This slick introductory supernatural tale will leave readers eager for a sequel.
A man with superpowers hunts the people killing others of his kind in this series-launching urban fantasy novel.
Lucas Rurik is one of the riftborn. A tear between Earth’s dimension and another called the rift emanates energy that healed a great many people who were near death and granted them extraordinary abilities. Lucas, however, is unable to use his at the moment due to the fact that he hasn’t done so in months. While keeping a low profile in New York City, he gets news from his friend Isaac Gordon of the Rift-Crime Unit, where Lucas had once consulted. Evidently, “fiends” (animals touched by the rift’s energy) have slaughtered several RCU and FBI agents. Isaac asks Lucas to look into it, and he discovers that vicious creatures likely killed the agents under someone’s orders. This situation has ties to Lucas’ past; he’s the only surviving member of the ambushed Raven Guild—one of a handful of Guilds that hunted the most powerful people who are “rift-fused” like him. His investigation in New York stirs up terrible memories once it involves Dr. Callie Mitchell; Lucas witnessed firsthand her horrid experiments on rift-fused people at a prison-turned-asylum near Newfoundland. He fights to bring down the killers while keeping himself and his friends alive. McHugh packs this opening installment with plenty of exposition. There are, for example, extended scenes at the asylum and in the embers (a “personal pocket dimension” that riftborn can access to heal) along with glimpses of Lucas’ delightfully complex history. This has the effect of sidelining the easily resolved murder mystery, but the novel still delivers unpredictable turns as well as a full-bodied cast of likable allies and savage villains. These include several different kinds of revenants, who are akin to riftborn but were dead before the rift’s power revived them; one can grow “huge spines all over his body and [use] them for both defensive and offensive purposes.” McHugh’s pithy prose energizes the narrative, even when there’s no superpower on display, and builds intrigue with gradual reveals of Lucas’ rift-derived skills and backstory.
This slick introductory supernatural tale will leave readers eager for a sequel.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2022
ISBN: 9781039415010
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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