An often engaging fantasy novel that could have used more background detail.
In the first volume of Flowers’ YA fantasy series, a high schooler enters a fantasy realm and finds out many secrets about her and her family’s past.
Sixteen-year-old Vivienne “Vivi” Reid feels lost, and at Oakland High, she fits in nowhere. When track star Max Green invites her to a party at the prominent Silver Lake Resort, where her dad drowned nine years ago,Vivi decides to attend and try to find out any information she can about her father’s demise. But at the party, Max assaults her while on a boat. She escapes and encounters a mysterious woman underwater; soon, Vivi washes up on Dragonrider Academy’s warm sands. There, she learns to ride a wyvern named Solstice and meets her rival, Jasmine, and an 18-year-old named Killian, who guides her at the academy; Vivi and Killian become romantically involved; Solstice and Killian’s beast, Topaz, are also bonded. It is at Dragonrider Academy that Vivi learns that both she and her mother hail from a place called Avalon and have the power of goddesses. As she adjusts to life at the academy with rivals, friends, and dragons, Vivi learns that she has a mission, and along the way, she finds out the truth about her father’s death. She also discovers that her allies may not always be who they seem. Presented over seven episodes, this volume begins with Vivi’s father’s death and follows her through Dragonrider Academy as she intuits each part of her calling and, with newfound friends, pursues her destiny. Flowers weaves in multiple aspects that teen readers will find relatable, as Vivi encounters romance, struggles with feelings of not belonging, and discovers her drive to achieve. Each of these, in turn, is presented in a rousing manner, often with elements of suspense. The parts set at Dragonrider Academy would have benefited from more extensive and detailed worldbuilding regarding the academy’s culture so that readers might be able to engage more with what naïve Vivi faces. Still, the work effectively hearkens back to ancient stories, integrating themes of feminine strength and romance.
An often engaging fantasy novel that could have used more background detail.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953393-05-0
Page Count: 524
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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