I don’t always have the best luck with Young Adult Fantasy and that is why I am excited to be on the tour for Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall. This is the first book in the Frith Chronicles and I am looking forward to picking up the rest of the books. As you can guess, it is a YA Fantasy and it’s one with lots of magical creatures – so if you are reminiscing about a Hogwarts style world with many many more creatures and pirates, this series is for you!
Magic. Sailing. A murderer among heroes.
Gravedigger Volke Savan wants nothing more than to be like his hero, the legendary magical swashbuckler, Gregory Ruma. First he needs to become an arcanist, someone capable of wielding magic, which requires bonding with a mythical creature. And he’ll take anything—a pegasus, a griffin, a ravenous hydra—maybe even a leviathan, like Ruma.
So when Volke stumbles across a knightmare, a creature made of shadow and terror, he has no reservations. But the knightmare knows a terrible secret: Ruma is a murderer out to spread corrupted magic throughout their island nation. He’s already killed a population of phoenixes and he intends to kill even more.
In order to protect his home, his adopted sister, and the girl he admires from afar, Volke will need to confront his hero, the Master Arcanist Gregory Ruma.
Content Notes: Descriptions of bullying.
Themes for Thought
It’s been a while since I have read a book set in a fantastical world which is deeply rooted in magical creatures. The bond between a creature and a human is what gives the power – while the creature grows to become more like its human, the human starts to wield sorcery based on the mystical creature. These humans are the arcanists.
On The Setting
Volke, our protagonists, is a gravedigger, which puts him at the bottom of the totem pole for everything. Digging graves is the lowest of professions and he wants to get out of it, to make a name for himself and lead a better life. When the city of Ruma has its decennial festival of fledging phoenixes finding humans to bond with, Volke decides to take the exam. In spite of studying well for it on his own, he is humiliated and, all hope seems lost, until his adopted sister, Illia, finds a place where they can find mystical creatures to bond with.
There begins the adventures for Volke – bonding with a knightmare – a shadow knight. This is Luthair’s second bonding, highly dangerous since Volke would have to compete with Luthair’s last partner’s remnants and ways of life.
I liked these details a lot about our protagonist as well as how magical education would be provided to him.
On Education
How I understand it, once a creature bonds with a human, the new arcanist seeks out a guild to join. This is based on recommendation of someone they have worked as well as finding a guild that will be able to train and make good use of the arcanist’s powers. I really liked this system of choice and having the arcanists think for themselves where they wanted to go.
Volke chose the Frith Arcanists Guild and they are kind of like our real world detectives and peace makers – confronting villains and saving the common populace. With eccentric guides and a home on a giant turtle, everyday brings something new. Training is as hard as it can get.
On Storytelling
Shami’s writing is easy to read and she transported me to a world that I wanted to stay in. There are cursed mystical creatures in Knightmare Arcanist and the narrative does justice to them, showing their tangled nature. I found the writing to be precise, giving the right amount of information, which can be very hard to do in a new Fantasy world. Letting the characters show the reader, rather than describe everything, often makes the story too descriptive. I really appreciated this balance. Since this is the first of the book, I’m sure some of the characters will get fleshed out more in the coming books. Illia, Atty and Adelgis have lots of potential!
Overall, Knightmare Arcanist is en engaging story. Volke is an ambitious and humanistic protagonist. It was nice to be back visiting a school of magic – having them organized as guilds rather than houses worked very well. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
** Knightmare Arcanist is available for you to read if you wish to start it now. 🙂 **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
(available on Kindle Unlimited)
Many thanks to the author and WriteReads for providing a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Be sure to check out other blogs on this tour! Follow @The_WriteReads for related tweets, and be sure to check back tomorrow for my interview with Shami!
Cover image: Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash
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