Fast moving and fun; a lively reimagining of quest fantasy.
In Pettway’s third installment of the Misplaced Mercenaries series, a novice sorceress struggles to take command of god magic while a deposed king fights for his city.
Continuing on from the events of Blow Out the Candle When You Leave (2020), Keane, the foulmouthed yet good-hearted mercenary-turned-king, has fled Greenshade with his pregnant wife, Megan. Seemingly already at the nadir of their fortunes, they are captured by the Free Hand—a small group of cutthroats led by Keane’s former boss and nemesis, Marshal Harden Grayspring. When Greenshade fell, it was due to treachery. To reclaim his throne and keep Megan safe, Keane must throw in his lot with Harden. But can he secure allies enough to retake Greenshade and then defend the city once again—this time from the remorseless invading army sent by Emperor Brannok of Tyrrane? Keane’s best friend Sarah, meanwhile, who is both a fearsome warrior and a sorceress in the making, finds herself trekking across a desert searching for the so-called Wailing Prison. Sarah pledged to find a weapon to use against an evil sorcerer whose immense power has corrupted Emperor Brannok. But even if Sarah can survive the screaming sands that surround the prison tower and successfully petition the goddess there interned, will she have the strength of mind to employ god magic—intricate spells that if miscast prove deadly to their wielder? Pettway devotes time not only to Keane and Sarah, but also to Brannok and to the story’s other antagonist, Hulda Hubrane, so the villains are afforded intriguing depth. This adds to the believability of the fantasy setting, as does the raft of strong female characters. The prose is breezy, and the story rattles along in a series of short chapters, sweeping the reader up with its camaraderie, action, foulmouthed banter, and irreverent celebration of the antihero. Manna for those who don’t take the genre too seriously.
Fast moving and fun; a lively reimagining of quest fantasy.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-95-144518-8
Page Count: 406
Publisher: Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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