Starborn

September 12, 2016
Hounsom’s debut has an interesting fantasy-world setting but a weak story. On the day of her inheritance ceremony, Kyndra Vale and her fellow adolescents are to receive their true names and callings. Tragedy strikes, disrupting the ceremony and drawing destruction down on the village. Kyndra is launched on an adventure to save her world, or rather, she is swept along in a series of events and coincidences. The themes of a closed system and predestination place harsh limitations on the character’s choices. Instead of making decisions, Kyndra gripes her way through a journey in which her role is to be present and do as she is told by authority figures (most of whom are male). The narrative lacks tension or mystery, and the conclusion is predicable and unsatisfying due to the low stakes and the absence of an interesting character to root for. Agent: Veronica Baxter, David Highams (U.K.).

November 1, 2016
This British debut opens a coming-of-age fantasy series in the manner of David Eddings and Trudi Canavan. Each year, the children of Brenwyn become adults by receiving their true names and callings from an ancient relic during their inheritance ceremony. Kyndra has both longed for and dreaded this ritual, but when the relic breaks during her turn, Kyndra is free to determine her own future. Or is she? Blamed for the unnatural destruction, Kyndra escapes the suddenly dangerous village with the help of two Wielders (magicians), setting off a chain of events that proves Kyndra is still bound to a fate set long ago. Kyndra is an accessible but colorless narrator with little agency in her story, which follows a predictable arc, while her Wielder companions have interesting backstories. Hounsom's world-building and her cosmosethic magic system have enjoyable charm, and a late twist in the world's history adds a complicating wrinkle to the standard lines drawn between heroism and tyranny. This mostly conventional tale will be a pleasant diversion for fans of epic and traditional fantasy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)