Memorable characters elevate an often surprising tale of magic and faraway lands.
An evasive murderer and a particularly violent wraith threaten a 300-year-old alliance in this fantasy debut and prospective series starter.
After a vicious ruler’s reign mercifully ended, the three nations of Meraria formed the Trifecta, and since then, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves have lived in peace for centuries. But now there’s a startling double homicide in the city of Trifectus. Senior officer Kelt McNair takes the murder case and quickly learns that one of the victims was part of the Guardians—essentially the Trifecta’s police force. Kelt was once a renowned Spell Breaker—a hunter of necromancers—though he’s now retired from that job. The Trifecta regulates the use of magic and especially frowns on necromancy—involving communication with the dead—as the late, evil king had been a practitioner. As the investigation continues, 17-year-old loner Xeile Taeris makes his way to Trifectus. He’s dying from a mysterious disease, and his final wish is to forgive Kelt, whom he blames for his mother’s execution. Xeile sees and sometimes converses with spirits, making him an illegal necromancer, but it also puts him in a position to help with the murder case, as he can speak to dead victims. Not all spirits are harmless, though; a monstrous horse, emanating “a black ominous mist” and sporting “bloody crimson” eyes, regularly shows up and attacks people; there’s a chance that this wraith is the killer terrorizing Trifectus. It’s also unquestionably tied to Xeile, whose dark, murky history may play a part in what’s happening in the present.
Wilshusen keeps his epic novel focused with a relatively small cast. The narrative perspective alternates among Xeile, Kelt, and Guardians Criske Val-Zhang and Henrik Ihvihlan. The well-developed characters ease readers into a mystery that relies heavily on dense, complicated history. For example, half-Elf Criske and Dwarf Henrik first meet when they share a patrol, which sparks a growing friendship. Henrik also enthusiastically talks about Meraria’s past, but it’s the two’s discovery of a body that truly immerses them in the main investigation. This likable duo counterbalances the much more complex Xeile and Kelt. Xeile is a relentlessly tortured and enigmatic soul for much of the book; Kelt, though an able and fair senior officer, sometimes wields his authority brutally, using the “dark-stained whipping post” to punish offenses. The book thrives on deliberately obscure backstories, with details revealed only gradually, and genuinely shocking turns. Xeile, for instance, doesn’t know everything about his mother’s death despite witnessing her execution. Other surprises crop up, as well, such as what’s making Xeile so sick and the source of that ferocious “giant horse spirit.” Wilshusen’s generally unadorned prose keeps scenes moving at a steady beat, but he occasionally spruces up the tale with colorful descriptions: “In an instant, her dark-purple aura flared to life, the flickering violet surrounding her body. The stones slowly changed color until they matched her aura.” The ending packs a punch, thanks to one character’s impassioned speech, and forges a clear path to a sequel.
Memorable characters elevate an often surprising tale of magic and faraway lands.Pub Date: May 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73701-650-2
Page Count: 618
Publisher: Sidhe Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
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
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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