An entertaining and clever rock-infused adventure.
An amusing novel involving a new gospel in a surreal dystopia.
Drago’s novel opens as its unnamed narrator looks back at the Hard Days of a future Earth blighted by war and wealth inequality. The scene is set in the industry town of Motor City (in the kingdom of Camelot) and focuses on Motor River, one of its most humble citizens, whose wife, Ava, can’t conceive children. They’re informed by Fagan, the Siren of the Lord, that Ava will become pregnant and will name the child Horse Whisperer. He will be the herald for the coming of a messiah named Peter Star, “who will unify the proto-humans with music and dancing so they assume their incorporeal place beside the Lord.” Peter Star grows up, and they (“they” because Peter is nonbinary) and their music band are forced to go on the run after the murder of Horse Whisperer. The novel follows the travails of this messiah and their band of disciples; “Peter Star clutched their…guitar close to their chest so they could strum joyful hymns while the small band strolled across the sands.” Peter, who says they’re incapable of sexual intercourse because they have no reproductive anatomy, meets doubters, faces trials, and dispenses wisdom and the occasional Shakespearean quote (“If music is the food of love, please, play on!”) in the course of their secular ministry. Drago writes all this with an appealing intelligence and a low-key snarky humor typified in the rock-music names of the large cast (Major Tom, Red the West, Carl Gunn, Lady Madonna, etc.), and readers will be entertained spotting the parallels to (and deviations from) the New Testament. The gonzo hijinks sometimes go on to wearying lengths (“As Jesu Romeo evacuated his fecal pipe, he heard the sweet voice of Chico Spaghetti crooning from a distant water closet,” and so on), but the smart, fun central conceit keeps the pages turning.
An entertaining and clever rock-infused adventure.Pub Date: July 30, 2022
ISBN: 979-8837186905
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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