Epic battles and breathtaking adventure appear alongside a moving exploration of friendship and forgiveness.
Three friends explore unknown lands to learn more about the demons threatening their city.
In the third entry of A War of Banes and Demons, the focus swings from protagonist Garet—and his attempts to identify who is using demons as personal weapons—to characters who’d previously played secondary roles. Dorict, Marick, and Vinir leave Shirath and head south to the City of Fountains to find the demons’ spawning grounds. The outsiders’ raucous ways, however, don’t sit well with the town’s inhabitants. “Two things were free in this city: water from its hundred fountains and gossip from its ten thousand tongues.” Tensions rise among the three friends after Marick’s rash behavior threatens their mission, and the impulsive, young Marick plans to run away. Instead, he’s kidnapped by a slaver who hauls him across the desert before he’s eventually rescued by a “sandwalker” named Yala. Taught by her tribe that outsiders are merely animals, Yala begins to question everything she thought she knew as she accompanies the reunited trio on their journey. Harkness makes the surprising but smart choice to forefront what might be considered a “side mission” within the overarching arc of the series’ plotline. Letting these side characters assume center stage, and introducing the fascinating characters and culture of the sandwalkers (aka demons), offers readers a broader, more meaningful glimpse into the various cultures and tribes within this carefully built world. Harkness also retains his knack for creating horror and tension while imbuing his characters with depth: “The sandwalker crouched there, trembling. This close to the demon, the fear battered her like a midday sun. She could not raise the bow. Wave after wave of horror called up terrifying memories: and they all came in her mother’s voice.” Fans and newcomers alike will find this a worthy entry in the series.
Epic battles and breathtaking adventure appear alongside a moving exploration of friendship and forgiveness.Pub Date: July 1, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Shouting Room Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2024
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
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.
After 500 years, the Grief of Ages is a distant memory—until dragons hellbent on destruction begin to wake again.
In this relatively brief prequel to the epic The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), the kingdoms of Virtudom have experienced centuries of relative peace. Marosa Vetalda, the Princess of Yscalin, spends her days behind castle walls under the gaze of her overprotective father, awaiting the date when she’ll be wed to Aubrecht of Mentendon, her ticket to freedom. While the book’s main focus is initially on the political threads weaving the Western kingdoms together, the frailty of best-laid plans is exposed when evidence of the reemergence of draconic beings reaches castle ears. These tales often come from the cullers who make their living slaying these creatures, and who are often blamed for intentionally waking them for profit. No one alive remembers the Grief of Ages, so no one’s prepared when Fýredel, the great High Western dragon, surfaces from the volcanic mountain that towers ominously over Yscalin’s capital city of Cárscaro. What follows is the backstory of how the devoted Yscali kingdom comes to shift allegiance to Fýredel and his master, the Nameless One, a main catalyst to events in The Priory. Overall, this book reads more like history lesson than fantasy adventure, but the sheer terror that befalls the Yscali people as they face Fýredel’s pure evil is both powerful and relevant. Marosa’s plight further solidifies her as a hero worth remembering; her strength and defiance shine through as hope for the future she’s dreamed of slowly flickers out.
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781639736010
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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