An ambitiously vast but tightly wound tale of destiny.
Wolf presents an SF/fantasy novel about four youngsters whose connection to a prophecy upends their later lives.
In 2177, Ariaas Haran Ebronds attends an auction with one goal: to get back his four grandchildren. Unfortunately, only three of them are up for sale, and Ariaas only succeeds in buying back one of them. That boy, Brenor, and his siblings aren’t like other children, as they are all tied to the widely known prophecy of the Canen Dera, which states that they will grow up and, as Ariaas puts it, “destroy us all” with “more power than anyone [has] ever seen, not in all our history.” He makes sure that Brenor is safe at a place called Aroun Vaer. Elsewhere, Brenor’s sister, Lenora, lives a simple but similarly secluded life in the northern forest. When, in the year 2200, the king suddenly summons her, it’s clear to her that she must flee for her own safety. She winds up connecting with Ariaas and Brenor, who dashed into action after they received word that she was on the run. That leaves two more siblings in potential danger, and plenty of trouble afoot. A young woman named Sissel Vakarra is taken away from her ailing grandmother by soldiers after apparently killing someone; her story initially seems disconnected from the story of the siblings, and the narrative transitions between the two plotlines are not always smooth. Just as momentum is building in the Lenora storyline, for instance, the focus changes to Sissel taking a quiet walk with her grandparent. There are occasionally verbose and awkward passages that slow the pace: “The younger brother of the king had taken him prisoner and locked him in the dungeon of the castle awaiting a public execution for a crime the younger brother himself committed.” The premise is well-crafted, however, and the action increases as the characters face and fight back against escalating dangers. Even with the story’s complexities and large cast, the suspense remains high, and the main players’ futures are uncertain.
An ambitiously vast but tightly wound tale of destiny.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781963029000
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Alex Parker Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
