A taut fantasy tale of bloodshed and politics with a complex hero battling her own personal demons.
In Barrett’s fantasy novel, a young ruler attempts to keep the four realms of the kingdom from falling apart but faces enemies, both known and unknown, at every turn.
This second installment of The Keepers of Imbria series finds magic-wielding royal Maialen, the Keeper of Earth, still reeling over the death of her rebel half sister, Orabelle, the Keeper of Water, ten years earlier. While Maialen can control the element of earth, even she is powerless to make crops grow in the parched and struggling land of Samirra, one of the four realms of Imbria. As Imbria’s four constituent kingdoms desperately cling to a tenuous peace, Blaise, the Keeper of Fire (whose obsession with Orabelle lives on even after her death), wants nothing but war. The appearance of Thyrr, Orabelle’s brother from the lands of the savage Fomori (or “blooddrinkers”), throws an already unstable situation into complete chaos as he attempts to claim the throne of Lehar, another Imbrian realm, as the legitimate heir to Orabelle. (While Thyrr doesn’t possess the Pearl that would grant him elemental powers, he does have the mythical Warding Stone, which strips powers from others.) Orabelle’s young son also comes out of hiding to stake a claim to the throne, forcing Maialen to find a path forward to save Imbria from itself. To do so, she’ll have to join forces with an unexpected ally and face a shocking betrayal from someone close to her. Barrett once again weaves together heart-pounding action and complex characters to create an epic tale that tackles themes of grief, forgiveness, and self-determination. Naturalistic dialogue and descriptive prose combine for a fantasy world that feels completely plausible, even with such outlandish creatures as the Sirens: “They approached me almost timidly and I stared at their awful, beautiful faces, so amorphous, like liquid barely holding its shape. One of them tilted its head and made a mournful sound, reaching out to touch my face. I slapped its hand away, my fingers slipping through the seawater body and making me shudder in revulsion.”
A taut fantasy tale of bloodshed and politics with a complex hero battling her own personal demons.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9798988889137
Page Count: 315
Publisher: Anthem in Art
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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