A sprawling fantasy notable for its complex worldbuilding and exploration of social issues.
After leaving her prestigious school, a gifted mage must rely on her wits and resourcefulness to protect herself and those close to her.
In the Empire of Dageis, mages don’t usually look like Rosha Tar’elian. Her brown skin and dark hair, inherited from her Gorenten father, set her apart from the light-complected Dageian majority. Though she has a natural-born talent for magic, she struggles to be seen as more than a member of a subjugated group. Thanks to her undeniable skill (and her merchant father’s dubiously gained fortune), Rosha is the first Gorenten to be admitted to Eheldeth, Dageis’ premier school for mages. Unfortunately, the community resents the outsider in their midst, and Rosha’s reputation as a ruthless hothead earns her no favors. Fed up with being undermined, she leaves, making her not only a dropout, but also an outlaw: Every spell she casts is now illegal. She succeeds in disappearing for a time, but when her family is threatened, she realizes that her father’s and her own shady behavior may be catching up to them. Rosha sets off across the empire to investigate, making allies and enemies and uncovering a political conspiracy far beyond what she could have imagined. This series opener sets up more plot threads than it closes; those who enjoy the intricate worldbuilding and thoughtful treatment of class, race, and colonialism will be eager for the next installment.
A sprawling fantasy notable for its complex worldbuilding and exploration of social issues. (character sketches, map) (Fantasy. 13-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781958051207
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Snowy Wings Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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