Pleasant “chosen one” YA fantasy, with little tension, a few bracing scenes, and a likable hero.
In sibling authors Shaffer and Shaffer Kaminski’s debut novel, the first volume of a trilogy, a young dwarf with magical powers undertakes an important mission.
Although 50 years old, bookish dwarf Gavrin is a youth. At the requisite foretelling ceremony to determine his life path, Gavrin learns he is a mage, one of only three in existence. In the past, power-hungry Mezzarin, also a mage, abused his powers; although not dead, he has been asleep for hundreds of years. Another mage, wise Mellarin, is rumored to live in Northern Alzrith, far from Gavrin’s home of Sanctuary. Although Gavrin would rather remain with his mother, the beautiful Belvin, it is his mission to locate Mellarin, from whom he will receive valuable instruction in using his powers. Accompanying Gavrin on his journey are the brave warrior Thundermark, a son of King Meteormark; the human Brill, a sergeant in the King’s Army; the giant Karnik; and Palar, a somewhat reformed thief. In this first installment of three, characters are introduced along with some lore, including how Gavrin must find six valuable and powerful talismans in various locations throughout the land. This volume seems less a stand-alone book than a set of introductory chapters with an ending that suggests what’s to come. Thus far, the villains, although portrayed as self-interested and evil, don’t act particularly evil. Gavrin—an emotional and exceedingly decent fellow—vacillates between childlike and adult perspectives, as teens do. He’s given to weeping (even in passages that don’t seem to warrant it) and capable of mercy, as when he saves Palar from beheading; however, he and his companions abandon a treacherous bridge keeper to a cruel fate. The story, which seems best suited for tweens and younger, is clearly and simply told and evenly paced, with little violence or edge. That said, there are the occasional inspired moments; in particular, an encounter with a runaway dragon ends unexpectedly and humorously.
Pleasant “chosen one” YA fantasy, with little tension, a few bracing scenes, and a likable hero.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-1495478703
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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