A bonkers fantasy that retains a sweetly human center.
In this fantasy adventure, a young woman explores her true potential while aiding a thief with otherworldly powers.
Madarena Rua, who is “young enough to be tried as a juvenile,” can’t sleep. Despite her father’s snoring, she hears flower pots breaking in the garden. From the doorway, she sees what must be a cat—yet it’s walking on hind legs. She chases it into the bushes only to discover that her quarry is a small, bald man. His name is Apophax, and he seems grateful for help getting out of the bushes. Madarena assumes she’s dreaming. When Apophax asks where a nearby cemetery is, she walks him there. He lends her his coat of hedgehog quills to keep her warm. Even more strangely, he then begins to fade away into the moonlight. As she tries to remove the coat, a creature that looks like a living statue of Anubis approaches. It says: “Apophax. You have broken the laws of Triskadeka Fair.” The dog-headed enforcer then takes her up a stairway of light to a court that’s bound to find her guilty. So begins Madarena’s entanglement with the trickster Apophax, who has a plan to steal the Aoede statuette from the Night Mayor of Triskadeka Fair. Once the Moirai Sisters Clothiers dresses Madarena in “Potential,” her real adventure kicks into gear. Burnett harbors a deep love for the absurd, using his imaginative skills to the hilt, as did L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Madarena’s ability to drive her own story begins when she’s in prison and draws a face in chalk on the floor. She then convinces the talking cell to release her. Such unexpected cleverness continues to gush like a geyser as the tale proceeds. The author’s appealing hero loves the dictionary and has a “deep fear of ennui,” which produces lots of wordplay. The Thanatons, for example—named after the Greek god of death—are a race of monsters that includes zombies and wights. Trying to find the person or thing that is named Aoede gives emotional stakes to a narrative that might have easily drowned in silliness. Madarena’s hatred of boredom could provide fuel for a sequel exploring the “quaquaverse.”
A bonkers fantasy that retains a sweetly human center.Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7346642-2-5
Page Count: 226
Publisher: South Window Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.
When Vis is copied into two other realities, he must stop a god from repeatedly culling almost everyone back home.
Thousands of years ago, to prevent the Concurrence from enslaving everyone, the world was split into three near-identical copies: Res, Obiteum, and Luceum. To exist in all three worlds, to wield Will there, is to achieve synchronism. After the events in The Will of the Many (2023), which cost Vis his arm and the life of his friend, Vis achieves Synchronism. While Res-Vis must continue to play Hierarchy politics to find his friend’s killer, Obiteum-Vis finds a ruined world, where the dead are reanimated and used by Ka, the Concurrence, and the only other person to exist in synchronism. Meanwhile, Luceum-Vis is forced into a dispute between druids, their High Council, and their kings—with one king intent on killing him—and Vis has no idea why. On all worlds, Vis is as shrewd as ever, weighing his options, planning ahead, and doing what he must to survive. However, he, too, slowly diverges, doing things he swore he never would: cede his Will, use Will to control someone else, and reveal his true name. If at least one Vis cannot use his synchronism and power of Will to kill the Concurrence, no Vis will be safe, and another Cataclysm will cull those he loves on Res. Book Two of the Hierarchy series is a speculative fantasy that is at once Egyptian post-apocalyptic, Celtic medieval, and Roman dystopian, thanks to the multidimensional setting. Although the sprawling narrative at times overextends itself, Islington rewards patient readers with a compelling story, a cast of complex and diverse characters, and a glimpse into how far a good man can go before he’s lost. A symbol at the start of each chapter delineates which world and Vis it’s about. Readers should read The Will of the Many before attempting this volume, or they may be confused for the first several chapters and beyond.
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781982141233
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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
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