Epic fantasy fans would be advised to find their literary escapism elsewhere.
Set after the events of Fleeing Peace (2011), the first installment of Smith’s new epic fantasy trilogy follows the adventures of a group of untested heroes as they begin to form an alliance of young rulers and magic users to stand against a looming invasion from a mythic evil.
With the forces of Norsunder threatening to enter the temporal world through rifts after having been vanquished more than 4,700 years earlier, Senrid, the newly crowned king of the politically unstable nation of Marloven Hess, Hibern, a highly talented mage student, and Liere, a young shopkeeper’s daughter who saved the realm in an earlier adventure, understand the grave danger a Norsunder invasion brings to all of Sartorias-deles. As the young heroes slowly begin to form their alliance with other leaders—like Atan, the 15-year-old queen of Sartor, the oldest country in the world—the villainous commanders of Norsunder, Detlev and his nephew Siamis, plot to put the entire realm under magical control. But while Smith’s signature realm of Sartorias-deles is richly described and full of narrative potential, the entire novel has an unfocused feel to it. The unwieldiness of the numerous plot threads slows the pace down to a crawl and, coupled with a conspicuous lack of significant action (particularly in the first 500 pages), gives the book a bloated quality. Readers may also be confused about the target audience of this trilogy. The main characters are all young adults, and the content—a looming magical war where entire populations could be wiped out—is decidedly dark. The tone, however, is strangely light, downplaying the violence and concentrating more on character dynamics. Ultimately, this long novel falls flat, with cardboard characters, excruciatingly slow pacing, and very little action: disappointing on almost all levels.
Epic fantasy fans would be advised to find their literary escapism elsewhere.Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7564-0999-9
Page Count: 656
Publisher: DAW/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.
The third installment of this fantasy series (The Bone Season, 2013; The Mime Order, 2015) expands the reaches of the fight against Scion far beyond London.
Paige Mahoney, though only 19, serves as the Underqueen of the Mime Order. She's the leader of the Unnatural community in London, a city serving under the ever more militaristic Scion, whose government is based on ridding the streets of "enemy" clairvoyants. But Paige knows the truth about Scion's roots—that an Unnatural and immortal race called the Rephaim, who come from the Netherworld, forced Scion into existence to gain control over the growing human clairvoyant community. Scion’s hatred of clairvoyants now runs so deep that Paige is forced to consider moving her entire syndicate into hiding while she aims to stop Scion's next attack: there are rumors that Senshield, a scanner able to detect certain levels of clairvoyance, is going portable. Which means no Unnatural citizen is safe—their safe houses, their back-alley routes, are all at risk of detection. Paige’s main enemy this time around is Hildred Vance, mastermind of Scion’s military branch, ScionIDE. Vance creates terror by anticipating her opponent’s next moves, so with each step that Paige and her team take to dismantle Senshield, Vance is hovering nearby to toy with Paige’s will. Luckily, Paige is never separated for long from her Rephaite ally, Warden, as his presence is grounding. But their growing relationship, strengthened by their connection to the spirit world, takes a back seat to the constant, fast-paced action. The mesmerizing qualities of this series—insight into the different orders of clairvoyance as well as the intricately imagined details of Paige’s “dreamwalking” gift, with which she is able to enter others’ minds—fade to the background as this seven-part series climbs to its highest point of tension. Shannon’s world begins to feel more generically dystopian, but as Paige fights to locate and understand the spiritual energy powering Senshield, it is never less than captivating.
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-624-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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