Animated characters fuel this commendable start to a fantasy saga.
In Havoc’s series-launching debut, a woman’s fate places her in the company of the Devil’s workforce.
Ellie O’Neill, a police station clerk, hopes to one day become an officer. The 30-year-old certainly has the heroic nature for it, as she barely hesitates to run into a burning building to save a stranger. Not long after, a voice—God’s, perhaps—informs Ellie that she’s worthy of “the Divine.” She’ll have three tests of faith, two of which she’s already passed: her courageous act and her prudence in not squandering her large inheritance. For the third test, she “must refuse the Devil.” Meanwhile, the Devil’s soul-scout and debt collector, Johnny Knight, becomes fascinated by Ellie: Not only is she able to step inside the Soulfull Tavern, an otherworldly establishment which humans can’t see or enter, but, as far as Johnny can tell, she also doesn’t have a soul. This opening series installment introduces a likable, multilayered hero in Ellie, who has low self-esteem and avoids attention while remaining consistently plucky and selfless. The fantastical narrative showcases various monsters (such as clingers, disfigured humans that move like “inverted crabs”) and such delightful inventions as Johnny’s magic coat, which is seemingly able to hold anything. The cast shines brightly, from Ellie’s human best friend, Kaley, to the colorful, sometimes scary beings she runs into (“Her face was pale—so pale, her eyebrows had no pigmentation. Her lips were swollen and cracked, and Ellie was sure there was a maggot on the lower lip. Deep cuts marred her features…”). Much of the story is murky, raising unanswered questions, but the final act elevates the tension and delivers an ending that makes reading the next installment in the series a virtual necessity.
Animated characters fuel this commendable start to a fantasy saga.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798987393406
Page Count: -
Publisher: Raptpress
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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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