A vivid and haunting fantasy that involves a mysterious city.
The lives of a group of fighters, thieves, and sages converge in a land of intrigue and magic.
Lias is a man with a tragic past whose attempt at seeking a new life takes an unexpected detour. He’s a pit-fighter, and he and his twin brother were abandoned to the care of a pit-master who oversees hand-to-hand battles—sometimes to the death—on “the hard-packed earth” of a pit. When a new master wants him to fight his brother, Lias walks away and heads toward a monastery. He is captured by slavers along with a sage named Uril. After Uril’s death, an attack on the slavers gives Lias an opportunity to escape and find Uril’s family in Yut. In another part of Yut, an acolyte named Jyn prepares to meet his father, Magus Rhune. He travels with his teacher, Yu, to his father’s mansion; it seems that his father is seeking to extend his own life, and Jyn may be an important part of that quest. Ryll, a former thief, returns to Yut at the request of his former master, Anue, to retrieve a Heart-Stone, stolen by Cassi, Aune’s lover. While in Yut, Ryll recalls a journey with Cassi to the tower of a thaumaturgist, or magician, and the shocking discovery that continues to trouble him. Vincent’s fantasy weaves together three haunting tales of magic and mystery centered on Yut, a city full of secrets and surprises. Each tale has a protagonist embarking on a deeply and ultimately life-changing personal quest. Vincent is especially adept at creating compelling characters and vividly realized scenarios brimming with moments of intrigue and terror. One of the most dynamic and complex is Ryll, a skilled thief who leaves a life of deception for a simpler existence on a mountain with his wife, Myn. His past with Cassi and their dangerous journey to the thaumaturgist’s tower provide some of the narrative’s most intense and emotionally driven moments. Magic is a source of wonder and horror throughout the novel, particularly in Jyn’s story, where his father’s attempts at immortality include using people in his constructs.
A vivid and haunting fantasy that involves a mysterious city.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949241-14-3
Page Count: 215
Publisher: Left Hand Publishers LLC
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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