A lively, if unevenly executed, fantasy tale.
In Netto’s fantasy novel, a teenage boy learns that his name is a lie, his bloodline is a secret, and he’s the fulfillment of a prophecy that he never knew existed.
Henric Sabio lives in the small Massachusetts town of Carmel, where his mother’s unsolved murder has left his family in permanent emotional shutdown and his social life in ruins. His only real companion is an ice dragon that visits him in his dreams, whose scales the boy has etched into every notebook he owns. A violent confrontation with his former best friend, Peter—now the school bully—triggers a cascade of strange events, and Henric’s ordinary world collapses overnight: His English teacher is revealed to be a supernatural enemy, his dad turns out to be a prince in hiding, and a portal appears that takes Henric and his family to Winterborne, a snowy kingdom featuring blue-flamed lampposts and public executions on cobblestoned squares. It also turns out that his grandparents, King Thelon and Queen Osalia Iceheart, together sit on a throne that a prophecy says Henric will claim. After the teen discovers his ability to control fire and ice, he meets new potential allies, including the elf historian Hundarian, who becomes Henric’s love interest, and Kellenen, a morally opaque guide with oddly gray eyes that resemble one of Henric’s own mismatched pair. An ancient rivalry between factions later plays out in dragon battles above the burning capital. Netto writes with a genuine flair for the visceral. Henric’s voice crackles with dead-on teenage bitterness, and the novel handles the queer romantic content with a directness that feels important, rather than incidental. The worldbuilding leans more atmospheric than systematic with its miasma of “frostflames” and bone imagery. However, the novel’s momentum occasionally works against it; the contemporary opening gives way to the fantasy world faster than the emotional stakes can fully settle, and the crowded final act leaves some of the most interesting character dynamics feeling underserved. An ambitious ending leaves the door open for a planned sequel.
A lively, if unevenly executed, fantasy tale.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2026
ISBN: 9798347007127
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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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