An intriguing but uneven fantasy filled with halflings, murder, and secret plots.
In this fantasy, a halfling tracker must overcome his self-doubts to save a kingdom in turmoil.
Rinad, a halfling, is searching for a lost squire named Stroud. Rinad has a distinctive personal history. His skills in tracking down lost items earned the attention of Sheriff Ridgemont, who took him on as a Royal Huntsman. Soon, the sheriff’smen nicknamed Rinad the Bloodhound, but he now feels like an imposter and failure since he’s unable to find one lost squire—either the boy himself or his body. Strange goings-on are afoot in the land lately: Rinad believes Stroud may have been pushed from a cliff; the sheriff cannot get an audience with a neighboring king despite threats of war; and a once-beloved baron seems to have become a fugitive and is feared by the very people who used to sing his praises. As Rinad and his friends travel the land in search of their quarry and the sheriff looks further into the misdeeds of Baron Castaro, it is clear that evil has taken root in the kingdom. It may take all of the halfling’s and his allies’ might, plus the aid of Rinad’s patron goddess, to defeat their enemies. In this ambitious novel, Sauls presents a tale in which an intrepid hero struggles with his own internal demons as well as sinister figures in his homeland. In addition, the story provides plenty of striking scenes in which readers get to know the captivating characters. Unfortunately, the narrative lacks a strong sense of time and place. While years are mentioned at the beginning of some chapters and several places have names, the story delivers few vivid descriptions of the kingdom and the era. The worldbuilding remains a bit fuzzy throughout the book. It may also be difficult for readers to take seriously a villain who uses “um” in several of his lines when he first appears—for example, “You’d make a lovely, um, corpse.”
An intriguing but uneven fantasy filled with halflings, murder, and secret plots.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 315
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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