A political whirlwind with adventure galore; Hartsuyker bows out on a high note.
The final installment of Hartsuyker's epic trilogy (The Sea Queen, 2018, etc.) brings together old friends and foes with a new generation of characters to follow, admire, and cheer.
When we last saw Ragnvald, he was the captive of Solvi, his sister Svanhild's seafaring first husband, and in bad need of rescue. Years later, the venerated warrior feels the effects of old age and constant battle. As King Harald's best friend and most trusted warrior, Ragnvald manages the king’s ever expanding holdings while Harald is distracted by a beautiful new wife. To make matters worse, Ragnvald's visibility throughout the kingdom marks him as a suspected usurper of Harald's power. But it's Harald's scheming son, Halfdan, who presents the real problem. Tired of waiting his turn, Halfdan mounts a rebellion by gathering allies from Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, and Sweden. Meanwhile, Svanhild has become disenchanted with her husband, Harald, despite having an unusual amount of freedom and power as his queen. So when she suddenly has the chance to return to Solvi, exiled in Iceland, she takes it. As Hartsuyker weaves the conclusion to her masterful epic, she artfully passes Ragnvald and Svanhild's story on to a new generation of characters. How have Svanhild and Ragnvald's complicated web of decisions affected their children? And what kind of world will they inherit once their parents are gone? Freydis, Svanhild and Solvi's teenage daughter, is a compelling new character, and she transforms from a scared young girl into a leader who wields soft power and political influence with a just hand. Ragnvald's sons, Ivar, Einar, and Rolli, each become, in their own ways, casualties to the constraints of Viking masculinity, steeped in both honor and vengeance. As the book races toward its conclusion, Ragnvald senses the fulfillment of an old prophecy and must decide whether to sacrifice himself for those he loves—or feed his family to the wolves.
A political whirlwind with adventure galore; Hartsuyker bows out on a high note.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256374-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.
The third installment of this fantasy series (The Bone Season, 2013; The Mime Order, 2015) expands the reaches of the fight against Scion far beyond London.
Paige Mahoney, though only 19, serves as the Underqueen of the Mime Order. She's the leader of the Unnatural community in London, a city serving under the ever more militaristic Scion, whose government is based on ridding the streets of "enemy" clairvoyants. But Paige knows the truth about Scion's roots—that an Unnatural and immortal race called the Rephaim, who come from the Netherworld, forced Scion into existence to gain control over the growing human clairvoyant community. Scion’s hatred of clairvoyants now runs so deep that Paige is forced to consider moving her entire syndicate into hiding while she aims to stop Scion's next attack: there are rumors that Senshield, a scanner able to detect certain levels of clairvoyance, is going portable. Which means no Unnatural citizen is safe—their safe houses, their back-alley routes, are all at risk of detection. Paige’s main enemy this time around is Hildred Vance, mastermind of Scion’s military branch, ScionIDE. Vance creates terror by anticipating her opponent’s next moves, so with each step that Paige and her team take to dismantle Senshield, Vance is hovering nearby to toy with Paige’s will. Luckily, Paige is never separated for long from her Rephaite ally, Warden, as his presence is grounding. But their growing relationship, strengthened by their connection to the spirit world, takes a back seat to the constant, fast-paced action. The mesmerizing qualities of this series—insight into the different orders of clairvoyance as well as the intricately imagined details of Paige’s “dreamwalking” gift, with which she is able to enter others’ minds—fade to the background as this seven-part series climbs to its highest point of tension. Shannon’s world begins to feel more generically dystopian, but as Paige fights to locate and understand the spiritual energy powering Senshield, it is never less than captivating.
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-624-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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