Good-hearted leads fight valiantly but wander off course in this confusing fantasy.
Four young people face an uphill struggle in saving the world against the forces of evil in this whimsical fantasy.
In this second book of Ruckus’ Princess Rouran series, university student Edith Orozco is still recovering from her train trip to a fantastical land in the series’ first volume, Princess Rouran and the Dragon Chariot of Ten Thousand Sages. Aided by her niece Moli and young strangers James and Kiza, Edith finds herself charged with a seemingly impossible task. To save humanity, the quartet must collect nine wonders from human history in nine days. Their first target is the Book of the Living, hidden in the Tomb of King Unas in ancient Egypt. If that weren’t challenge enough, they’re opposed by daunting foes—evil, babble-spouting AI Pandorai and his two henchmen, a resurrected Adolph Hitler and Japanese scientist Shiro Ishii. Sneaky human traffickers, mutated dinosaurs, and robot soldiers also meddle with their mission. That’s a lot to take on with just pluck and ingenuity on their side. They do receive aid from a handful of exotic creatures whose clues could best be described as cryptic. Despite an apparently never-ending string of obstacles, the foursome makes some headway until one of Pandorai’s minions changes that victory into defeat. Now they find themselves in a bigger hole heading into their next challenge. Ruckus’ YA novel works well about half of the time. The adventure sections featuring Edith and her sidekicks on their quest to save the world are enjoyable. Not so much the philosophical ranting of the megalomaniacal Pandorai and his lieutenants with their equally oversized egos, which serves to derail the narrative. Other derailments include the many strange beings popping in and out of the storyline without context. The dozen or so pages of notes and references testify to the density of the prose. Ruckus has painted a colorful world with appealing main characters, but many plot details will leave readers puzzled. Interested readers should start with the first installment.
Good-hearted leads fight valiantly but wander off course in this confusing fantasy.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781915338624
Page Count: 226
Publisher: UK Book Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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