Top-notch characters and sensational artwork whip up a crowd-pleasing series starter.
A goat searching for the owner of a magical book comes across kindly strangers and formidable foes in Comtois’ graphic novel.
Zeek is a young goat and a humble librarian at a monastery. His daily excitement consists of snacking on freshly baked bread and reading adventure stories. One day, while shelving books, Zeek discovers one he’s never seen before (“it’s a very peculiar book indeed”). When opened, it emits a burst of light and knocks the librarian unconscious. The abbot, a soft-spoken bear, determines this book is one of magic; knowing Zeek has long yearned for an adventure of his own, he sends him to find its owner. Zeek’s first stop is a village where an apothecary’s customer has bought rare ingredients used in alchemical recipes. For every accommodating person Zeek encounters, there’s another who’s outright sinister, from callous thugs to scary types who are after the book. Luckily, Zeek teams up with traveling thieves Immane, a muscle-bound ram, and the unironically named Mouse. They all soon get an inkling as to the book’s extraordinary nature and power. Comtois’ deft character development makes it easy to dote on Zeek; he’s an orphan who doesn’t hesitate to help others, even at his own peril. His adventure reveals details of a world set in a medievallike period (with knights in armor) in which space travel also exists. The cast includes anthropomorphic animals, most of whom tower over Zeek; even Mouse, who often runs ahead of him (or sits on Immane’s shoulder), seems bigger. Much of the story is told through the visuals, courtesy of the author’s illustrations. The images detail striking physical traits (like Mouse’s tail or the abbot’s round belly) and create a sublime atmosphere with pitch-black shadows and blue-grey scenes illuminated by torches or candlelight. The ending makes it apparent that this delightful story is far from over.
Top-notch characters and sensational artwork whip up a crowd-pleasing series starter.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781545817919
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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