This exceptional tale drops readers into an immersive world with unforgettable characters.
People unite to stop a powerful, evil being from destroying their world in Cox’s fantasy novel, the first in a series.
Seventeen-year-old Selaina lives in isolation; her mother warns her never to wander past a particular stream in the forest. Beyond it, apparently, lies the “wicked world” of Galanor. That doesn’t stop Selaina from jumping the stream, but one day, she returns from a forest walk to discover her mother missing. She sets out to find her without much of an idea of where to search and luckily runs into an obliging ally along the way. Elsewhere, Rykan, a relatively inexperienced soldier in the kingdom of Elenior, looks for help. Merciless Vatreus has led his Iron Flood army to devastate the capital city that Rykan and fellow soldiers vowed to protect. Help may come from the Wishing Stone, which some claim can undo things that have already happened. Rykan ultimately crosses paths with Selaina as they and several others brave savage creatures and a dark, ancient building to get that stone. Cox masterfully builds an expansive world within a taut narrative—characters pass through a ruined city and enter an enchanted forest “from which no one ever returns” while name-dropping locations in Galanor that readers don’t see in this first installment. Genuinely terrifying villains keep tension high, from Vatreus (who wields a blue-flamed, oversized sword) to a variety of creatures covered in flames or “black fur bristling like jagged spikes” that the cast must defend themselves against. Interactions among Rykan, Selaina, and their comrades are highlights; they prove to be either fiercely loyal or deceptive, and while some share romance, others don’t make it to the end. Nonhuman races add further texture, with Selaina enduring rancor and epithets for being a pointy-eared “Lith” just like the much-despised Vatreus.
This exceptional tale drops readers into an immersive world with unforgettable characters.Pub Date: March 27, 2025
ISBN: 9798990954830
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2025
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
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
