Whimsical and heartfelt, with a radar trained on delight.
This story of pen pals turned lovers unfolds in a series of letters and “Automated Post missives” as the two learn more about their underwater world.
Struck by curiosity, E. Cidnosin writes a letter to Scholar Henerey Clel hoping he’ll help her identify an “Elongated Fish.” Through their ongoing correspondence—as well as later letters between members of their families—we learn more about E. and Henerey and the world around them. For instance, one of Henerey’s scholarly publications says this: “Ever since the tragedy of the Dive ushered in our new Society, people who seek to understand the creatures with whom we share this world have published great Treatises to prove themselves as worthy Scholars.” In this new society triggered by the mysterious event called “the Dive,” people live primarily underwater in places like Boundless Campus and Intertidal Campus, as well as on the Atoll, which is the “only known landmass in the world.” E. lives “a few hundred fathoms off-coast” of Boundless Campus in a family home called “Deep House.” She suffers from “a Malady of the Mind that made certain things—like leaving the house, interacting with strangers, or not obsessing over the fragility of her own mortality—very difficult.” Even so, as her correspondence with Henerey grows, so does her fondness for him. The diction and syntax of the letters revel in a bygone era’s romance and quick wit, showcasing the art of letter writing. The long-distance friends eventually meet at a gala hosted by E.’s brother, Arvist, at Deep House, where their conversation ingeniously continues on the back of the event’s “programme.” The scholarly search for knowledge to better understand this underwater world propels the plot into the unknown, where many curiosities are yet to be uncovered. Additionally, the letters between E.’s sister, Sophy Cidnorghe, and Henerey’s brother, Vyerin Clel, allude to something that has happened to the couple, and Arvist makes a last-minute confession that sets further mysteries in place to be unraveled in the next book in this series.
Whimsical and heartfelt, with a radar trained on delight.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780316565530
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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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