A vivid mix of history, romance, and folklore with a notably relatable hero.
A teenager leaves 1940s Pennsylvania to seek her destiny in medieval Russia in the second book in Mathison’s Old Rus fantasy series, following Vasilisa (2021).
It’s 1942, and 15-year-old Elena Ivanova Volkonsky loves James Cagney movies, flying with her pilot father, and listening to great-grandmother Babka’s Russian ballads about witches, spirits, ogres, and giants. Her favorite: the saga of “Dobrynya and the Dragon.” A strange black stone gives her visions of the dragon slayer, and her focus shifts to Mitya, Dobrynya’s teenage son, as events unfold involving his father and the court’s ruler, Prince Vladimir. Elena’s odd feeling of kinship with Mitya, her discovery of her mother’s companion black stone, and hints of enigmatic secrets allow her to find her way into the Russia of Babka’s tales. Mathison weaves themes of love, betrayal, and self-discovery into a believable world of magic, myth, and history. In it, three remarkable young people—Elena, 16-year-old noble Mitya, and their young companion, Sasha, a 12-year-old boy saddened by his own secrets—embark on a quest through forest, desert, and mountains to find Dobrynya, whom scheming Prince Vladimir has ordered to slay one last dragon. (A mysterious traveler lists the trio’s unseen burdens, integral to what is to come: Mitya carries his “father’s sins,” Sasha bears “the burden of knowledge without wisdom,” and Elena’s “line bears the burden of the stones.”) Mathison’s tale hauntingly interweaves the dragons, 1940s America, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in a way that might have felt forced in less-skilled hands. Elena is a spirited hero who’s quick to castigate herself for impetuosity but just as apt to put her knowledge, generosity, and intuition into action. As she affects those around her, she absorbs lessons about love and loss. Readers will root for Elena to stay with Mitya and not return home, and the author masterfully finesses that decision. Also included is a glossary of historic and mythical Russian names and words.
A vivid mix of history, romance, and folklore with a notably relatable hero.Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781735003788
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Starr Creek Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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