A bold, tautly written work about the struggle to express oneself freely.
A free-spirited storyteller refuses to be the pawn of his king in Oliveri’s debut fantasy novel.
In the kingdom of Idaza, Mikalla is a shadow puppeteer, also known as the Conjurer. Against the giant canvas of Mount Chuxat, he creates fresh stories weekly, starring gods of myth. His inspiring work unites the common people of Idaza, showing them that the deities are imperfect, just like them. Idaza is a prosperous and stable realm within the Mesoas Valley. Deep down, however, King Oro feels like an unfulfilled ruler compared with his heroic ancestors, who conquered neighboring lands and built Idaza’s wealth. Oro and Mikalla have been friends since childhood, and so the Conjurer is stunned when his king suddenly asks him to demonize the Chihopo people in his next story. If Mikalla can paint the neighboring kingdom as evil to the commoners, Oro reasons, it will make it easier for them to go to war over contested farmland. Yet Mikalla sees that many people, including children, will suffer if he obeys Oro. When the Conjurer tries to find support from his family, his wife, Jani, proves to be distracted and selfish. Mikalla must figure out a way to deliver a performance that doesn’t compromise his ideals. Scheming behind the throne is Secretary Kitan, whose ultimate plan will transform the entire Mesoas Valley. Oliveri delivers a finely tuned study of art’s role in society. Well-developed characters drive the plot, each sketched by economical prose; Jani, for example, has “status and security” that can’t “shield her from the intense self-hatred she’d learned from a childhood of emotional neglect.” The nature of Mikalla’s artistic expression is effectively explained as a “wild, animalistic compulsion, an urgent need to have his insights and emotions fly from his heart.” The machinations of Kitan and Mikalla’s countermaneuvers give events the pacing of a thriller. The violence isn’t excessive, but moments of torture and bloodletting are unforgettable. In the final pages, Oliveri ensnares readers with an inescapable tragedy, and the difficult conclusion leaves room for energetic discussion.
A bold, tautly written work about the struggle to express oneself freely.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-956932-05-8
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Write My Wrongs LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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
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
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