An imaginative, well-crafted fantasy that’s weighed down by overused tropes.
An adventurous woman joins a crew of pirates and sets sail aboard the Wailing Wind in Kalous’ novel.
Sol Vesper was born for a life on the ocean. Her father was a sea captain and raised her on his ship after her mother died in childbirth. Her father was murdered in a mutiny when she was 12, and now, after a decade of “learning to survive without selling herself or being sold,” Sol arrives in the Aurtanian colonies of Barbaka, determined to get work as a sailor. Despite her experience and expertise, no one will hire her, as it’s considered bad luck to have a woman on a crew. A skirmish with a predatory captain leads to a chance encounter with Danken Vesper, her long-lost pirate uncle and the captain of the Wailing Wind. Sol joins his crew, eager to earn their respect; she forms friendships with Laius,a master swordsman who becomes her sparring partner; Will, the crew’s surgeon; and twin master gunners Derk and Jordan. She also earns the distinction of being the Wailing Wind's official thief after stealing a jeweled rapier from a Royal Navy ship. She faces challenges from misogynistic shipmates and enslavers at one of the ports that the crew visits. She also experiences a growing attraction to Curt, the ship’s surly first mate. When Capt. Vesper leads the crew in a mission to find and steal the mythical Hoard of Cerlax, Sol and Curt become closer, but Sol can’t risk a romance—there’s too much at stake. Kalous’ series starter showcases masterful worldbuilding, featuring mythology, royal politics, and richly detailed topography. However, some of its narrative elements are overly familiar; as a protagonist, Sol isn’t particularly compelling and falls into the not-like-other-girls cliché, even reflecting that “there had always been an oddness to her, things she couldn't explain away.” It doesn’t help that, until the final chapters, she’s the only significant female character; before that, unnamed innkeepers, barmaids, sex workers, high priestesses, and sex trafficking victims abound. Sun-and-moon symbolism throughout the novel is clever but heavy-handed.
An imaginative, well-crafted fantasy that’s weighed down by overused tropes.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781039198616
Page Count: 342
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2024
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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