A captivating and evocative tale of fantasy adventure.
In Spicer’s fantasy series starterset in 15th-century France, a teenager finds that she’s able to summon unicorns.
Sixteen-year-old Helaine is the only child and heir of French Lord Seigneur Alun de Berzé. She’s soon to be wed to Stephen of the March, to whom she’s been betrothed for 10 years. The wicked Lord Ivo de Grandfief had unsuccessfully demanded that Helaine marry his son, Odo; due to Alun’s refusal, Ivo has been sending Swiss mercenaries to wreak havoc in the villages under Alun’s care. Alun forbids Helaine to leave the castle without a guard, at least until she’s married, and she hates the idea of being confined; she also wishes to remain unmarried and yearns for autonomy. On the morning of St. Valentine’s Day, Helaine joins her lifelong friend Marieinto the woods to gather yarrow as part of a ritual to see if her impending marriage will be happy. A strange man attempts to assault Helaine,but he’s thwarted by a young “Wild Man” who’s “one of the forest dwellers, devoted to the old gods, guardians of the wandering unicorn herd.” Soon, they’re joined by his unicorn companion. As it turns out, legends about virgins being able to lure unicorns are true; the next day, Helaine summons the unicorn to cleanse contaminated water, and her thankful father proclaims the forest safe for unicorns and Wild Men. But his adviser, Father Robert, has other plans for the girl, whom he needs to facilitate a unicorn hunt. Spicer’s novel is a captivating, folkloric tale about freedom, loyalty, betrayal, trauma, and religious zealotry. Over the course of the story, Helaine proves to be a compelling protagonist as she forms a mutual friendship with and attraction to the Wild Man; she also realizes that Father Robert is an abusive hypocrite and reclaims her agency. The narrative can feel slow and unfocused at times, but many readers are sure to enjoy Spicer’s dreamy, evocative prose: “The unicorn appeared to glide along, at one moment part of the darkness, the next a pale wraith, blending against the silvered tree trunks.”
A captivating and evocative tale of fantasy adventure.Pub Date: July 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798891327641
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2025
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
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
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