A lightweight and playfully swift adventure set in a famous realm of magic and royalty.
Murray and Fahrie deliver the latest novella in their supernatural series featuring a shape-shifting time traveler from the present day.
In a previous installment, Lucy and James traveled from September 2018 to the days of King Arthur’s court. As this book opens, it’s September 518, and the two find themselves among such famous names as Merlin and Lancelot. Jousting tournaments and dinners with plenty of wine make for an entertaining existence for the pair; Merlin even has a sassy parrot who points to such things as how “James still misses his mother very much.” The idyll ends, however, when it becomes apparent that murderous vampires are on the loose in Camelot. The problem is so acute that Lucy even finds one under her bed. Luckily, James is a shape-shifter who’s able to change into a wolf whenever the need arises; not only does he save Lucy and himself from an intruding vampire, but he also rescues Queen Guenevere from an attempted kidnapping. Amid the hubbub, there’s an illicit relationship between Guenevere and Lancelot, which goes against her wedding vows. She tells Lucy that she knows that she must break things off, but she feels passion for the knight that she sometimes finds herself “unable to control.” Many other women at court find Lancelot equally attractive; indeed, it appears that a commoner named Roxanne may have killed herself because he didn’t reciprocate her advances. And if that weren’t enough, there are still all those vampires to deal with.
Murray and Fahrie present a densely packed tale in this series entry, but it’s one that moves quickly. As the entire novella is less than 100 pages long, no individual scene lasts for very long, and many chapters are dominated by action. In one notable scene, Lancelot gets punched in the face at dinner; another features two characters being forced to dance in a vampire castle, as villains chant “Dance or Die!” However, the dialogue is frequently on the nose, with characters stating how they are feeling instead of showing it through action: One character remarks after swimming in a mineral spring, “That was a delightful swim. I feel much more relaxed now”; during an attack, someone unnecessarily exclaims “We are being attacked! Kill them before they kill us.” Even Lancelot takes an opportunity to bluntly explain his actions: “I’m very much my own man and I often go away on adventures all by myself.” The earnestness of everyone involved doesn’t make for the most mysterious atmosphere, but it does result in entertainment. The fact that the monstrous vampires laugh and clap gives them an unexpectedly humorous bent, and during a confrontation with bats, Merlin uses owls in an endearingly cartoonish scene: one bird “quickly ate the entire bat whole.” Some aspects of the story are predictable, but there is always something new developing around the corner, and it may well come with a touch of silliness.
A lightweight and playfully swift adventure set in a famous realm of magic and royalty.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2024
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
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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