A tightly plotted and highly readable fantasy tale of palace intrigue.
A prequel novel set in a world that mixes ancient Egyptian culture with modern technology.
Nelson’s new novel takes place before Our Lady of the Absolute (2010) and features the same intriguing setting: a modern-day kingdom known as the Black Land in which the religion and many ways of life of ancient Egypt are still observed. As the novel opens, Queen Angelique is alarmed by a warning given to her by her chief court magician: A murky plot is brewing somewhere in the Black Land to possibly murder the queen or her son Prince Penaware, who’s about to reach legal age and take on the mantle of pharaoh, laid down at his father’s untimely death several years prior. Women aren’t allowed to become pharaohs, although Angelique’s leadership has vastly improved the standard of living in her country while she’s been in charge. She’s naturally worried about her son’s safety; the court magician recommends consulting a renowned baker named Mrs. Dempsey, who’s also a skilled magician. Meanwhile, disgruntled Black Landers—including the novice priest Hennet, who dreams of a return to days of great ritualistic power—seem to lurk everywhere, and Angelique is uncomfortably aware that some people have strong reasons to want a reformer such as herself out of the way. As in Our Lady of the Absolute, Nelson crafts her strange hybrid world with elegant simplicity, mixing worldbuilding details such as temples to animal-headed gods with widescreen TVs and state-of-the-art security cameras called “Eyes of Horus.” As a character, Angelique initially seems like a boring picture of perfection, but she’s gradually shaded in with minor flaws and is effectively shown to have a caring heart. The various supporting characters—very much including the feckless prince—tend to lack the same level of character-building. However, the narrative’s brisk pace makes this tale irresistible.
A tightly plotted and highly readable fantasy tale of palace intrigue.Pub Date: May 29, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-83190-855-8
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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