An exciting but uneven fantasy series installment that sets the stage for an explosive conclusion.
A woman seeks her place in a tangled web of secrets and family history in Webb’s fantasy novel, one in a series.
Freya O’Neill has just begun to grapple with the immense powers she’s inherited (“I continued to struggle with the idea that I’d been given an intense power as a healer, but could be responsible for intense destruction if left untrained”). Pregnant with twins, she and her family and friends in Everglenn in British Columbia delve into historical research to unravel her family history. When an old enemy abducts Freya from a family wedding, her loved ones follow cryptic clues to discover her location. Meanwhile, Freya endures a brutal journey overseas, winding up in rural Ireland in the hands of ruthless clan leaders who are intent on using her to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Her rescuers must navigate dangerous territory to secure her release as Freya struggles to piece together her fractured family history to protect herself and her unborn twins. The multiple mysteries about the past position Freya for the final showdown to protect her daughters’ futures. This is an imaginative, vividly realized modern fantasy novel that draws heavily from Irish folklore to create the history of the clans Freya is tied to. The story barrels forward at breakneck speed, steadily increasing in tension while leaving lots of plot details for the reader to keep track of. The cast of characters is mostly familiar, as this is the second book in a trilogy, and their dynamics are well established. (Their deep bonds and interconnectedness are the story’s beating heart.) Freya is an easy protagonist to root for, but given how much focus is given to her powers, it’s frustrating that the plot frequently deprives her of agency in key moments. She spends most of the novel a captive, severely injured and ignorant of most of the backstory. Most of the action is shaped by other characters, forcing Freya into a passive role, though the ending suggests she may come into her own in the upcoming final installment.
An exciting but uneven fantasy series installment that sets the stage for an explosive conclusion.Pub Date: June 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781038345912
Page Count: 326
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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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