Richly textured and fabulously conceived.
Magic and religion struggle to govern a city filled with dark urges in this fantasy series opener.
In the city of Novostopol, Alexei Bryce is a priest of the Curia. The priesthood teaches the Via Sancta, the belief that “all things, however mundane, must be beautiful.” They also tattoo elaborate “Marks” on citizens to dull vices like greed and violence. One night, Bryce and his partner, Patryk Spassov, hunt an Invertido, someone whose Mark has been inverted, most likely by a Nightmage, one of the Curia’s longtime enemies. The Invertido are considered sick, incapable of resisting base desires, and once caught, they are committed to the Batavia Institute. Dr. Ferran Massot runs Batavia, but tonight he hosts a party. He invites Natalya Anderle, a cartomancer, to visit and read his fortune with her deck. Feeling ill, Natalya sends her roommate, Kasia Novak, in her place. Kasia sees misfortune ahead for Massot, who attacks her. With the help of magical dogs called Markhounds, Bryce and Spassov track down Massot before he can hurt Kasia, little fathoming what she’s stolen from the doctor’s home. Meanwhile, the Nightmage Malach holds rancor in his heart after the Curia wiped out his people in the jungles of Bal Kirith. He plans revenge with the help of a woman willing to bear him a special child. Ross drapes a tense political thriller in a trench coat of dark fantasy. A magic system in which ley lines network the city and citizens can tap into three increasingly dangerous layers of power gives characters room to shift allegiances. Touches of noir charge the prose (“Red light bled from Malach’s sleeves. It flickered in the depths of his eyes like a pair of burning embers”), and plot threads twine intricately. A thrilling dynamic exists among the Curia, the citizens they test for Mark compatibility, and those who fail the test—people considered “sociopathic deviants.” Readers should expect the unexpected.
Richly textured and fabulously conceived.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73461-846-4
Page Count: 506
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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