A romantic fantasy that’s dark, genuine, and joyous, by turns.
In this fantasy novel, a young man struggling to find his place in the world meets a Forest Pixie who draws him into a perilous adventure.
Twenty-two-year-old human Amer has just been fired from his bartending job. Worse, he’ll be evicted from his apartment in days because the rent is overdue. This inspires him to run an errand for his friend Nurri, who operates a neighborhood food stand. He agrees to gather rainbow root, for which wealthy people pay handsomely, from the valley, and Nurri agrees to cut him in on the proceeds. Her map leads him through the Forest to perform his task. Meanwhile, wicked King Malo has been doing his best to ruin the Forest since taking the throne six years ago. He’s imprisoned his brother and rightful ruler, Ben, and must now eliminate Fillii, a Forest Pixie who has the potential to stop him. Fillii has been granted the “Protection of the Spell” by the maiden who wished her into being, which keeps the king from killing her; Malo aims to evict her from her tree and strip away her enchantment. The foxes Ren and Truuk tell Fillii to search the valley for “something” that will allow her to defeat Malo. Instead, Fillii finds Amer, a talkative human whom she refuses to trust. Human reason always results in disenchantment, yet Fillii is surprised to see that the Forest deems Amer worthy and thinks that perhaps he can help. Calleja writes with immense humor and heart, placing her novel in the company of classics such as Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn (1968). Her characters playfully wink at readers, as when Amer notes that he’s “sitting inside a tree” with elves and a Pixie who’s “apparently going to start a revolution,” and Fillii replies, “The Forest has a weird sense of humour sometimes.” The evil Malo never shies from murdering woodland creatures, as when he coldly destroys a giant Guio bird’s eggs. But Calleja highlights beauty, as well, as in the line, “It was as if diamonds of dew hung suspended in the air all around them.” Fillii’s complicated past with another human, Casz, creates tension with Amer, who’s more like her than either realizes. A warm, cozy finale will leave readers hoping for further tales.
A romantic fantasy that’s dark, genuine, and joyous, by turns.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 224
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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