Despite occasional clichés, this quest story proves easy to follow and hard to put down.
An epic fantasy features three unlikely allies on a dangerous mission.
Jaran Saerk is a Northman who is not to be trifled with. He is quick to anger. He is even quicker to annihilate foes with a swing of his ax or sword. Early in the story, there is a price on Jaran’s head. Despite the danger, a man named Gromaki wants to claim the bounty. Gromaki attempts to take Jaran down in an illegal duel called a holmgang. Although Jaran easily wins, his participation in the holmgang lands him in trouble with the law. He is due for a nasty punishment when he is aided in an escape by a former highwayman named Finvar Droll. Finvar is the one who gave Jaran up to the authorities to begin with. Yet Jaran has no choice but to trust him. Meanwhile, a woman named Savarna finds herself recently enslaved. Savarna not only has bright red hair, she also has a few tricks up her sleeve and knows how to handle herself in a fight. When the caravan she is riding in is ambushed, she is free again, though hardly safe. In time, Jaran, Finvar, and Savarna will wind up as a team of sorts (or, as a shaman calls them, “three lost children in the wilderness”). Their quest? Find a witch named Sheega. She managed to turn Jaran’s father into a bear and have him slaughtered and now she wants his son dead. Jaran needs to destroy Sheega. To complicate matters, he can only attack at an appointed hour. It doesn’t exactly help that Jaran’s three ferocious cousins are out to kill him. Or that merely getting to Sheega is a tall order. But what are friends like Finvar and Savarna for?
Even with a complex construction, Webb’s narrative unfolds in a way that makes for smooth reading. While it offers many characters and their backgrounds, the story never lingers too long on minor developments. No sooner is Jaran making Gromaki sorry he ever met him than the hero is on his way to more difficult foes. Frequent action keeps things moving, whether it involves an ax from a god that “thirsts for blood” or a portal that the three main players enter. But certain portions do suffer from bland and obvious descriptions. For instance, a goblin is depicted as a “talented trickster,” an appraisal that tells readers very little. Later, the tale explains that a former empress is “an accomplished poisoner and artful intriguer.” How does one become an accomplished poisoner? Is it possible to be an intriguer without being artful? Nevertheless, such points fall by the wayside as the heroes’ impossible task plays out. Even if readers can predict early on that Jaran, Savarna, and Finvar will join forces (as improbable as this development may initially seem to the trio), there is no telling where in this world (or even other dimensions) of violence, magic, and duplicity these three will wind up.
Despite occasional clichés, this quest story proves easy to follow and hard to put down. (glossary)Pub Date: July 11, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-66-553233-2
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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