An effective King Arthur retelling that focuses on an often neglected female character.
The great sorceress Morgana takes center stage in Morgan’s retelling of the legend of King Arthur.
When Morgana’s mother, the queen of Lloegyr, remarries after the death of the king, Morgana is sent away to be raised on the Isle of Apples with the mysterious priestesses called “the Nine.” Morgana is one of many acolytes, young girls who are sent as tribute to live with the Nine and taught to make medicinal products and magical charms to help the people who come to the temple for help. Few of them have any real magical ability, but Morgana is different. Objects move at her demand; her potions and charms are potent; her ability to scry into the future is more impressive than any of the Nine. The Blackbird, a powerful sorcerer and the only man who works with the Nine, and Braithe, a young acolyte with no magical talent of her own but a fierce loyalty to Morgana, are Morgana’s only friends, as everyone else fears her for her prodigious magical talent. Morgana’s greatest ambition is to help her half brother, the kind and benevolent Arthur, reign as true king of Lloegyr. But when Arthur brings home his bride, the beautiful Gwenvere, Morgana knows something about the new queen is very, very wrong. Gwenvere seems to have some kind of dark magical ability to confound the men around her, and when it becomes clear that there is more to Gwenvere’s violent temper than just human cruelty, Morgana will have to stop her before she destroys Arthur’s reign. Morgan’s atmospheric writing is well suited to retelling this ancient legend. The long novel sets a clear character arc for Morgana as she learns the value of working with her allies and trusting the wisdom of others instead of relying on her own power. Morgan sticks to Arthurian legend and European mythology, but both those wells are so deep and varied that readers have no way of knowing how Morgana’s mission to save Arthur will turn out.
An effective King Arthur retelling that focuses on an often neglected female character.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316585118
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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
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