An energetic, gore-soaked series finale.
The final volume of a dark-fantasy trilogy finds its heroes hunting a tyrant on another world.
In the scarred realm of Norland, Jacob Grimwullf is the Dragonspawn, a warrior who battles evil on behalf of magii’ri law enforcers. He’s bonded to the Dragon Slagg, who wants Jacob to slay him and release his “true form.” Slagg initially agrees to protect Jacob and his companions—Link, Michael, and Anja—from his own mate, the Dragoness, but the group barely survives dealing with the winged beasts. Meanwhile, the Wizard Mathias and Jacob’s magii’ri mentor, Luke Graywullf, seek the Book of Runes. With it, they can fashion magical handcuffs to bind Darklord Timon Blackhelm and force him to reverse a spell that’s causing chaos in Norland. Later, Jacob learns that Lord Dunmore plans to betray King Titus to Traegor, King of Demons. When he warns Titus, the paranoid king imprisons Jacob and plans to use the powerful young man for his own twisted ends. Jacob’s only hope is to trick Titus into finding the capable Dragonwitch, La’Nay. Luke’s hunt for Timon takes him through a portal to an alternate version of Norland on another world. He learns that Timon isn’t just hiding there—he’s the ruling President. Rottinghaus’ third Dragonspawn novel is satisfactorily grim, featuring a series of nightmarish scenarios that endanger his heroes. None of the fantasy elements feel overused; Slagg, who “tossed [a victim] in the air like a cat with a mouse, caught him full in his jaws and ground his teeth together,” is consistently awe-inspiring. Incredible carnage results from Jacob’s enhanced abilities as he battles Beastsoldiers while gunning for the duplicitous King Titus. Events simmer down on the other world where Luke hunts Timon, a place that readers will find familiar. Rottinghaus allows reality to intrude on his narrative through a character who complains about “Greenies” and vegetarianism. Overall, the novel’s first half is more riveting and climactic than its second, but fans who’ve followed the series closely will appreciate its late reveal.
An energetic, gore-soaked series finale.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64753-517-9
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Urlink Print & Media, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2021
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
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
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