A standard fantasy tale hampered by objectional details.
In Burns’ fantasy novel, romance and rebellion take center stage.
The land of Lavitia is in turmoil, as it has been since the death of King Hector Covax and the subsequent ascension of his son, Marsalis, to the throne. Those in power have long enslaved the Veagan people. Blaming the Veagans for his father’s assassination, Marsalis intensifies their oppression. A rebellion forms, and the Veagans secede from Lavitia to form the independent kingdom of Theslia. The king and queen of Theslia are murdered shortly after the birth of their child, Saroja Minunette Shakur. A queen’s attendant hides the child in the forest away from the castle to raise her in secret under the name Mirage until she is old enough to rule. In the meantime, King Marsalis (who ordered the assassinations of the rival king and queen and all of the children in the castle after his oracle foretold a child being born who would kill him) continues his campaign against the Veagans, who are now led by Benjamin Casesar, formerly a knight, whose son, Alexander, was one of the few survivors of the massacre. When Alexander and Mirage (a budding sorceress) reach adulthood, they meet and fall in love, a situation complicated by King Marsalis’ continued assault on the Veagans and Alexander’s obligation to marry the woman his father has selected for him. The narrative plays out predictably and is bogged down by problematic elements such as Orientalism (“He wore a white turban on his head…a fancy burgundy tunic that was left open to display a round hairy stomach, big billowy gold pants, and shiny gold shoes that turned up in the front. Mirage had never seen such clothes; she thought he looked very funny”), a stereotypical portrayal of a gay villain who molests young boys, and excessively descriptive (and in some case romanticized) rape scenes. Though somewhat scattered in execution, the worldbuilding and romance may be appealing to readers, and the story’s cast is refreshingly made up of predominantly Black and brown characters.
A standard fantasy tale hampered by objectional details.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 9798886220698
Page Count: 392
Publisher: PageTurner Press and Media LLC
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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