a potion that makes the experience even more painful. After leaving the Sidhe world for Austin, Texas, Nick is captured by Ezra, a man who tortures teenagers with electrodes and meets a gruesome end. Later, Nick has several sexual encounters with a 16-year-old named Charles, whom he recruits into his band of schade-hunters. Frank, who’s hailed as Oemir’s second coming, kisses Oemir’s old flame and takes a leading role in the war against evil.
An often lurid and disturbing blend of horror and magic.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9798338432563
Page Count: 346
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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