This story is brimming with potential, but the various plot threads fail to coalesce.
A student at a magical school discovers a new form of magic as the institution is threatened by outside forces in Oey’s fantasy novel.
Lina Arnoult, who hails from a prominent magical family, is excited to begin studying at the elite Taliesin Academy—but she is humiliated when the entry assessment of her magic rates her a 29 while the other students score in the 70s and 80s. She is stripped of her noble status, shunned by her teachers and other students, and her parents refuse to speak to her. While struggling to improve, Lina discovers alternative ways of performing magic that challenge the way the subject is usually taught. In her second year, she is determined to prove the school and her detractors wrong. Meanwhile, a group of non-magical commoners called Novus Vetus is attacking magical schools to challenge the superiority of magicians; Lina’s newfound skills may be more important than she realizes. Pacing issues bedevil this novel, mostly because it is trying to do too many things at once. Lina’s first difficult year at Taliesin is skipped over, thought it forms the basis for her motivations. The second half of the story focuses on the attacks by Novus Vetus and their political implications, despite the fact that the author has not developed the fictional world of the narrative much beyond Lina’s school. The magical system is an inventive one, but its role in the story is bogged down with overly wordy descriptions and exposition-heavy scenes discussing magical theory. (“Wordless magic is called ‘wordless’ because it isn’t spoken, but that is a misnomer. Words are technically used if only in thought to cast a spell internally.”) Lina discovers a new avenue of magic, but the conventional approach to the art isn’t sufficiently described to illustrate how her method is different, or why she is the only one who’s discovered it. (The magical action scenes work better than those describing its practice in dry, textbook language.) Still, Lina is a stubborn, strong-willed, and occasionally ruthless character who is nevertheless likable and fun to read about.
This story is brimming with potential, but the various plot threads fail to coalesce.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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