A thrill ride that’s clearly gathering steam for the next installment.
In the second of a dark epic fantasy series, two brothers battle for the fate of an empire…and perhaps a universe.
Kagen Vale has learned the dreadful truth: The Witch-king of Hakkia, who invaded the Silver Empire and slaughtered the Silver Empress’ children—whom Kagen had sworn to protect—is actually Kagen’s older brother, Herepath, once a respected cleric and scholar. Herepath now goes to ever more extreme lengths to pursue his brother and permanently prevent him from revealing his secret as Kagen goes on the run again, searching for allies and a new weapon against his powerful foe. The Witch-king also faces obstacles on two other fronts. First, his coronation was interrupted, so the subject nations of the Silver Empire don’t fully consider him their ruler, leading him toward covert but brutal attempts to sow discord among them so that they don’t unite against him. Second, the Silver Empress’ sole surviving heirs, the 6-year-old twins Alleyn and Desalyn (whom Herepath has claimed as his own children for reasons that are quickly apparent), are fighting their way out of the dark spell that turns them into sadomasochistic monsters. Will this new, potentially unstable empire collapse from within, or are the dreaded powers that Herepath and his patron god, Hastur, command too overwhelming to defeat? Maberry continues to dump more subgenres—this time, zombie plague plus Indiana Jones–style treasure-seeking adventure—into this still-beguiling kitchen sink of a milieu, but despite the multitude of action scenes, the plot doesn’t advance to any great degree; instead we have a wide scattering of multiple subplots that await resolution in Book 3. Alas, the series also seems to be in need of a good copy editor; some minor discrepancies from Kagen the Damned (2022) have carried through to this novel and spawned new ones. These are not annoying enough to destroy pleasure in the story but do prove to be a bit of a distraction.
A thrill ride that’s clearly gathering steam for the next installment.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-2507-8399-8
Page Count: 704
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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