A vibrant array of colorful characters guides readers through this absorbing fantasy.
A warrior and his half-angel lover confront a powerful sorcerer threatening their war-torn land in this fantasy sequel.
Civil war has devastated the realm of Ilyar, as rebel forces have besieged its capital. Aleksei Drago, lord captain of Her Majesty’s Legion, couldn’t stop the rebellion but can still protect the queen. He sends her and the princess east—away from the revolutionaries—while he rushes to the enemy’s next targeted city. But it’s the man he loves, Jonas Belgi, who may need his help most. Jonas, the queen’s nephew, prince, and an angel-human hybrid, is up north with the Seraphima. He’s effectively a prisoner since the angels won’t let him leave, ostensibly protecting him from the Demon Bael. This evil Magus has already cursed Jonas with the “Demonic Presence.” If the Presence takes hold of Jonas outside the angels’shields, it could destroy the world. Aleksei plans to free his future husband, but the villains, unable to get their clutches on Jonas, go after the lord captain. He’s soon facing a “wind demon”—a deadly, nearly invisible entity. Elsewhere, someone has taken the princess while Aleksei and others fight to regain Ilyar’s capital. Both Aleksei, a fierce Hunter, and Jonas, a Magus, have formidable abilities. The prince is a shape-shifter, and his lover has the Mantle, an astonishing power that expels tendrils from Aleksei’s body that feed off others’ energies. All the while, Jonas fears he’ll lose control to the Presence, which will terrorize the world using him as its human host.
McIntire’s epic tale accommodates an extensive cast. But the story unfolds across a relatively small landscape, making the various subplots easy to follow. For example, the search for the princess entails traveling west to Fanj, and a menace awaits in the mountains along the way. Despite the lengthy narrative, tension remains high throughout; Bael and his ilk provide a constant threat, abducting some and killing others as the war rages. There’s action, too, though it’s often over in a flash, especially since the Mantle effortlessly dispatches villains. This curious being, which occasionally talks to Aleksei and demands to feed, somewhat resembles the Marvel character Venom. The lord captain’s indisputable strength fuses well with his devotion to Jonas; even with only a spattering of romantic interludes, his love clearly drives him. But supporting characters don’t let the two leads completely steal the spotlight. Katherine, Aleksei’s friend, braves enemy territory as a spy. Aleksei’s cousin Roux Devaan shows off his “Darting” skill, which allows him to “flicker from one point to another.” McIntire complements his characters and worldbuilding with lucid details: “The market had been built in the center of the village, a great open ring of small booths that appeared to have stood for decades….Above each booth was a strip of brightly dyed cloth, Fanja script painted roughly across it alongside pictograms, displaying the nature of the wares available.” Though the author ties up a few subplots, he leaves unresolved bits for the series’ third installment.
A vibrant array of colorful characters guides readers through this absorbing fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 661
Publisher: Black Dove Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A secret history that toys with the mythos of dark academia while reveling in its excesses.
What happens when students at a school for the paranormal decide that enough is enough?
Best known for video games, queer horror, and a collaboration with Richard Kadrey (The Dead Take the A Train, 2023), Khaw detours to visit an elite school and the damaged young adults it serves. At 21, Alessa Li wakes up with a start to find she’s been kidnapped from home in Montreal and apparently enrolled in college, simply because she’s incredibly dangerous. In fact, the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Ambitiously Gifted is less an homage to Hogwarts than a gory rebuttal dressed in wizard’s robes. The story moves between two timelines; the first offers Alessa’s introduction to her creepy classmates, while the second finds them all under siege later in the titular library. “Appendage to the main campus, it acted only in the faculty’s interest, which seemed to revolve exclusively around fucking us students over,” Alessa explains. Among the 20-odd students, cult member Portia transmogrifies into some kind of insectoid critter every now and then; Eoan sacrifices himself by feeding his own body to the school’s ravenous hosts in order to protect his friends; Delilah is an “immortal sacrifice,” dying over and over again in the service of the gods; while Rowan is a “deathworker” whose destiny is foretold by prophecy. There are some intriguing elements—and it’s often hard to take. Like other postmodern antiheroines, among them Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black (Blackbirds, 2015, etc.) and Julie Crews from The Dead Take the A Train, Alessa’s primary operating mode is pretty much caustic bitch, and her classmates don’t temper it much. Whether the deadpan violence and body horror is excessive is a matter of personal taste, but there’s no denying that the whole thing is pretty squelchy and it’s not always easy to follow. Proceed with caution.
A secret history that toys with the mythos of dark academia while reveling in its excesses.Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781250877819
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nightfire
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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