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
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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