The second book of the trilogy struggles with its own expectations, just like the heroine herself.
Estep returns to the fantasy setting established in Kill the Queen (2018) to follow the new queen as she embarks on a reign complicated by treachery and duty alike.
Previously, Evie claimed the crown of Bellona after she killed her cousin Vasilia in vengeance for Vasilia's orchestrated butchery of most of the royal family. But keeping the crown will be the hard part. Evie and the nobles of Bellona struggle to get along—Evie certainly remembers every insult she ever received as a girl who was 17th in line to the throne and had only meager magical abilities. Now, she must earn the nobles' respect and keep them from outmaneuvering her—especially into a marriage with one of their families. That's in addition to making peace with neighboring Andvari, which lost a prince to Vasilia's attack; fighting off more assassins from the evil kingdom of Morta; and daydreaming about handsome, brooding Lucas Sullivan, her friend...and the bastard son of Andvari's king. It's a lot to handle; sadly, the plot doesn't always manage it. A sham betrothal to the other prince of Andvari does nothing but drive a gratuitous rift between Lucas and Evie—it's not clear why Evie feels it's necessary to use her betrothal to lure out assassins when they've already tried to kill her several times by then. Of course, the best way to fight magic-using assassins is just to be immune to magic: Evie's secret gift, which grows only stronger in this book. The thin plot is somewhat redeemed by a genuinely poignant twist, but it's fighting uphill against monotonous setting descriptions, a clichéd romance, and the notion that high-stakes courtly intrigue is best shown by peppering dialogue with f-bombs.
The second book of the trilogy struggles with its own expectations, just like the heroine herself.Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-279764-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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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