A fantasy tale that hums with magic and originality, featuring extensive worldbuilding and a compelling cast of...
Linkhart’s debut novel is set in a reimagined 1927 Chicago, where a series of Tarot-themed murders challenges a magical organization of knights that defends the city.
A stage-setting introduction briefly summarizes the cultural landscape of this novel’s version of 1920s America: There’s no racial segregation, Indigenous majorities administer 13 provinces, and traditional religions are still practiced from multiple African kingdoms colonizing the New World. The Great War recently devastated the globe with “the first full-scale use of magic.” Prohibition is in full swing, and the glamour of jazz and flappers beckons from behind closed doors. In this setting, Bernice Chandler, a knight of the Order of Joan, is summoned to investigate a series of gruesome murders that radiate “the oozing black touch of terrible magics and violence.” She’s assigned a cop partner, Det. Jack Donovan, and the two begin to work the demonic cases while hiding their respective troubled histories. On the night before the first killing, for instance, Bernice was visited by a “portentous” vision of an angel. She escaped an institution in her youth, and she begins to see its nefarious head, Doctor Werner, lurking around the city. She gets unlikely aid from Valentino “Tino” Morandi, a cursed, bootlegging demi-demon who’s obliged by the Order to assist on the case, and he can help rid her of her problem—for a price. As these three characters precariously undertake professional relationships, the action propels them toward a dramatic climax that threatens to consume the city.
The plot maintains punchy pacing in alternating sections from its main characters’ third-person perspectives; symbolic illustrations indicate when the point of view changes. Readers will find themselves easily drawn into this sturdily built world, and they’ll find the inner workings of the all-female Order and their reluctant collaboration with traditional law enforcement to be particularly intriguing. The knights—or “Joanies,” as Tino and his associates call them—are each equipped with the Three Sisters (a chain of hawthorn, rowan, and holly), silver chains, and a sword, and if that isn’t enough, Bernice also carries a .38 strapped to her thigh. The knights also carry Optical Oil—an “applied alchemy” that reveals the dark symbols used to enact the ritualistic killings. Such devices assist in grounding the story’s magical elements in procedure and neatly contrast with Tino’s demi-demon abilities. The Joanies are supported by the Order of Catherine (or “Cathies”), who maintain the extensive Archives on history and magic. The intricate workforce features diverse characters who display genuine camaraderie in their hierarchical structures. Outside of her demanding job, Bernice lives with Lula, a nonmagical, churchgoing woman who shows more than a passing interest in Bernice’s work with the Order. Although the book is somewhat lengthy at more than 400 pages, the pace never drags, as it effortlessly mixes genres to propel the story forward. In this first title in the Degrees of Magic series, Linkhart ably balances character development with intricate plotting, which will make readers look forward to the next installment.
A fantasy tale that hums with magic and originality, featuring extensive worldbuilding and a compelling cast of ne'er-do-wells.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9798348153519
Page Count: 456
Publisher: Goblin Booth Productions
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
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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