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
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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