A marvelous, lively fantasy tale of faraway lands and dashing heroes.
In Morea’s fantasy novel, bandits threaten the peace of nations when they launch an assault at a summit.
Following a devastating war, the Kingdom of Regulus and the Gudarian Confederation have finally signed a peace treaty. They now hold an annual summit; this year it’s being held at Tartarus, a decommissioned fortress on the border between Regulus’ grasslands and Gudar’s desert. Bandits suddenly attack, prompting Tartarus’ magic-empowered Caretaker to engage the fortress’ defense, a “crimson cocoon” that prevents anyone from entering or exiting. Persephone, a knight and one of the kingdom’s royal guards escorting Princess Seles, is unable to intervene when the bandits abduct Seles and the Gudarian chancellor. They want access to the Vault, where a dark, mysterious secret lies. To rescue the hostages, Persephone must rely on her own skills as well as magic-infused crystals that allow her to communicate with Regulus’ forces outside; those forces fortunately include the retired general Magnus, who led the war-ending battle against Gudar. He and Persephone desperately work in tandem to thwart the bandits’ plan, which has the potential to reignite the nations’ conflict. Though the characters and locales stem from Morea’s earlier works, this taut, riveting novel is a stand-alone. Intermittent flashbacks provide ample backstories for Persephone and others (including an enigmatic silver-masked bandit) without decelerating the steady pace. The first half suggests a curious take on the 1988 action film Die Hard—Persephone is a lone warrior with a communications device moving through Tartarus’ multi-floored central tower. The cast and their various linkages are endlessly enthralling, from Magnus butting heads with a Regulus prince to Persephone’s former membership in a mercenary group founded by the bandit’s leader, Plutonus. The author’s concise prose fuels a host of entertaining action scenes brimming with magic, clashing swords, and uncanny creatures. (“It was too late for her to raise her own weapon, so Persephone kicked her legs out and entered a slide, skidding by the animated suit of armor.”)
A marvelous, lively fantasy tale of faraway lands and dashing heroes.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798877800588
Page Count: 309
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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