The Cradle of Ice

September 1, 2022

In the series-opening The Starless Crown, a star student, a disillusioned soldier, a dissolute prince, and a wily thief are on a mission to prevent apocalypse. Now they must separate and travel through vast ice fields to reach a city they know only through legend. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 19, 2022
Too-familiar epic fantasy tropes and underbaked characterizations bring down Rollins’s second Moonfall novel (after The Starless Crown). The plot surrounds series heroine Nix with an admirably diverse cast, including “a second-born prince, a broken knight, a recalcitrant thief, a figure sculpted of flowing bronze,” all seeking to avert moonfall, or the world’s destruction, and Rollins tantalizingly teases what to expect in a prologue announcing a “story of innocence lost, of trust betrayed, of hope banished,” which “makes a mockery of what was written before.” But what follows is utterly formulaic. Nyx, a student who has dedicated herself to averting the prophesized disaster, is alarmed to find a bomb on her questing vessel, the Sparrowhawk, evidence of a sabotaging traitor. Other dangers, from humans and monstrous beasts alike, pop up regularly. Sometimes-weak prose (“While she might not have been born of womb and blood, she was as much a woman as any other—only more so”) doesn’t help. Only diehard fans of the previous installment need bother with this one.

December 16, 2022
The first book in the Moonfall series, The Starless Crown (2021) introduced readers to young Nyx, fleeing a sentence of death for daring to question accepted wisdom, who gathered around her a group of misfits and outcasts and set out to save the world. And what a brilliantly conceived world it is: no longer rotating on its axis, it's split in half between unendurable heat from the sun and the unimaginable cold of darkness, with only a few, small areas where people can survive. Now, the apocalypse looms ever closer, and only acts of true desperation can save the world--if Nyx and her comrades can survive the challenges they must undertake. Rollins is mostly known for his Sigma Force action thrillers, but he has written some well-received fantasy (under the pseudonym James Clemens), and the Moonfall series is shaping up to be a major entry in the genre. The writing is gorgeous, textured and full of detail, a notable shift from the stripped-down prose of the Sigma Force novels, and the world and its inhabitants are beautifully crafted. For lovers of fantasy fiction, a must-read.

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December 1, 2022

The motley crew that gathered together in The Starless Crown travels to opposite ends of a far-future, post-apocalyptic Earth in their pursuit of long-buried ancient machines that will prevent the coming crash of Moonfall by kicking off a smaller disaster in its place. Nyx and her pirate crew travel to the frozen wastes on the dark side of the world to learn that the empty lands are populated with humans and other creatures who have preserved ancient talents that may save their quest--or doom it. Meanwhile, the exiled prince and his scientific companions pursue hidden knowledge in the dark heart of one empire while another sends armies after both parties in pursuit of a revenge that will only bring destruction. Readers will want to continue their journey with Nyx and her companions, but as the middle story in a huge epic that blends the science fiction of a tidally locked planet with elements of fantasy and magic, this is a long walk through very dark places that will not be resolved until a later book in the series. VERDICT Recommended where the first book was popular.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.