An entertaining sword-and-sorcery epic with food for thought about ethics and responsibility.
A search for magic swords jump-starts all manner of temporal and spiritual quests in this YA fantasy.
Blackstone’s adventure takes place in the world of Taerestris, where humans jostle with elves, gnomes, dwarves, harpies, and dryads and spellcasting is an everyday pursuit. Prodding the novel’s intertwining subplots into motion is a decree from Remus, King of Nemea, offering riches and a knightship to any individual who can find one of the legendary swords known as Soulblades that have been surfacing at holy sites. Each sword has a unique power—causing earthquakes, summoning dragons—and an indwelling spirit whose name must be discovered and invoked for the blade to work. Seeking his fortune, 14-year-old Tyr Lancelt locates one pretty easily, but he has trouble retrieving it from the spear-wielding giant that guards it and even more difficulty coaxing the sword’s spirit to divulge her secret name. Also fixated on the Soulblades are the seraphs, a race of winged people living in the airborne city of Skyfall and suffering from a curse that slowly kills them if they use magic. High Priestess Alystra orders her lieutenants Mordrin and Stella to flap down to Taerestris and confiscate the blades lest humans deploy them against seraphs. Much fighting, incantation, and glowing of talismans ensue as Tyr and Remus team up on a journey to the frozen wastes beyond an enchanted wall while the monarch’s knights square off against Mordrin and the seraphs for possession of the blades. Threading through is the story of Kai, a teenage slave with uncanny strength and gladiator skills. After escaping the arena with the help of a yeti, she’s off to Dragon’s Peak to obtain a pair of Soulblades—if she can surmount the required trials, including a three-day duel with a dead knight.
Blackstone’s bustling yarn touches on motifs in everything from the Harry Potter series to Game of Thrones and combines them in imaginative ways. He writes in workmanlike prose that conjures up both rousing and pretty bloody action scenes—“With one sweeping motion, the half-giant swung his blade in the air and sliced the oncoming attackers in half”—and spooky atmospherics: “A girl stood ahead of the boat and over the water, staring at them. She seemed human, save for her seaweed attire and pale blue skin. She looked at the party with dead blue eyes, her body unmoving.” The author devotes much attention to worldbuilding and the rules and mechanics of magic, sometimes at the expense of fleshing out characters. His good guys tend toward the earnest, heroic, and somewhat wooden. Bad guys (or, rather, dangerous guys), like the powerful, bedraggled, Luciferian Mordrin, are often realized with more complexity. Kai makes for a striking hero, especially in her association with Specter, a spirit mentor who lives in a scroll and occasionally emerges as a smoky apparition. Specter is forever egging Kai on to undertake tests and ordeals and guiding her in effectively using her martial abilities against foes. She slowly realizes that while he is protecting her, he is also drawing her into violence and moral compromises that feel wrong however necessary they seem. The result is an often absorbing battle between light and darkness that somehow resolves into intriguing shades of gray.
An entertaining sword-and-sorcery epic with food for thought about ethics and responsibility.Pub Date: July 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73514-410-8
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Giuseppe Aliberto
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2025 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.
