An often vivid fantasy tale, although its verbosity sometimes works against it.
This YA fantasy series starter features a princess who ventures into forbidden territory on a quest to understand her father’s uncharacteristic behavior.
After Frederick Vox, king of Equadoria, returns from a trip to the south, he unsuccessfully tries to kill his 16-year-old daughter, Princess Ariadae. He’s always been a loving, doting parent, so Ariadae is determined to figure out what’s responsible for the change in him. She believes that the answer lies in Elkwood Forest, a swath of wilderness that she’s been forbidden to enter because her mother was murdered at its border years ago. On her travels, she takes Jeremiah, her 18-year-old best friend; Snow, her white tiger; and trained sentinels Zube, Gaston, and Novid. As they traverse Elkwood, Ariadae is shocked to find legendary, monstrous creatures called the Forsaken there. Attacks by savage Wood Nymphs and Wendigos fracture the party, and after one battle, Zube suspects that the princess may have latent telekinetic skills of which she isn’t aware. Eventually, Ariadae becomes separated from her companions and wakes up in the hidden city of Flori. It’s a melting pot of magical peoples ruled by the cruel High Lady Evaflora, who uses a spell to keep her citizens docile. Here, the princess meets Lunan, High Lord of Solis, who believes that Evaflora wants to restart a war between Mortal and Immortal races. For his debut novel, James walks a well-trod fantasy path, full of magical beings and prophecy, but he does so with formidable vision. The scenes often possess an eldritch allure, as when Ariadae views a mosaic that features three figures and “long crackling fingers of lightning that scatter...bright, jagged lines studded with sapphire and lapis lazuli.” The plot twists, including one that’s quite substantial, bring agility to the narrative and a sense of wonder. James’ prose, however, sometimes excessively lingers on his heroine’s first-person perspective, filtering everything through her emotional turmoil. For example, when someone else is shot with an arrow, the princess thinks, “now I know what pain is.” Still, this opening volume sets up a sturdy foundation for more action to come.
An often vivid fantasy tale, although its verbosity sometimes works against it.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-58271-9
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Zachary James Novels
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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