A colorful fantasy with ancient Greek influences that is a delight to read.
Karis and Alix join forces to flee the authoritarian Scriptorium.
Unwilling acolyte Karis discovers Alix, a working automaton, the last of his kind left after Scriptmaster Theodis betrayed the Scriptorium over 200 years ago by initiating the Great Lapse that brought an end to the Scriptorium’s supremacy. Chafing under the control of the Scriptorium, Karis makes a deal with Alix: They will escape together and Karis will find her missing brother, Matthias, who was sent away years ago for trying to protect her. There’s only one snag—Theodis created Alix, but Alix remembers nothing of the master’s betrayal. The narrative examines what it is like to have your personhood denied, both through the perspective of Alix as an automaton and through those of the slaves of the Scriptorium. Bonds of friendship are tested again and again, and questions of betrayal and emotional distance are asked. The pacing remains tightly controlled, staying mostly steady with quick bursts of action and labyrinthine plot twists. Victoria creates an engaging narrative with enough fantasy and science fiction elements to satisfy fans of both genres. Karis is an aromantic asexual, and her relationship with Alix remains strictly platonic. The main cast is left racially ambiguous, and the world contains diversity in race, sexuality, and gender; Matthias has a visual impairment.
A colorful fantasy with ancient Greek influences that is a delight to read. (map) (Fantasy. 13-17)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-335-08027-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Bound to be popular.
A suddenly trendy trope—conflict and romance between members of conquering and enslaved races—enlivened by fantasy elements loosely drawn from Arabic tradition (another trend!).
In an original, well-constructed fantasy world (barring some lazy naming), the Scholars have lived under Martial rule for 500 years, downtrodden and in many cases enslaved. Scholar Laia has spent a lifetime hiding her connection to the Resistance—her parents were its leaders—but when her grandparents are killed and her brother’s captured by Masks, the eerie, silver-faced elite soldiers of the Martial Empire, Laia must go undercover as a slave to the terrifying Commandant of Blackcliff Military Academy, where Martials are trained for battle. Meanwhile, Elias, the Commandant’s not-at-all-beloved son, wants to run away from Blackcliff, until he is named an Aspirant for the throne by the mysterious red-eyed Augurs. Predictably, action, intrigue, bloodshed and some pounding pulses follow; there’s betrayal and a potential love triangle or two as well. Sometimes-lackluster prose and a slight overreliance on certain kinds of sexual violence as a threat only slightly diminish the appeal created by familiar (but not predictable) characters and a truly engaging if not fully fleshed-out fantasy world.
Bound to be popular. (Fantasy. 13 & up)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59514-803-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce.
Houck kicks off a new story arc in the world of the Tiger’s Curse series with new tigers who live in a northerly setting.
The death of their widowed royal mother touches off a crisis in the Kievian Empire; neither Stacia nor Verusha Stepanov, 17-year-old sword-wielding twin sisters, wants to be named tsarina. But questions of succession get put on hold when a battle with a sorcerer inexplicably turns the two into nonspeaking Siberian tigers. Hints of a cure send them, along with a growing entourage of men to provide assistance (and, perforce, do all the talking), on a long trek. Though most of the cast sticks to genre type, Houck throws in a wild card in the form of hunky, inarticulate Nikolai, who joins the quest because he is enthralled by Verusha—and who also killed his whole family in an act of revenge. Occasional anachronistic dialogue (e.g., “Are you ready, ladies?”) disrupts the tale’s generally earnest tone, as do the clumsy attempts at banter. A third tiger, snarky and blind but conveniently able to see through others’ eyes, trots in late in the story. The events in this setup volume unfold with many a flashback and change in point of view and head toward no sort of resolution—only the cave-dwelling White Shaman of the Tundra’s advice that further journeys are in the offing. The central cast in this Russian-inspired fantasy world presents white; the Indigenous population includes nomadic reindeer herders.
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798212221696
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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