Robust worldbuilding and a millennia-spanning romance make this fantasy series finale a compelling read.
This final volume of an epic fantasy trilogy spans thousands of years and features a multitude of characters.
Julia O’Brien and her husband, Domhnall, are holed up in a cabin in Saskatchewan, hiding out while they lick their wounds. Ronan Gallagher, the man Dom thought of as a brother and someone Julia considered family, betrayed them and is now working with their greatest enemy—Marcus Cassius Longinus. Cassius has been alive for over a millennium, and Julia and Dom have spent countless lives trying to defeat him. Julia, the victim of a curse, is reborn every time she dies. Dom chose to be cursed so he could regenerate and find her again. At one point, Julia recalls: “To him, our love had always been a cause worth dying for.” Now, after so many rebirths, she’s noticed that her memories of her past lives have been deteriorating. There’s something about this life cycle that might end the curse. Julia wants to have a normal life with Dom—to start a family—and the only way to do that is to ensure Cassius’ demise. Julia must develop and fully control her magic. With the help of her friends, found family, and a collection of Druids, Wielders, and Knaves, she must annihilate the evil Cassius and his army of Wraiths. In this third volume, Gateley delivers the epic ending that readers are surely clamoring for. The novel relies heavily on the audience being familiar with the previous books, since characters are known by multiple names and titles that are used interchangeably. For example, Cassius is also called “the Sorcerer” and “the Child of Rome,” with Julia and Dom having similar titles. But despite the work’s heavy backstory and use of multiple names, Gateley skillfully weaves an enthralling tale starring remarkable players on a dangerous mission. The author’s fantasy world is rich and varied, with different types of magic users, including Druids, Bearers, and Wielders, to name a few. These elements, combined with Julia and Dom’s engrossing love story, will please fantasy and romance fans alike.
Robust worldbuilding and a millennia-spanning romance make this fantasy series finale a compelling read.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 289
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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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