The promise of more clashing action will have readers clamoring for the next book.
Altruistic orphan Lann is destined to be paired with the Dreadblade, a magical, deadly sword that demands fidelity of its bearer as it eliminates evil.
After his mother dies in childbirth and his father is fatally attacked by a wolfish creature, humble Lann takes refuge with the witch Fleya. While there, Lann learns that her sister was his birth mother and receives a visit from Rakur, a trickster god who gives him the Dreadblade. Now Fleya and Lann, plus Dreadblade, are driven to save Stromgard from a conspiracy as well as from the monsters from the Void. All of this is orchestrated by the vengeful prince Kelewulf and the villainous sorcerer Yirgan. Kelewulf is determined to ruin the Rivengeld royals with dark Art and gain power. The tropes are familiar but don’t feel formulaic thanks to a cast of characters with well-developed backstories. Even Kelewulf is viewed with sympathy by his cousin, King Erik. Historical events are seamlessly interspersed with present-day action, contests fought at close range, and a hint of romance, leaving readers cheering for the hero. Lann maintains his appealing humanity because it is the Dreadblade who identifies the evil, allowing Lann to make peace with delivering justice. Kelewulf’s comeuppance will have to wait since the book ends with a cliffhanger. In this Scandivanian-inspired setting, characters default to white.
The promise of more clashing action will have readers clamoring for the next book. (map) (Fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4088-7339-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms!
Hotshot pilot Spensa Nightshade completes her apotheosis in this series closer, as human rebels and their alien allies mount a climactic assault on the galactic empire.
Having progressed from eating rats to being a cytonic superwarrior, Spensa is bonded by ties of loyalty and lust to former Skyward Flight leader, now Defiant Defense Force admiral, Jorgen—and also to a traumatized, planet-killing, interdimensional delver named Chet. Spensa would be well on her way to full-blown pacifism if the Superiority’s war of extermination against humans were not ramping up to a newly active phase. Nothing for it but a massive space battle, complete with dogfights, huge explosions, feints, betrayals, and tragic sacrifices…not to mention a swarm of ravenous, vacuum-dwelling vastworms eager to chow down on both sides. Though slowed by Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives, the plot features more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. Better yet, the deliciously expansive cast includes not only humans and AIs but a broad array of aliens and semi-aliens from blue-skinned humanoids and a furry, haiku-reciting, fox-gerbil samurai with a (wait for it) laser sword to sentient crystals and empathic slugs. “The more different types of people we got into the flight, the stronger it would be,” Spensa reflects, and indeed, it’s collective action that proves decisive in the end.
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms! (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593309711
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the long, anticlimactic wind-down, it is a strong conclusion to the crowd-pleasing series.
Capping the former Inheritance Trilogy, this fourth epic-length episode brings teenage Dragon Rider Eragon at last to a decisive faceoff with his greatest enemy.
Beginning with the capture of the fortress city of Belatona, the rebellious Varden alliance wins multiple hard-fought victories before arriving at last before the iron gates of imperial Urû’baen, “wherein sits Galbatorix, proud, confident, and disdainful, for his is the strength of the dragons.” Meanwhile, Eragon and his scaled companion Saphira fly off to the ruins of Doru Araeba in response to mysteriously delivered hints that something in a hidden “Vault of Souls” will help defeat their clever and overwhelmingly powerful adversary. Tucking in well-developed side plots, elaborate set pieces, internecine squabbles, extraneous characters, piles of corpses and, toward the end, even oblique allusions to sex (dragon sex, anyway), Paolini moves his tale along with all deliberate speed to its properly explosive, massively destructive climax. As in previous volumes, there are so many nods to Tolkien and other fantasists that authorial whiplash must have been a chronic hazard, but battle scenes are satisfyingly dramatic. Moreover, the act that leads to the thoroughly predictable outcome is just one of several ingenious twists, and before sailing off to lands unknown in a boat of Elvish make (sound familiar?), the young warrior/mage actually wages peace while methodically tying up loose ends over the final 90+ pages.
Despite the long, anticlimactic wind-down, it is a strong conclusion to the crowd-pleasing series. (maps, multilingual word list) (Heroic fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-85611-2
Page Count: 800
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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