An engaging, meditative, globe-trotting tale that ultimately reinforces the presence of spiritual forces.
In this novel, a billionaire widower, angry that religion didn’t save his cancer-stricken wife, recruits a teenage Indian girl to test the truth of spiritual revelation.
In Paris, Michael Sergeant asks Professor Dufort, the “world’s leading expert on the critique of religion,” how the “age of faith” can be ended. Michael desires this due to the death of his wife, Celeste, whom he met when he was her private-jet pilot. When Celeste was diagnosed with cancer, the couple explored various faith systems: Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and others. By the time they got to Islam, Michael’s hope in faith had faded, and Celeste soon died in a hospital. While Dufort tells him that “all the money in the world will not fund enough research to bring down religion,” Michael, now “heir to over a billion pounds,” decides to set up someone in the same circumstances that led Muhammad to have a spiritual revelation in a cave. Michael, working with various helpers, brings 17-year-old Hamida Begum, an orphan living in India with her grandmother, to his estate in Cumbria. A nearby cave is prepared, but Hamida first travels with Maurice Dufort, the professor’s researcher nephew, whom Michael has hired to educate and seduce her. Hamida’s grandmother always told her that she had a special destiny as a descendant of the Mughal imperial line. Now, the teen starts to experience more of the world as well as her own mystical powers. Then her time in the cave produces a “result” that surprisingly reconnects Michael to Celeste. Imady packs a lot of destinations and historical/religious threads into this ambitious novel. This makes for somewhat dizzying reading at times, although the book will pique readers’ interest to learn more about the Mughal Empire. Some of the story’s mechanics are fuzzy—how do Michael’s helpers come to pick Hamida, and were they fully aware of her special qualities? Still, the tale’s core—Hamida and Maurice connecting—is a rather sweet and touching romance, a reflection of the overriding power of love that is the engrossing story’s overall message.
An engaging, meditative, globe-trotting tale that ultimately reinforces the presence of spiritual forces.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2022
ISBN: 9781940178592
Page Count: 303
Publisher: VILLA MAGNA PUBLISHING
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2022
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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