A vigorous yarn that mixes stout swashbuckling with moody reflection.
A youngster who wants to be a soldier achieves that goal with bloody and troubling results in Taylor’s dystopian novel.
This action-packed story, set in the distant future, posits a post-apocalyptic, low-tech empire of Sagittarius on the Canadian prairie with an astrological religion that requires babies born outside a monthlong window to be sacrificed. Sagittarius is locked in perpetual war with the nation of Scorpio to the north and has enslaved the people of Taurus to the south. Centering the story is Saya, a Sagittarian tween who dreads having to hold to proscribed feminine roles of housekeeping and childbearing and longs to be a soldier. Saya’s gender nonconformity only seems to be accepted in an observatory run by freethinking astronomers. The young narrator’s soldiering wish comes tragically true when marauders, said to be Scorpions, destroy the town, and orphaned Saya is inducted into the Sagittarian army under a new name. Sai becomes a fierce fighter with sword and bow who’s abused by other recruits but gets respect from officers who address Sai by he/him pronouns. Most of the novel follows Sai’s military career, which undermines the protagonist’s vengeance motive. Sai loves slaughtering Scorpion soldiers in gory battle scenes—the Scorpions’ poison-coated swords inflict particularly grisly wounds—but this zealotry wavers in situations involving civilians, including a 3-year-old Taurian boy. Also influencing Sai is Fion, a gay officer whose soul-searching conversations feed Sai’s disaffection. Taylor’s ruminative, queer dystopian fable feels like a mashup of elements of the Hunger Games series, Mulan, All Quiet on the Western Front, and the daily horoscope. The writing is engrossing and punchy—“ ‘Suck it up,’ Fion scolded me with a biting, severe voice. ‘You’re a soldier now’ ”—and the action energetic: “I…lunged at the Scorpion fearlessly, ducked under his swing, and thrust my blade into his gut. I ripped my sword to the side and relished the sight of his frightened eyes dying.” However, the book’s gender-related themes sometimes feel underdeveloped alongside the narrative’s extensive carnage. Still, Sai’s journey makes for a resonant, absorbing read.
A vigorous yarn that mixes stout swashbuckling with moody reflection.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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