An inconsistent, blood-spattered fantasy that features several strong characters.
A pure-hearted soldier gets drawn into a violent battle between good and evil in this sword-and-sorcery epic.
The novel’s protagonist is Gideon Halcyon, an orphan adopted by a knight, who dreams of becoming a hero. In this tale set in the world of Sinai, where humans have been overrun by demonic races, Gideon’s opportunity comes too soon when his hometown is overrun by raiders. They enslave many of the residents, including Gideon’s pregnant foster mother, Talia. Gideon is rescued when the slavers get savaged by Ashkelon, a sorcerer of the Everlasting Dark and the only survivor of the ruined world of Avalon. The two reunite a few years later when Ashkelon again saves Gideon, now a soldier. Ashkelon proposes taking on the earnest but raw-skilled Gideon as his apprentice. Years of training follow. Then they cross paths with the Viking-like Wolves, one of the last protectors of humankind, including the chief’s daughter, Anya Helsdottyr. The town in which they meet is attacked by spiders and mutants. The sorcerer, Gideon, and the Wolves drive off the intruders, and the duo gets invited to the group’s fortified compound. Gideon and Ashkelon help the Wolves defend the compound against increasingly more dangerous threats, including a god’s consort, giants, and more spiders and mutants. But the biggest challenge seems to involve getting Gideon and Ashkelon to agree philosophically on anything. In this first installment of a fantasy series, Shuerger unveils a very complicated mythology. Over the course of 418 pages, characters introduced earlier in the book can be forgotten by the time they pop up again later. Maps and a character guide would be useful in future volumes. In addition, the graphic battle scenes go on and on, often grinding the intriguing narrative to a halt. One highlight is the waxing and waning relationship between Gideon and Ashkelon, both of whom are well-developed characters. The primary Wolves (Anya, Skald, and Haimdell) are also memorable. Still, there are too many players and species to keep track of, which will lead to some readers thinking, “Who was that again?” This results in an uneven introduction to a grim world.
An inconsistent, blood-spattered fantasy that features several strong characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-7352824-1-1
Page Count: 428
Publisher: Creative Grumbles, LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2021
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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