A richly imaginative fable that’s hampered by one-dimensional characterizations and glib brutality.
A craving for the narcotic meat of goblins causes gory upheavals in this fantasy.
Vanhaverbeke sets his yarn in Unction, a folksy village (apart from the gallows in the town square) where modern technology coexists with magic and unusual sentient races, including ogres, fairies, and, especially, goblins. These last, who live in the nearby settlement of Watusi, are an inoffensive sort: slow-witted, timid, and only a few feet tall in their warty green skin. Unfortunately, eating goblin meat sends Unctionites into a trancelike ecstasy, followed by agonizing withdrawal pangs; addicts become soulless sociopaths who will commit any atrocity to score a hit. Alas, a group of 10-year-old boys, including Little Timmy, Billy, and Joe Bob, becomes addicted and sets off for Watusi hoping to capture more goblins to devour using cinnamon- and clove-spiced porridge as bait. They are tracked by Coach Mayfield, who intends to kill the boys to end their marauding. Meanwhile, Watusi is taken over by the dictator Kafclack and his clique of genetically engineered supergoblins, who prepare to attack the Unction goblin eaters with the help of a strength serum and an amnesia drug. These devices insert another wild card into the proceedings when they are accidentally ingested by Plukfluf, a nebbish goblin who acquires unnatural strength and intelligence and launches a crusade to make peace between Unctionites and goblins. Presiding over the fray is the deity Jobo, a celestial goblin who rides a flying unicorn and injects Hindu-ish philosophical ruminations—“Your souls are getting megawatt jolts of karma”—into the chaos. Vanhaverbeke imbues his sardonic tale with a lively plot, cutting satirical wit, and occasional flights of poetic introspection. (“ ‘A butterfly would be nice, to come back as a butterfly,’ muses a dying troll. ‘Anything, I guess, would be better than a troll.’ ”) Unfortunately, it’s hard to get invested in the characters because of their cartoonishness and the sadistic violence the narrative casually metes out even to children. (“First, the internal organs had been taken out with all the piping still attached so they were nonetheless functional. This involved great pain, but nothing compared to when Jobo had spread their ribs, removed their hearts, and laid them beating on their chests pumping outside of their bodies.”) The novel’s farcical tenor and gratuitous bloodshed make it feel callow rather than captivating.
A richly imaginative fable that’s hampered by one-dimensional characterizations and glib brutality.Pub Date: June 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-983226-33-5
Page Count: 253
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2020
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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