A fun fantasy that’s as unforgettable as a catchy tune.
Johnson takes readers on a magical, musical journey in a fantasy novel inspired by the work of the British rock band Jethro Tull.
After the mysterious disappearance of her grandfather, 30-something Cindy is informed that she must listen to a special album, predetermined in her grandfather’s will, if she wishes to inherit his considerable estate. It turns out to be no ordinary record, and as the music floods Cindy’s mind, she’s swept away to a verdant and oddly familiar land filled with adventure and danger. During an encounter with a band of traveling performers, Cindy meets Chanteur, a charming singer with a mastery of hypnotic elixirs. As she struggles to resist Chanteur’s seductive power, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Whistler, a quiet flautist with a hidden past. When, in a weak moment, Cindy surrenders to Chanteur’s advances, she finds herself separated from her new friends and on a path to self-discovery. She soon realizes that she’s never really known how to follow her heart, and goes on to uncover a dangerous plot involving a robbery of religious pilgrims during a festival feast. She’s forced to fight for the man she loves and for the future she’s chosen for herself. Johnson’s whimsical and wildly creative story draws greatly from Jethro Tull’s 1977 album, Songs From the Wood, and the powerful presence of the band’s flautist, Ian Anderson. However, readers unfamiliar with this musical legacy will still appreciate this tale, which blends traditional fantasy tropes with a distinctly modern sensibility, giving it an appealingly fresh feel. That said, the story contains some mature themes that may make it inappropriate for younger readers. Also, though the work is thoughtfully written, it’s quite short, resulting in some underdeveloped characters. Still, this enjoyable work will leave readers eager for a sequel, and curious about these magical characters’ futures.
A fun fantasy that’s as unforgettable as a catchy tune.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 139
Publisher: CROW-Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 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
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
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