Creative and diverting; a massive amount of story, perhaps too much, for an opening volume.
A man finds himself in a baffling, dreamlike world of gods, archangels, and dragons in the first installment of Kildare’s fantasy series.
Cillian Rysgaard is hardly surprised by his physician’s diagnosis of dementia. But when the 86-year-old leaves the doctor’s office in Fargo, North Dakota, he seems to enter an entirely new world and to have a shockingly younger body. He initially encounters people who apparently know him, calling him a “champion” and speaking in various tongues like Gaelic and Latin. Certain that he’s dreaming, he accepts a mission from a wizened man who holds the ancient Roman title of “Imperator”; Cillian must slay a dragon, which first requires stealing a powerful, ancient sword. Unfortunately, Loki, the god of chaos, tricks Cillian into freeing him from captivity. A group of archangels (the seven remaining after wars in heaven) find Cillian and enlist his help in recapturing Loki, who has somehow “chosen” him. Accordingly, Cillian will be a spy for the archangels and try to learn Loki’s mysterious intentions. Nevertheless, as he continually awakens in strange places, Cillian still believes that what’s happening to him is occurring in a dream. But in a world of deadly creatures, a rampaging troll army, and an impending war, he may be better off acting as if his life is in genuine peril. Kildare jam-packs this opening installment with characters and exposition on topics from heavenly wars to Cillian’s childhood. Cillian is a savvy, sympathetic protagonist, a multilingual professor who misses his late wife. And while some of the abundant menaces are oft-discussed villains who don’t show up, it’s clear that the human race may be in danger. The author fills the pages with environmental details in a mostly sober narrative, save a charming Loki who makes a mean margarita. However, so much unfolds, especially with Cillian repeatedly waking up in new locations, that readers are likely to be as confused as the protagonist typically is. They may have to look for answers in sequels.
Creative and diverting; a massive amount of story, perhaps too much, for an opening volume.Pub Date: May 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9963057-1-6
Page Count: 305
Publisher: Kildare Press LLC
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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