A sprightly, engaging paranormal series installment with magic-infused action and character evolution.
Armed with supernatural skills and new allies, a man sets out to rescue his lover from the land of the dead in this sixth volume of an urban fantasy series.
After surviving a harrowing ordeal, Laurence Riley and Quentin d’Arcy decide to leave London for sunny San Diego, where they first met. But Quentin’s psychokinesis turns his recurring nightmares into rather destructive affairs. To ease his stress, the couple first take a shorter flight to New York City and grab a hotel just as a blizzard hits. The West Coast can wait; they’ll just enjoy themselves and each other until the weather lets up. But when the two men briefly separate, a shadowy monster suddenly attacks and devours Quentin, who winds up in Otherworld—the land of the dead. Getting back to his lover necessitates Quentin making a bargain with Arawn, the God of the Dead. Arawn merely wants Quentin to kill fairy king Gwyn ap Nudd, something that the deity, for whatever reason, can’t do. Arawn pairs Quentin with a Hunter to guide him; surprisingly, it’s Eric, Laurence’s deceased father, who’s capable of magic like his son. Back in the real world, Laurence’s psychic vision shows him Quentin’s apparent demise. Luckily, Laurence has just made some new friends, including a necromancer, who have the know-how to glean where Quentin is and devise a plan for bringing him home. But even if they can make their way to Otherworld, they’ll still likely have to face Gwyn, whose power may be greater than whatever Laurence, Quentin, and the others can throw at him.
While Faulkner introduces new threats for each installment, numerous story threads flow throughout this series. In previous entries, for example, Quentin’s wicked father has been a central character. In this book, Quentin is tormented by the man’s past abuse, and he fears that he has darkness in himself as well. The highlighted romance likewise progresses, as the two lovers become more comfortable with each other and their increasing sexual appetites. While a generally somber tone blankets this series, Book 6 sports a more comedic approach, though it’s markedly understated. For starters, Quentin must suffer Eric’s string of delightfully banal dad jokes, including why two elephants can’t go for a swim together: “Because they’ve only got one pair of trunks!” But the main plot comes across as a frenzied, almost haphazard plan to defeat Gwyn and save Quentin. The scheme entails ever changing theories; someone’s power that no one can adequately explain (“He can, like…I dunno. Kill himself at will, kinda”); and Eric’s strategy that he derives from “Dungeons & Dragons.” The peril nevertheless takes center stage as the good guys face off against a formidable foe and his dark, vicious army and a few characters are not what they appear to be. Best of all, Laurence and Quentin’s passionate relationship continues to drive the series, showcasing a profound, unwavering love even if the former seems perpetually primed for sex. The final act is a superpowered battle resulting in deaths and near deaths, culminating in an ending that once again teases the next volume.
A sprightly, engaging paranormal series installment with magic-infused action and character evolution.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-912349-16-6
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Lunar Beagle Limited
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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