A thoughtful fantasy that pairs classic adventure beats with a shrewd concern for the moral price of miracles.
A young man’s search for his lost brother becomes an odyssey through myth and memory in Mason’s sweeping fantasy debut.
In a remote village untouched by war or decay, Abram lives a simple life—until his grandfather’s ritual of the “Skyward Lights” unravels the illusion of safety. When Abram’s brother, Levi, vanishes after the ceremony, the young farmer sets out to find him, armed with little more than faith, a pendant of strange power, and an unshakable promise: “I’m coming, brother.” Mason builds this premise into a sprawling, spiritually charged journey that blends the emotional clarity of a coming-of-age story with the grand design of mythmaking. As Abram ventures beyond the valley, the world reveals itself as a maze of forgotten magic and corrupted relics. Joined by Fleck, an impulsive thief, and Sarai, a young woman scarred by tyranny, he travels through ruined villages, illusions, and realms ruled by deceptive forces. Battles against monstrous foes—one sneering, “Do you know what your brother did to me?”—test not only his courage but his understanding of what his brother has become. Dialogue carries much of the book’s momentum and tone; pragmatic lines sit comfortably beside far darker intimations of guilt and retribution. The worldbuilding is muscular without being merely ornamental; the author describes monsters and enchanted artifacts with vivid clarity. A miraculous cure is treated with suspicion rather than easy relief; after a healing, one character warns, “the crystals do tell me that your healing is dark in nature,” while another defends the healer: “Layla is kind and courageous. I see her taking no part in something heinous.” The prose is direct and serviceable, with brief lyrical flashes that lift key moments. The pacing occasionally slows to unspool mythic backstory, but the book’s emotional throughline keeps readers invested. By balancing gritty encounters with humane reflection, Mason crafts an immersive tale that will appeal to readers who like their epic fantasy threaded with ethical dilemmas, steadfast friendships, and the quiet persistence of hope.
A thoughtful fantasy that pairs classic adventure beats with a shrewd concern for the moral price of miracles.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798317378226
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Mason Chronicles
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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