A worthwhile and invigorating fantasy journey.
In Solomon’s fantasy novel, a queen must protect her throne and kingdom from her daunting, vengeful sister.
Mara, the Sword Queen, rules over the vast empire of the Jeweled Realm. She fears very little—and certainly not a visiting prince from the eastern kingdom of Ursa. However, Prince Boden brings alarming news: A powerful witch wants to join forces with his kingdom, and she claims to be Mara’s younger sister. Mara, however, earned her throne with a ritualistic duel to the death, allegedly striking Iris down seven years ago, when each was a teenager. The reappearance of the sibling whom Mara obviously spared creates a complicated situation, as people in the Jeweled Realm now view the “Liar Queen” as a traitor and are now out for blood. Even worse, a conflict with Iris ends with Mara losing her Sacred Sword, which she feels “helpless” without. She teams up with Boden and grows to trust him as they search for aid from inhabitants of an archipelago down south. All the while, Mara must decide what she’ll do when she’s face-to-face with Iris again. An exceptional cast drives Solomon’s narrative, starting with the ambivalent Mara, a highly skilled warrior who’s also “tired of bloodshed.” Although Boden is a potential romantic interest, it’s the differences between him and Mara that add interest to their many scenes together; Mara, for example, doesn’t believe in his religion, is accustomed to wealth that his kingdom doesn’t have, and tires of his unrelenting cheeriness. Their interactions consistently move the story along as they travel by land and at sea and meet up with assorted locals; these vibrantly sketched individuals include a woman living in an isolated cabin, a warrior willing to sacrifice herself for others, and a number of people who may turn on the main players.
A worthwhile and invigorating fantasy journey.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798991530309
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Golden Scales Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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