Surprisingly hopeful at the last, but despite careful worldbuilding and tense plotting, the book barely escapes being a slog.
In the conclusion to a trilogy that began with The Justice of Kings (2022) and The Tyranny of Faith (2023), Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt and his clerk, Helena Sedanka, prepare for a final confrontation with the zealot Bartholomew Claver.
Declared traitors to the Sovan Empire, Sir Konrad and Helena (our narrator) are both on the run and in search of an army to destroy Claver, who is bent on Imperial rule; the demonic entity who grants him dark magicks has more ambitious designs on the entire mortal plane. Somehow, Helena is the key to halting these wider plans, which marks her out for special attention from demonic and angelic beings. Meanwhile, Sir Konrad, whom Helena had previously revered (and loved) as a paragon of the law, does more and more legally and ethically dubious things to save his Empire from Claver, Claver’s fanatic followers, and his demonic allies/puppeteers, including deposing the Emperor and taking up forbidden magicks. How many principles will these two have to compromise to defeat this overwhelming evil? It's interesting to see how this trilogy, while consistently maintaining a grimdark tone, has slowly shifted subgenres over the three volumes. The first book was primarily a fantasy mystery, the second a political fantasy, and the third more of an epic fantasy featuring an ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil. Overall, the series is an intriguing chronicle of one woman’s struggle to develop agency, despite the overpowering influence of her mentor’s strong personality, vast political and religious currents, and, ultimately, gods and demons from other planes of existence. We know that Helena survives these (mis)adventures, since she narrates the entire saga as an old woman looking back; the unrelenting onslaught of terrible things that happen to her before the thankfully cathartic climax may either grind the reader down or cause the reader to disengage from her plight(s), aware that despite her many, many brushes with death and multiple turning points where she believes she chose poorly, she will ultimately prevail.
Surprisingly hopeful at the last, but despite careful worldbuilding and tense plotting, the book barely escapes being a slog.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780316361989
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.
After 500 years, the Grief of Ages is a distant memory—until dragons hellbent on destruction begin to wake again.
In this relatively brief prequel to the epic The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), the kingdoms of Virtudom have experienced centuries of relative peace. Marosa Vetalda, the Princess of Yscalin, spends her days behind castle walls under the gaze of her overprotective father, awaiting the date when she’ll be wed to Aubrecht of Mentendon, her ticket to freedom. While the book’s main focus is initially on the political threads weaving the Western kingdoms together, the frailty of best-laid plans is exposed when evidence of the reemergence of draconic beings reaches castle ears. These tales often come from the cullers who make their living slaying these creatures, and who are often blamed for intentionally waking them for profit. No one alive remembers the Grief of Ages, so no one’s prepared when Fýredel, the great High Western dragon, surfaces from the volcanic mountain that towers ominously over Yscalin’s capital city of Cárscaro. What follows is the backstory of how the devoted Yscali kingdom comes to shift allegiance to Fýredel and his master, the Nameless One, a main catalyst to events in The Priory. Overall, this book reads more like history lesson than fantasy adventure, but the sheer terror that befalls the Yscali people as they face Fýredel’s pure evil is both powerful and relevant. Marosa’s plight further solidifies her as a hero worth remembering; her strength and defiance shine through as hope for the future she’s dreamed of slowly flickers out.
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781639736010
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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