A host of exemplary authors delivers stories of other worlds and unforgettable, sometimes-familiar characters.
An anthology of SF and fantasy tales that play with expectations.
In Sean Gibson’s “What’s Good for the Goose…,” Robin Hood, continuing his tradition of stealing from the rich, contemplates his next target: “heartless blighter” Ebenezer Scrooge. As an alternative, Scrooge suggests a “valuable resource” that will keep on giving. Many of the 16 stories that editors Pyle and Mastro have compiled here are takes on such familiar tales as “The Three Little Pigs” or popular characters like Peter Pan and Pinocchio. Sophia DeSensi’s “Fairly Dead,” for example, features the Snow White–like Princess Rayne, who tries to preempt her stepmother’s desire to see her dead; in doing so, she gets herself a poisonous apple that may be more effective than she anticipates. Authors Demi Michelle Schwartz and Natalie Duvall have reimagined lesser-known stories from the Brothers Grimm. Both are delightfully unorthodox love stories; Schwartz’s “Dabria’s Shadows” centers around a soul reaper while Duvall’s eponymous “Maleen” is a woman whose father sent her to outer space for refusing to marry someone. Other entries have no discernible source of inspiration; one of the more intriguing of these is Michael La Ronn’s “A Baby’s Love,” in which a faerie knight’s mission involves living in the body of an infant human baby. The stories offer a hearty mix of genres, from absorbing romance and absurdist comedy to relentlessly dark SF and the occasional bleak ending. Indelible prose throughout evokes distant lands and planets. In the case of Gigi Monique Waddell’s “Coco Bronze and the Seven Martians,” a simple scene with a Mars-based princess stands out: “The staff scrubbed the rover oil from Coco’s skin, scraped the dirt under her fingernails, made her soak in lavender and milk, and combed her long hair into soft black curls.”
A host of exemplary authors delivers stories of other worlds and unforgettable, sometimes-familiar characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798227718044
Page Count: -
Publisher: Cabbit Crossing Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2025
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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