This mythical series opener abounds in vivid characters and crisp details.
In Anderson’s fantasy debut, a queen-to-be braves a harrowing journey across worlds to pull her people out of exile.
Tchardin, the youngest of five sisters, is one of the kandar—a “guardian race” meant to guide humans on the nine Earths. But for several generations, the kandar have been exiled to their planet Derkra. Tchardin will soon be Derkra’s queen, but she questions her ability to effectively rule; during this exile, no kandar has been able to travel to any of the Earths to fulfill the Purpose their Creator gave them. Tchardin differs from her sisters in her curious nature: “The longing for something beyond had come to her early in life, but it had been easy to ignore until lately. Now the feeling pressured her almost constantly.” She indulges her hunger for the unknown by answering a mysterious call while traveling toward the kandars’ long-abandoned city of origin. Surprises ensue, including the rediscovery of the kandars’ ability to “shift” between worlds. An unexpected foe whose nefarious plan involves starting a war pulls Tchardin to one of the Earths. To get back to Derkra, she must traverse the nine Earths—all while fighting an enemy’s interplanetary influence and menacing presence. This epic novel, which launches a prospective series, excels at worldbuilding; in particular, Anderson evocatively describes the planet Derkra, covered by an empty, desolate, seemingly infinite ocean that the kandar appear to fear. The story takes full advantage of its length, fleshing out its characters and ever changing locales. While the cast includes plenty of Derkra’s inhabitants (as well as some humans), the empathetic Tchardin and her multilayered sisters bask in the brightest spotlight. As the author has sequels planned, myriad questions linger, from the fates of various individuals to the particulars of Derkra’s past, including the kandaran war and resultant exile.
This mythical series opener abounds in vivid characters and crisp details.Pub Date: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781778288135
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Root of the World Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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