A hearty, riveting vampire tale with a wonderfully motley cast.
An amnesiac tries to stop a powerful vampire from performing a world-ending ceremony in this debut fantasy/thriller.
A year ago, Ash suddenly found himself on Ellis Island, unable to remember anything, including his real name. Now, all he knows is that he has an uncontrollable thirst for blood and has been killing someone on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, militarized vampires leave their realm of Pandoria for New York via a portal. They’re on a reconnaissance mission for Queen Chanovalle Remseldorne, but their objective quickly changes when the slave Kayala escapes captivity with help from Ash. The vampires fear the queen’s retaliation because Kayala is her “pet.” This unfortunately results in the vampires’ abduction of high school sophomore Inalia Edwards. The crime is accidental: She’s a dead ringer for Kayala. The vampires outfit Inalia with a collar and leash and take her to their realm as the queen’s personal slave. Later, seeing a missing person report, Kayala surmises Inalia is her twin and decides to rescue her. She and Ash travel to Pandoria only to learn that Inalia is an unwitting participant in a ritual, part of an apparent prophecy that will cause Armageddon. Vibrant characters populate Rogers’ swiftly paced tale. Kayala, for example, evidently kills certain troublesome Pandoria citizens. And the cast of characters even includes a werewolf and a dragon. This cross-genre narrative is dark but entertaining, comprising action sequences, fantastic elements, and vampires’ blood-drenched homicides. There are also abundant backstories to explain Ash’s lost memory and the queen’s power-hungry scheme, which she keeps largely to herself. These elucidating scenes never slow down the book’s momentum, though some intriguing characters, like the werewolf, get considerably less of the spotlight. Nonetheless, the author has plenty of rich material to expand this novel into a series.
A hearty, riveting vampire tale with a wonderfully motley cast. (author bio)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73571-610-7
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Venerated Sage
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 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
A fresh, arresting entry in the vampire genre that revels in violent, bloody delights.
An orphaned teenager tries to connect her sister’s disappearance to their family’s decadeslong relationship with vampires.
Nineteen-year-old Kidan Adane wants nothing to do with her family’s horrifying rules and traditions, which stipulate that Kidan and her sister, June, who are Black girls of Ethiopian heritage, must honor soul-binding contracts with dranaics, or vampires. After their parents died, the sisters were placed in foster care with Mama Anoet. For years, Kidan had thought they were safe from evil—until Silia, their maternal aunt, unexpectedly died, and June and Kidan became the last two living members of House Adane. When June is abducted in the middle of the night by an unknown assailant, Kidan traces the clues to Uxlay University, where worthy leaders are taught how to protect a hierarchical society in which humans and vampires harmoniously coexist. Kidan believes that June was taken by Susenyos Sagad, the formidable vampire who’s bound to her family’s bloodline. As she dives deeper into this cruel new world, the line between her hatred of Susenyos and her growing fascination with him begins to blur. Debut author Girma’s trilogy opener offers a richly detailed, sweepingly imaginative narrative that artfully explores the dark heart of desire, rage, and loss through expansive worldbuilding. Kidan’s powerful characterization is layered, and her journey toward the truth has been crafted with a cinematic eye.
A fresh, arresting entry in the vampire genre that revels in violent, bloody delights. (map, content warning) (Fantasy. 15-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780316581448
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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