A fresh and intriguing fantasy escapade.
In Lücke’s debut fantasy novel, a guilt-ridden young protagonist hunts for his grandmother’s murderer—and becomes enmeshed in a magical world in the midst of a rebellion.
Jean Anderson is murdered by a mysterious stranger wearing chain mail who then disappears. Her grandson, Tom Anderson, witnessed her death as a child; for the next 11 years, he ponders strange, written clues in a book she left him, learning the magical “Bookish” language to help decipher them. Then, Tom sees someone who looks like his grandmother “six times counting today. Her or her ghost. Always from a distance.” When another strange old woman gives him magical artifacts, “the eyes of lost souls,” he leaves the reality he knows and enters a realm called Enthilen, where he’s saved by Grin, a creature called a “stone-grell,” who becomes his fast friend. As Tom searches for his grandmother, whom he believes is still alive, he gets involved with the world’s Dobunni rebels, who seek freedom from the oppressive Erstürmen rulers. He’s soon pursued by Eroberung, a “tainted grell” working for exiled ruler Malphas, who’s scheming for power over Enthilen via complicated machinations behind the scenes. Meanwhile, Tom and Grin ride to the port city of Laodicea to confront Jean’s killer. Lücke effectively ends the novel on a sequel-ready cliffhanger as Grin aims to rescue Tom but finds himself outmaneuvered. Over the course of this book, the author introduces an array of memorable characters; indeed, there are so many different players that readers may find it difficult to keep track of them all. This has the effect of making the narrative feel overstuffed at times. The prose style is occasionally stilted, as well: “maybe he found greater joy in the willing acquiescence of affection than non-consensual conquest.” That said, many fantasy aficionados will still find themselves engrossed in the story from beginning to end.
A fresh and intriguing fantasy escapade.Pub Date: July 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-648-82070-3
Page Count: 440
Publisher: With Distinction Consultants
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 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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