A cathartic novel of royalty that emphasizes strong leadership.
This fantasy series installment showcases the downfall of a despot and the long struggle toward normalcy for his survivors.
Lord Alfred has escaped the battlefield chaos wrought by his mad brother, King John, in the previous series entry, Pestilence (2020). He awakes in a cottage on Lake St. Anne in the Kingdom of Lakes, where his loyal horse, Star Dancer, carried him. There, Lady Gwendolyn, Alfred’s wife, reveals that the cottage belongs to her—a gift from her father to help in the event that her marriage goes irreparably sour. As Alfred recovers from the illness that’s swept the kingdom, Gwen prepares to give birth to their fourth child. After baby Alicia arrives, Alfred receives word from his friends Samuel and Richard that King John has been murdered—stabbed 12 times in his bed. Alfred and his family return to the castle, greeted by lords whom John had spurned during his horrible reign. At Alfred’s coronation, Lady Gunhild disputes Alfred’s claim to the throne, proclaiming that her young son, Gunderik, is John’s biological child. If Alfred is crowned, he’ll have to take creative measures to finance a kingdom that’s nearly broke, due to John’s carelessness. Taylor’s fourth Second Son novel revels in domesticity after the previous volume’s upheavals. John’s death occurs offstage, which helps to maintain a softer tone in a story that often places Alfred’s children in the foreground. As always, careful emotional details distinguish Taylor’s narrative; for instance, Alfred seeks to protect his son, young Prince Geoffrey, from knowing too early the royal weight that he’ll someday carry. Still, despite the relative calmness, Alfred must address several major problems, such as rogue priests, about which he says, “There’s a vast difference between a man speaking his mind and someone urging people to do harm to their fellow man.” These rabble-rousers, and the pestilence subplot, will seem timely to modern readers, particularly in the United States. The possible hidden location of John’s personal fortune adds mystery to the tale, and a kidnapping brings action. A clean-slate finale leaves room for fresh challenges.
A cathartic novel of royalty that emphasizes strong leadership.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68433-606-7
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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