An immersive, war-torn fantasy adventure.
Three soldiers navigate a war-torn continent in this omnibus edition of the first three novels in Brandt’s high fantasy series.
The Emperor of the Twelve Kingdoms has decided to step down, leaving a power vacuum as the dozen kings beneath him vie to replace him as the overlord of the massive empire. Prince Nico’s father, King Hermann of Akenberg, is perhaps the most ambitious of all. He sends Nico—who has always cared more about his swordsmanship than politics—on a diplomatic trip to Asturia, a neighboring kingdom, only to betray that kingdom during Nico’s mission, assuming the foreign king will kill his son. Meanwhile, Private Yohan serves as a grunt in the Vilnian army, assigned to guard a remote mountain watchtower. After a surprise attack that kills most of the garrison, Yohan escapes with his wounded commander, Jenaleve—the beautiful eldest daughter of the king of Vilnia. In the hinterlands of the far-northern kingdom of Falkenreach, the housethrall, Jak, lives to serve the village clerk—but when an army of evil creatures destroys his village, he must step up to lead rather than follow. As these three men from varied backgrounds find their lives upended by the empire’s collapse into civil war, they are forced to either rise to the occasion or lose themselves—and their kingdoms—to an unspeakable evil. Brandt writes in sturdy yet flexible prose that captures the drama of his high fantasy tale, particularly the terror of armies swarming over the horizon: “Then he saw it, coming from above directly toward the village. Not an it—them. Shadows in the impenetrable darkness. What had seemed one enormous amorphous thing now resolved into hundreds, if not thousands, of man-sized shapes.” It takes a while for the three strands of the narrative to come together, but the world Brandt creates is rich enough to ensure the reader is happy to spend time in any part of it. The tropes may be familiar, but they are executed with aplomb. Fans of George R. R. Martin and his imitators will enjoy this brutal saga.
An immersive, war-torn fantasy adventure.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2019
ISBN: 9781691712359
Page Count: 740
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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