Radiant heroes can’t quite overcome the bare-bones narrative and flat action.
Friends-turned-lovers use angel-gifted superpowers to battle assorted supervillains in Thomas’ debut fantasy novel and series launch.
Ayla and Jonathan meet at a local festival in Laceyville when they’re both still in school. Their distinctive, mismatched personalities connect—baseball cap-donning Ayla likes playing sports, and Jonathan’s favorite things include jewelry and the color pink. Several years later, while they’re dating, they each wish for superpowers, which, amazingly enough, an angel grants them. The duo, who adopt the superhero names Tomboy and Tomgirl, promise to fight those who hurt others. As it happens, there’s no shortage of merciless supervillains about, ranging from powerful megalomaniacs to an army of mutant tapeworms. In between battles, Ayla and Jonathan pick up new skills, including pyrokinesis and Jonathan’s ability to summon angels and amass an array of superpowered allies to join them in taking down baddies. The couple also enjoys a fair amount of downtime for football games, double dates, and their long-awaited wedding day. Thomas’ writing style seems aimed at middle-grade readers, though the titular heroes are adults for most of the narrative. The dialogue, for example, is endearingly silly, featuring such trash talk as “you miserable piece of poopy”; Ayla vows to kick “goshdang bootay.” She and Jonathan shine throughout, never hesitating to risk their lives for others while sadly suffering the remarks of narrow-minded people calling them “butch” or “sissy.” On the other hand, many narrative details are lacking; villains suddenly materialize with nothing more than a name or a basic descriptor (like “humanoid”). Moreover, there’s abundant repetition. This works well with some of the villainous characters, who are children or siblings of those the heroes have already fought. But repetitive passages render the copious action scenes dull and predictable as characters endlessly change forms (usually to one of the elements) and summon angels, rockslides, lava waves, and more. This first series installment concludes with surprising but welcome resolution.
Radiant heroes can’t quite overcome the bare-bones narrative and flat action.Pub Date: April 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798391380832
Page Count: 250
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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