A sprawling fantasy that’s an inventive love letter to the genre.
A diverse group of heroes gathers to battle a witch who can destroy the world in this epic fantasy debut.
It is the Ninth Age of the Fire Horse, and a great evil prepares to consume the world. Tregha is a Forest Ranger hunting for Dagghu warriors in the Arun Delta. The Rangers operate under the leadership of Lord Adfir and hope to meet with the Southern Patrol soon. Tregha is actually half Dagghu, the illegitimate son of Chief Knamu, who used magic to impregnate Lady Lylhanne, an Elf Trueblood hostage. Tregha’s dark stoicism helps keep his monstrous Dagghu heritage in check. When Adfir returns from scouting with a Fennelora priestess named Astoriie, Tregha sees someone who lives in perfect harmony with nature—someone to admire. After learning that the Southern Patrol has been destroyed, the Rangers find themselves battling the animated corpses of their comrades. Astoriie senses an all-consuming evil supporting the Dagghu warriors, who’ve grown bolder. The primary hope standing against this dark force is the wizard Aenrindel of Ellendor. As the wizard travels with a caravan across the Rall’Haku desert to the city of Kabir, he’s accompanied by a young monk called Luo. The 9-year-old child has been instructed by Master Su of the Long Fang Temple to guard Aenrindel but also to eliminate him if he’s seduced by evil. When several cars from the caravan mysteriously vanish into the desert’s red mists, the group steps onto the long road of confrontation with the witch Kakista. Can heroes with both physical and magical might stop her from killing the world?
In this series opener, Kalimeris brings together different types of fantasy storytelling to forge a dense, palate-cleansing adventure. Some readers will respond to motifs similar to those in classics like Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series, such as races of elves, dwarfs, and the fellowship-style banding together of heroes. Fans of darker fantasy works, including Stephen Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon (1999), will appreciate the parade of fresh concepts that seem almost disposable in their profusion. There are, for example, several elaborately conceived character origins shuffled into the larger story that often enforce an episodic pacing. In a flashback, readers learn of Ryn Kartashee, a “warrior poet” who’s owned by Prince Qelek of Kabir and whose prowess in the fighting pits earns him the love of Harinni, the royal’s betrothed. Ryn and Harinni’s story is grand in its own right, but readers may need patience while the primary narrative rotates slowly back into view. The author’s prose is lean on dialogue, frequently requiring readers to submit to lengthy descriptions of scenes both violent and bucolic. When Navardi, the Chosen of the Sun God Ra, battles an army, “the searing heat soon filled the air with the stench of roasting flesh as ten thousand men cooked at once.” Such violent moments are outnumbered by paeans to nature, as in the passage “Spry flowers in white, gold, and purple pose in the petticoats, millions of tiny dancers suspended mid-lift in the steady hands of their betrothed.” Overall, the imagination on display is remarkable. Yet the equally amazing characters need more space to breathe and potentially carry a less cluttered, more emotionally resonant tale.
A sprawling fantasy that’s an inventive love letter to the genre.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing book that sets the ground for a promising finale.
This sequel to Odin’s Child (2021), the second entry in an epic fantasy trilogy translated from the Norwegian, sees its characters facing even bigger challenges.
When Hirka crossed the gateway into the unknown with only her raven, Kuro, by her side, she hoped to finally find a place where she belonged. But after months stranded in the mightless human world of contemporary York, England, Hirka finds that there is a new threat to her life—and to the world she left behind. Back in Ym, Rime is the new Ravenbearer in a world with shattered religious and political foundations after the life-changing revelations of the previous book—but all Rime can think about is the promise he made Hirka that he would find her. Ultimately both Hirka and Rime come to realize that they stand at the cusp of a conflict 1,000 years in the making. Their continuing saga takes place within an intricate fantasy world that explores the history and mythology of Ym and introduces a connection to the human world in unexpected and intriguing ways. Despite repetitive beats, the series finds its rhythm with the introduction of new worldbuilding elements and fascinating characters while deftly showcasing its main characters’ ongoing tale of belonging, forgiveness, and sacrifice. The main characters are all White; a few secondary characters are dark-skinned.
An absorbing book that sets the ground for a promising finale. (glossary) (Fantasy. 16-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64690-001-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.
After 500 years, the Grief of Ages is a distant memory—until dragons hellbent on destruction begin to wake again.
In this relatively brief prequel to the epic The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), the kingdoms of Virtudom have experienced centuries of relative peace. Marosa Vetalda, the Princess of Yscalin, spends her days behind castle walls under the gaze of her overprotective father, awaiting the date when she’ll be wed to Aubrecht of Mentendon, her ticket to freedom. While the book’s main focus is initially on the political threads weaving the Western kingdoms together, the frailty of best-laid plans is exposed when evidence of the reemergence of draconic beings reaches castle ears. These tales often come from the cullers who make their living slaying these creatures, and who are often blamed for intentionally waking them for profit. No one alive remembers the Grief of Ages, so no one’s prepared when Fýredel, the great High Western dragon, surfaces from the volcanic mountain that towers ominously over Yscalin’s capital city of Cárscaro. What follows is the backstory of how the devoted Yscali kingdom comes to shift allegiance to Fýredel and his master, the Nameless One, a main catalyst to events in The Priory. Overall, this book reads more like history lesson than fantasy adventure, but the sheer terror that befalls the Yscali people as they face Fýredel’s pure evil is both powerful and relevant. Marosa’s plight further solidifies her as a hero worth remembering; her strength and defiance shine through as hope for the future she’s dreamed of slowly flickers out.
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781639736010
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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