A fast-paced fantasy that mixes dystopian violence with heartwarming humanity.
A small group of intrepid survivors navigates dangerous alternate realities in Anthony’s fantasy trilogy, collected in one volume.
This book compiles the first three parts of Anthony’s speculative fiction series The Lost, translated from German by the author. The work opens with a brief prologue scene featuring a scout troop on a camping trip in which the leader reprimands Mike, a young boy who breaks the rules; the leader’s teenage daughter, Sam, laughs at Mike’s offbeat antics and befriends him. In “Part 1: Days of Madness,” Mike, now a 28-year-old technical writer, is buying groceries one minute; the next, he’s in a nightmarish alternate reality where he meets Henry, a religious older man; a younger man named Dennis; and Miriam, a nurse. Each has a special object and ability. In this strange new environment full of such monstrous creatures as Longnecks (essentially giant, telepathic horses), Henry believes they are being tested in some form of the afterlife—Mike and Dennis conclude they’re dreaming. Then, hundreds more people arrive, unleashing chaos and violence. Three years later, in “Part 2: Madmen’s Game,” the humans have formed a new society composed of warring factions and guilds. They believe that they’re players inside a computer game, and they sport special abilities, weapons, and costumes. Mike, Miriam, and Sammy, a little girl he’s rescued, live apart in a village where they shelter a group of children; they’re viewed as nonplayer characters and therefore expendable. Mike’s role is to issue quest challenges to the players, though he himself doesn’t buy into the game theory. As in Part 1, the people plunge into chaos and destruction. In “Part 3: Forgotten Madness,” the surviving faction now faces a harsh winter and dwindling resources. Lara, a young, elite player who’s also beginning to doubt the game concept, joins Mike, Miriam, and Sammy on a desperate quest to find a way out through the “Madwoods,” an impenetrable forest that rumor says no explorer has ever returned from.
The story is told mostly from Mike’s point of view, with other parts conveyed from the perspectives of characters including Miriam, Dennis, and Lara. Mike’s voice is snarky and self-deprecating; he repeatedly finds himself in the position of leader and reluctant hero despite believing himself to be a loner at heart (“His people. The phrase gave him a chill”). Anthony’s complex and compelling worldbuilding will keep readers guessing about the true nature of this new world: Is it a dream, a game, something created by AI, or part of a larger mythology? (Perhaps the planned second trilogy in the series will reveal more.) The writing is strong and vivid, the characters and their interactions are relatable, and the dialogue feels authentic. The fast-paced narrative offers plenty of action and twists as one surprising event follows another, inviting the reader’s curiosity more than anticipation; in lieu of creating suspense through foreshadowing, the story features scenes (dreams? memories? hallucinations?) that recast earlier events in a new light. Anthony’s trilogy offers an entertaining escape for fans of fantasy and video games with an intriguing mix of catastrophe, combat, hero’s journey tropes, and sweet found-family elements.
A fast-paced fantasy that mixes dystopian violence with heartwarming humanity.Pub Date: June 19, 2026
ISBN: 9798182306782
Page Count: 634
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.
A dark fantasy set on the Yale campus ends with a bang.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern of Lethe House, one of Yale’s storied secret societies, has been to hell and back. That was in Hell Bent (2023), the middle book in Bardugo’s Ninth House trilogy, where the secret societies wield not just temporal power but magic as well. Hell Bent ended with Alex and her friends rescuing her crush, mentor, and fellow Lethe officer, Daniel “Darlington” Arlington V, from eternal torment. One small wrinkle: The demon Golgarot used Alex’s blood to wedge a door open between Hell and New Haven, and his minions are slipping through. Also, one of the group has turned into a vampire, and Darlington is now half demon. “He’d given up some part of himself to preserve the rest of his human soul. He’d become both prisoner and warden.” As the final book opens, the exhausted crew are hunting yet another monster. They can’t keep this up forever; they will have to find a way to close the portal. Alex has the energetic, driven melancholy of the hard-boiled, dark fantasy heroine she is. She believes “magic is real, but safe is make-believe,” as her roommate puts it. An open hellmouth, a supportive scholar, a vampire whose story arcs precariously toward redemption, a gentleman fiend who gets literally horny when aroused, a California girl with rare supernatural powers who cracks wise as she fights fiends—the series has a lot in common with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spawn, but Bardugo’s way with words and her keen social observation keep the book from feeling derivative. A demon’s classic New England house is decorated with “ruthlessly inoffensive watercolor seascapes”; Lethe’s board president “wore the new uniform of Wall Street: a dress shirt, khakis, and a fleece with a Yale Y embroidered over the heart, as if he were on his way to a hostile takeover followed by some light rock climbing.” Will Alex and her friends get the door shut without losing Darlington? Bardugo injects her protagonist with such a convincing mix of cynicism and hope that failure seems like a distinct possibility.
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781250884312
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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
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