This grim, passionate tale will scorch readers.
A young soldier with untapped abilities must protect her new queen in this epic fantasy.
In the realm of Kaizia, Saiden is a member of the deadly Legion. She and her partner, Mozare, take missions from Gen. Nakti on behalf of Loralei, their young and newly enthroned queen. In Kaizia’s culture, the Gifted develop their magical powers when they’re teenagers. Saiden, with her red mane, is Blood-Cursed, supposedly too dangerous to live because of her connection to both gods. Her powers never manifested, however. She’s become a fearsome warrior with a reputation that’s earned her a post in the Queen’s Guard. Guarding Loralei involves protecting Kaizia from dangers, including the Enlightened, religious fanatics who are willing “to die to bring the gods closer to earth.” There’s also an underground Rebellion led by the charismatic Revon, who claims to know an ugly truth about Kaizia society. While Mozare cares deeply for Saiden, his allegiance may be compromised. He wants to dismantle the realm’s foul monarchy, which abides by brutality against common people. When Saiden learns the truth about her own family’s past, will she join the Rebellion? In her series opener, Traunfeld ably depicts the strands of darkness and romance that often weave through adult fantasy. Saiden keeps track of her kills by getting leaves tattooed on her arms, and she always manages to cause more collateral damage than Nakti would like. Loralei, meanwhile, has taken her serving girl, Cara, as her lover, a secret that threatens to bring further turmoil to the country. The narrative shifts among Saiden’s, Mozare’s, and Loralei’s perspectives, with the latter bolstering the tale’s sensuality; in one scene, the queen “watched Saiden pick an orange off the tray, peel it slowly and savor each slice of the fruit.” Some plot components click readily into place, like the identity of an imprisoned woman, and well-executed twists abound in the second half, adding deep emotional shading to the small cast. Traunfeld’s finale reveals bleak terrain ahead in installments to come.
This grim, passionate tale will scorch readers.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781958607183
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Inimitable Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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