A worthwhile and invigorating fantasy journey.
In Solomon’s fantasy novel, a queen must protect her throne and kingdom from her daunting, vengeful sister.
Mara, the Sword Queen, rules over the vast empire of the Jeweled Realm. She fears very little—and certainly not a visiting prince from the eastern kingdom of Ursa. However, Prince Boden brings alarming news: A powerful witch wants to join forces with his kingdom, and she claims to be Mara’s younger sister. Mara, however, earned her throne with a ritualistic duel to the death, allegedly striking Iris down seven years ago, when each was a teenager. The reappearance of the sibling whom Mara obviously spared creates a complicated situation, as people in the Jeweled Realm now view the “Liar Queen” as a traitor and are now out for blood. Even worse, a conflict with Iris ends with Mara losing her Sacred Sword, which she feels “helpless” without. She teams up with Boden and grows to trust him as they search for aid from inhabitants of an archipelago down south. All the while, Mara must decide what she’ll do when she’s face-to-face with Iris again. An exceptional cast drives Solomon’s narrative, starting with the ambivalent Mara, a highly skilled warrior who’s also “tired of bloodshed.” Although Boden is a potential romantic interest, it’s the differences between him and Mara that add interest to their many scenes together; Mara, for example, doesn’t believe in his religion, is accustomed to wealth that his kingdom doesn’t have, and tires of his unrelenting cheeriness. Their interactions consistently move the story along as they travel by land and at sea and meet up with assorted locals; these vibrantly sketched individuals include a woman living in an isolated cabin, a warrior willing to sacrifice herself for others, and a number of people who may turn on the main players.
A worthwhile and invigorating fantasy journey.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798991530309
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Golden Scales Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A well-constructed and enjoyable conclusion.
In the conclusion to the Emily Wilde trilogy, a Cambridge professor of dryadology—faerie studies—prepares to live her research as never before.
Previously, in Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (2024), Emily poisoned Queen Arna, the usurping stepmother of her faerie-prince fiance, Wendell Bambleby, and found a gate to Wendell’s lost kingdom; naturally, the process of establishing a new monarchy in a quixotic faerie realm will be far from smooth. Unfortunately, Arna is not quite dead; she is using her poisoned, liminal state to blight the very landscape. Emily must employ her specific mortal skills (academic research and unrelenting resolve) to find the faerie lore that best describes their current situation, picking out the clues within scraps of old tales to locate the hidden, dying queen, and deal with her in a way that doesn’t lead to further damage. Although much of what she learns is grim, Emily forges on, determined to discover the path to a happy ending for herself and Wendell, where she can be the faerie queen she never imagined she’d be (and is frankly quite uncomfortable being). Thankfully, this concluding volume isn’t the feared retread of the previous two, both of which involved Emily’s research in remote European locations and her efforts to get on with the human locals, even while her obvious neurospiciness and deep understanding of rules allow her to deal with faeries more effectively than most mortals can. This installment makes effective callbacks to the previous two, while moving the story forward as Emily, despite the concerns of her mortal friends, tries to make a place for herself in a dangerous new world where not all of her subjects are prepared to take her seriously. Janet of Carterhaugh merely had to drag her lover Tam Lin from a horse to secure her happiness from a vengeful faerie queen; Emily has to put in real work, using her brain and plunging into physical danger to earn her future. The result is far more satisfying and believable, despite being mainly set in a fantastical world.
A well-constructed and enjoyable conclusion.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593500224
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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