Extraordinary characters populate a fascinating, fully immersive world of magic and dangerous illusions.
In Ready’s fantasy series opener, a woman harboring a rare ability mingles with conjurers engaged in a potentially deadly competition.
New Yorker Mari Locke, a 22-year-old orphan, has grown up in a hidden world of conjurers who wield illusions. The greedy man who’s raised her, Jagger, has coerced her into a life of thievery. Mari has become an exceptional thief, primarily because she’s a born lockpick, which means she has the ability to break apart any illusions (“In this world, a lockpick is the best defense and the greatest weapon. If you control a lockpick, you can own the world”). Jagger’s latest plan could earn Mari not only her freedom but a chance at revenge against the man who killed her parents. It involves the upcoming Hundred Year Games, in which the four families of conjurers (the Wards, Bards, Smiths, and Clarks) compete for the crown. As she can’t take part in the games, she’ll be the “body” (akin to a page) for Finn Alterra, the Smith family head’s estranged, half-human/half-conjurer son. (Mari must first ensure the families will allow Finn to join the competition as a paladin.) Once he wins, she will, per Jagger’s orders, steal the crown and kill Finn. That’s even harder than it sounds, as Mari isn’t sure whom she can trust, including Finn, a full-fledged addict dependent on the depressant-like solange (a drug that reveals the falsity of conjurers’ illusions). Further complicating matters, Mari finds herself drawn to Finn, who seemingly reciprocates despite having a fiancée. As murder isn’t unheard of in the Hundred Year Games, there’s a chance Finn won’t make it out alive—much like Mari herself, if any of the conjurers discover her ability.
Ready’s epic-length novel takes its time establishing its magical world and extensive cast. Mari’s backstory alone is dense; as a “nine,” she returns to life after she dies—she has a limited number of resurrections (“If she’s so careless as to die right before the game, what’s to stop her from dying during them?”). She makes for a superb hero, displaying a near-perfect blend of strength and sympathy. It’s understandable that Finn catches her attention; there’s clearly much more behind his perpetual solange-enhanced daze. Supporting characters likewise shine, namely Jagger’s much kinder, on-again-off-again lover, Roumelade, and Mari’s fellow orphans Justice and Griff. With the spotlight predominantly on Mari, readers see little of the four games played (each family is in charge of one). There is, however, a novel narrative perspective courtesy of “the wind,” an enigmatic presence that sees what Mari can’t, such as occasional moments of gameplay or characters plotting against her. (“The wind was so struck by the mist rising off the black water and the droplets falling in a raindrop symphony over the moonlit night that it almost missed the trickster slipping through the front door of the Night Den.”) The story, despite its bulk, maintains tension. The frenetic, unpredictable final act makes checking out the forthcoming sequel a virtual necessity.
Extraordinary characters populate a fascinating, fully immersive world of magic and dangerous illusions.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9781954007895
Page Count: 788
Publisher: W. W. Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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