This engaging series entry delivers a nuanced critique of despotism.
A new king returns his realm to a darker age in this third volume of a fantasy series.
A horse-riding accident has resulted in King Edward’s death. John now occupies the throne, the older of two sons who has never been known for his intellect or manners. Lord Alfred, Edward’s younger son, beloved in court for his curiosity and compassion, stands ready to aid the transition. But John is a lout and immediately begins reordering royal life in ways that flout tradition. He tries, for example, to hold his father’s funeral and his own coronation in the same week. Lady Alice, the dowager queen, and the bishop help him make a better decision, yet this is merely a taste of John’s contempt for what the preceding rulers have built. He goes on to disband the commercial Assembly and empties the court of the lords, including Richard Devereux, whose strong loyalty enriches the realm. Alfred and his wife, Gwendolyn, are among those who pray John’s power-drunk maneuvers will burn out, but life only gets worse. Scores of people lose their jobs as the king mismanages whole systems of rule. Rogue preachers incite violence in the streets. Knights and their checkpoints become ubiquitous to halt immigration. To save the last century of progress, drastic action must be taken. In this installment of her series, Taylor deftly depicts the fragility of a society in the grip of a madman. History buffs will appreciate how she illustrates the progressive mechanisms that launched the Renaissance, such as books being cheap enough to buy at markets. John is perhaps too perfect a villain, the type readers will want to reach through the page and strangle. The author speaks directly to Americans suffering in the current political climate, especially when Alfred wonders: “How do I teach my children that they have a duty to respect...the king despite the fact that he regularly fails to embody the virtues they are asked to demonstrate?” Alfred isn’t a perfect character himself, but he becomes a more rounded one when he has an affair with businesswoman Amelia Greslet. The next installment promises a massive emotional payoff.
This engaging series entry delivers a nuanced critique of despotism. (family trees, map)Pub Date: June 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68433-481-0
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.
The latest in a series of rereleases from a prolific fantasist’s previously self-published works is a contemporary spin on the fairytale “Godfather Death.”
Viola Marek is an aswang, a shapeshifting vampire from Filipino folklore. She’s also a Chicago real estate agent trying to sell a mansion even while the ghost of its last owner, Thomas Edward Parker IV, is doing his supernatural best to block the sale. In a desperate attempt to earn her commission, she hires Fox D’Mora, Death’s mortal godson, to use his connection to get the ghost to leave. Unfortunately, Death is unavailable: He’s been kidnapped, and to get him back and prevent a worlds-spanning catastrophe, Fox, Vi, the ghost, and assorted other supernatural creatures will have to enter a high-stakes gambling game that usually only immortals can play…but rarely win. The story begins with an unusual blend of myth, fairy tale, and cosmology and inevitably descends to an almost unbearable level of sentimentality, which is simultaneously a refreshing change from Blake’s usual tableau of self-involved, selfish characters who seem driven toward tragedies of their own making. Blake could definitely do a better job at showing the love between characters rather than merely telling the reader that they’re in love. She also has an unfortunate tendency to skip potentially intriguing bits of backstory if they don’t immediately drive the plot along, which is why readers never learn anything about Fox’s childhood and what it was actually like having Death as a parent. Nor does she explain why only two of the four archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, play outsize roles in determining the order of the cosmos, while Uriel and Michael are nowhere to be seen. Bits of anachronism—like the use of a rubber band as aversion therapy 200 years ago or the presence of a magical wristwatch from a time long before watches were common—might be intended to be Pratchett-style humor or chalked up to magic? It’s hard to tell what’s intentional and what is simply careless. Now that Blake has a traditional publisher, perhaps the editors of her future novels will guide the author to address these issues when they arise.
A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781250892461
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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