Readers craving another dose of superlative magic battles and ambitious plotting won’t be disappointed.
In this fifth volume of an epic fantasy series, a hero uses time travel to thwart demonic hordes in the present.
In the magical realm of Kismeria, Adem Highlander, Wil Martyr, and Carl Wilder are the prophesied Sons of Odin, destined to battle the Shadow. Though Adem is devoted to and has a daughter with Jean Fairsythe, the Daughter of Thor, he also has a child with Princess Isabelle. Their adult son, Pendral, is in thrall to the evil Jinn-Lord, imprisoned in Kerak’Otozi, a volcanic mountain. To ensure that his son becomes an upstanding, compassionate man, Adem has been using Elarja RinHannen’s Time Stones to visit Pendral in the past, as a boy. Though Pendral’s demon army seems to be growing in the present, he appears conflicted while fighting the Sons of Odin and their allies. Meanwhile, Druid Allor MorKondeith creates a potion that alleviates the curse of creeping madness in those who use teran and terael magic. But Carl doesn’t appreciate the intoxicating side effects. Adem also begins to question his chances of gaining redemption and God’s forgiveness after all the violence of his warrior life. Could the Sons have a kind of PTSD from the event that brought them from Earth to Kismeria? Later, Elarja warns that too many visits to young Pendral have “the potential for great tragedy.” Hammer goes back to the deep imaginative well that has served him in the four prior volumes of this fantasy series. This volume explores father-son relationships and the missed opportunities therein. In the present, warrior Rayne Dragon-Sword battles Pendral, his own father, only to see his friends—Shaye, Ellagon, and Ragan—possessed by demons. And yet the author’s penchant for verbal and visual extravagance makes the characters’ personal dramas difficult to maintain (“Time was sliding into a puddle like gel. Space was constricted and at the same time stretched beyond containable proportions”). Magical action against countless creatures maximizes the gore. Euphoria-inducing potions and an herb called menuhybe, which is smoked, have obvious real-world parallels. A sweetly surprising finale expands the potential of subsequent volumes.
Readers craving another dose of superlative magic battles and ambitious plotting won’t be disappointed.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 311
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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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