The Force is strong in this intelligent launch of a mystic-tinged, space war saga.
An Earth expedition to colonize distant worlds finds a placid, seemingly medieval alien culture that is actually part of an advanced civilization.
Alexander’s SF debut opens in the mid-22nd century. Earth officials send a long-distance starship with a group of scientists and military experts on a first-ever jump to a planet orbiting the star Kepler 452. The humans do not necessarily expect intelligent life standing in the way of their commercial colonization mission. But on a habitable planet dominated by a single continent, they meet the Haillar, a diminutive, almost fairylike race living in what looks like a feudal series of settlements. The aliens seem to take the Earth visitors politely in stride. But readers already know what the arrogant and ethnocentric humans do not: The Haillar are an ancient, sophisticated space-spanning race, some 250,000 years old. When required, they can wield immense power and technology—indistinguishable from magic. (It may actually be magic, centering on the manipulation of a mystical, all-pervading force called eka.) But for 20,000 years, the Haillar have been at war with a diabolical, all-consuming enemy called the Scourge. Now, the surprise appearance of Homo sapiens at what is actually a Haillar outpost facing an imminent Scourge attack tips the balance for all the species. The author starts this series opener deliberately, with dizzying mouthfuls of first-person alien jargon (“They share the same house name but come from two different sides of the Sen Diessa Dichotomy. Remelda is a Healer and the leader of the local Academy, while Dioran’s affinity is Oblivion, the same as the Suzerain Queen’s”). But the narrative culminates with exciting cosmic battleground action worthy of E.E. “Doc” Smith. In between, Alexander manages to insinuate both a tragic romance and a compact critique of the typical capitalist/Western imperialist (aka earthling) mindset, unable to perceive the natives—in this case, a charming little ET queen and her peers—for the mighty, virtual demigods they really are. It’s a fine blastoff for the series and, smoothly wrapping up as it does, can be enjoyed just as much as a stand-alone.
The Force is strong in this intelligent launch of a mystic-tinged, space war saga.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-70936-630-7
Page Count: 251
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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
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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