Excellent and innovative worldbuilding, memorable characters, and nonstop action—highly recommended.
The third installment of Givler’s urban fantasy saga continues the story of a mortal entangled in a supernatural power struggle that threatens to spill over onto an unsuspecting SoCal populace.
To say that Matthew Carver’s life is complicated would be a vast understatement. His soul was stolen; his betrothed, Ash, is a Faerie princess in exile who is also the Devil’s daughter; and his position as a squire of the Hunt training with the legendary Orion is in jeopardy after a contingent of dragons (the Dragon Dons) filed a grievance with Polaris, aka the North Star, to disband the Hunt. Polaris has called for a Constellation Congregation (the first such gathering in almost 250 years) to resolve the issue, and all of the powerful Constellations have been invited. In a brilliant twist by the author, this convocation is to be held in Los Angeles, disguised as a regular pop-culture fantasy/SF convention (“Will there be any Star Trek people there?”); attendees won’t blink twice when supernatural entities with magical weapons or dragonlike humanoids stroll past. With so many enemies harboring long-standing grudges gathered in one spot, chaos quickly ensues. Although the main characters’ various backstories can get a bit convoluted, there is a lot to love here. Givler’s unique take on constellation-inspired mythology is reason enough to read the series, but the ensemble cast of deeply developed characters also gives the narrative a strong emotional impact. It’s the pacing that makes the novel so compulsively readable—the final 100-plus pages are essentially one extended epic fight scene that is so well choreographed that readers will have trouble putting the book down before its conclusion. The descriptions are undeniably immersive: “The asphalt of the road had turned to putty and was sticky underfoot. Steam sizzled off everything as the rain fell on the superheated street. The whole block was burned and blackened, like it had been in a toaster oven for too long.”
Excellent and innovative worldbuilding, memorable characters, and nonstop action—highly recommended.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781958204092
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Sad Seagull Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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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