A fantasy series opener that unfolds with increasingly delightful surprises.
This fantasy finds a sorcerer’s daughter attempting to escape his influence while learning the true nature of her own powers.
The sorcerer Sidonius rules the Black Keep, aided by a young, white-haired woman he calls Daughter. Though she longs to see the vibrant life outside the Keep, her spirit is too weak to dare leave. She’s also key, along with a magic scroll, to the ritual that maintains Sidonius’ health by funneling her inner being “into Father’s unseen wound.” To escape the pain, she imagines being in a “lush woodland” that she somehow knows intimately. When Sidonius acquires some mercenaries to magically drain their life force, she notices a striking pair of men. They are Capt. Mason Khoury and Reid “Archer” Tarhill. While she believes that people are “all slaves to circumstance,” Archer disagrees. She helps the charismatic soldiers escape, and the three head west to the comforts of the Bear Clan. There, she awakens to her ability to read minds while touching a person (or animal) with her bare hands. Chieftain Bradan, who speaks with the dead, believes that “something is missing” from the woman whom Archer has named Cara (meaning friend). She also grows closer to Khoury, which becomes difficult when she learns that Nalia, another woman, seemingly dominates his heart. In this series opener, Bennett deftly illustrates village life through characters like Ingrid, an older medicine woman. Polar bears, especially Cara’s beloved Gar, play an important role, though it’s bittersweet to see a vulnerable species alongside fantasy beasts like dragons. The author’s pacing is excellent, balancing copious travel among locations like the city of Iolair with plot-jolting revelations. The cleverest narrative gambit uses the character Falin, an outcast member of the matriarchal warriors of Foresthaven. Falin’s presence threatens to upstage Cara and further complicate her romance with Khoury. Bennett’s fabulous eleventh-hour twist prevents these tropes from playing out. The finale nearly hits a dour note but instead chimes with a glorious cliffhanger.
A fantasy series opener that unfolds with increasingly delightful surprises.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9988086-0-4
Page Count: 449
Publisher: Miramae Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
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
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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