A fascinatingly detailed and murder-fueled adventure in a violent fantasy setting.
In Walker’s fantasy novel, the destinies of disparate characters converge in a spasm of violence.
Death haunts the land of Baelon: Years ago, young Princess Lewen died, followed by her mother, Queen Isadora, and the great architect Adrian Dunn. As the book opens, a man named Reynard Rascall, with the help of his eager principal henchman, Spiro, kills a terrified underling named Kasparr, who’s been underperforming recently as a member of the Guild of Takers. In the kingdoms of Baelon, the Guild is an all-pervasive crime syndicate, “an unpleasant fact of life” throughout the land. Its leaders plot the fates of entire nations in their secluded headquarters; overseers (such as Reynard) are capos controlling regions, and at the bottom of the ladder are the lowly street-level Takers. Reynard and Spiro travel to Kasparr’s district to examine his books, but, unbeknownst to them, the bookkeeper himself has been murdered by a group of Takers. Meanwhile, Mari Dunn, the architect’s widow, is plagued by visions predicting the assassination of King Axil of Aranox; the king’s marshal, Erik Carson, acts to save the king, and the king’s former guardsman, the grizzled warrior Rolft Aerns, returns to the capital city on a vengeance quest of his own—he’s eventually aided by Mari’s daughter, Sibil. Walker’s decision to alternate his narrative focus between all of these characters is smart and well done here, enabling him to largely avoid the stilted exposition that’s the bane of so many fantasy novels. The viewpoint-jumping keeps the reading experience fresh, though it sometimes slows momentum and gives rise to confusion. Some characters are unavoidably more compelling than others—it’s a safe bet that most readers will favor the hilarious duo of Reynard and Spiro (“Intuition, my friend,” Reynard taunts poor Spiro at one point. “A faithful companion of the thoughtful. Little wonder you’ve not met”).
A fascinatingly detailed and murder-fueled adventure in a violent fantasy setting.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798988923213
Page Count: 305
Publisher: Fairytale Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.
After being murdered and inexplicably reborn, a heavy metal musician sets out on a journey of self-discovery with nothing short of the future of humankind at stake in the first installment of Sanderson and Orullian’s Strata Wars saga.
Jack Solomon is not having a good day. After moving to London from the mean streets of Los Angeles and starting a metal band called the Hounds of Winter, he’s been kicked out of the group just weeks before they’re scheduled to open for Black Sabbath at Wembley Stadium. While Jack is walking with his good friend Henry Wilkinson—a father figure of sorts who has mentored Jack over the years and owns the music venue the Iron Horse—they are both shot and (seemingly) killed. Then Jack regains consciousness and finds himself in a hellscape with a massive mountain of fire in the distance and countless human statues everywhere. After Henry appears in the vision, telling Jack, “You’ve got more to do,” Jack awakens in front of Henry’s flat, unharmed but covered in blood. With Henry’s body missing, Jack begins to understand his new reality: He’s a thanatist (don’t call him a necromancer) and Henry’s venue hides an entrance to the Strata—“several long periods of London history that have coalesced to form layers of the past.” The Strata are inhabited by gruesome creatures and millions of memories, and Jack discovers that someone wants to take over the Iron Horse, with its staircase to every level of the Strata, and begin a revolution where music (curated by a madman) can change the future of humanity. The many shoutouts to legendary bands notwithstanding, this novel is powered by two elements: the exceptional worldbuilding of the subterranean Strata, whose potential is virtually limitless; and Jack’s deeply personal healing journey, which includes forgiving others—like his mother, who abandoned him—and himself. Jack’s story arc is comparable to his adventures in the Strata: The deeper he descends into the Strata, the deeper he delves into himself.
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668068144
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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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