The Burning Isle

Panzo’s weak debut is a Greco-Roman spy thriller with high fantasy elements. A boy calling himself Cassius arrives in Scipio looking for work as a mercenary spellcaster. The city is divided between two crime bosses. Risking his life and playing people as pawns, Cassius seeks to upset the uneasy peace between them, but his reasons for doing so are unclear. Panzo hangs his plot on a complicated triple-cross, which depends on keeping the reader ignorant of vital information for the majority of the novel. The payoff is eventually delivered, but the missing character development leaves readers confused about the protagonists’ motivations. Battles read more like video game cut scenes. The ambiguous ending is unsatisfying, as it avoids any resolution to the chaos that Cassius has brought down on an entire city for no apparent reason. The story has a few original ideas, but the execution leaves much to be desired. (Nov.)