Royalslinger   Graci Kim

Royalslinger 
Graci Kim 
Penguin (2026) 
Novel 275 pages 
Paperback 
ISBN 978 1 77695 345 5 ‘

Aria knew she sounded desperate, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to be stuck inside a library reading scrolls when her mother was out there plotting world domination.’ 

Graci Kim really knows how to get a story rolling.

  Royalslinger is the sequel to Dreamslinger (2025) where Aria Loveridge gained entrance to the Royal League of Dreamslingers and become a citizen of the enchanted Kingdom of Hanguk, which is nested on an island within the city of Seoul. 

As Aria starts her second year of training to become a fully-fledged Fellow, the Kingdom and its dreamslingers face a major crisis. A rival faction of dreamers – the freedomslingers – have stolen a powerful relic, the Bleeding Bloom, which can kill anything it touches. The rebels, who plan to destroy the Kingdom and take control of the world, are led by Ko Iseul, who is Aria’s estranged mother! 

 Graci Kim does a brilliant job of reintroducing all the characters from Dreamslinger in Chapter 1 as they gather to view the first sunrise of the New Year, then unleashes the lively action in the pages which follow. Aria and the other novices are ordered to research the threat posed by the Bloom, while the qualified Fellows ‘enact an in-person retrieval strategy.’ [Who would guess that Graci Kim spent a decade as a New Zealand diplomat?] 

 Naturally Aria wants a chance to prove her loyalty to the kingdom, so she and two of her friends, Lion Lee-Hendrick (the crown prince) and Tui Walker (a New Zealander, who often says, ‘Yeah, nah’) make an undercover foray to a freedomslinger recruitment meeting in Seoul. There the trio make the gruesome discovery that the freedomslingers are using the Bloom to make people believe a fatal virus is spreading. 

Nor is the Kingdom of Hanguk safe from the terrible influence of Aria’s mother. Soon, the Librarian has been poisoned and the King is in a coma. The League’s guiding ideals of Peace and Harmony are endangered as pressure builds for a violent counter-attack on Ko Iseul and her freedomslingers. Caught in the middle, Aria is anguished and uncertain. Her situation becomes even more difficult when her mother finds a way to send her messages. 

 All this sounds a touch depressing but Graci Kim has a light touch in her storytelling. Much of this story is about the growing friendship and interdependence among the novices, as they develop their new powers. Even better is the young people’s interaction with their dreampanions, the magical creatures they have bonded with in their dream state. Lion is now accompanied by a golden dragon, while Mason has a frost-turtle, Daxia has a phoenix and Tui has a dragon with rainbow scales. Aria’s coral- coloured dragon, Rio, is still developing, so has no tail and no interest in flying, but she is irresistibly cute and constantly looking for snacks. 

  Rio’s whiskers twitched with a smile. ‘It’s because I am smartish and braveful, of course!’ Then she let out a huff. ‘But I’ll have you know, I’m not so little anymore, Ari-Ari. I’m actually quite big now.’ 

 A pony-sized, talking dragon must be everyone’s idea of the perfect companion. Less desirably, Rio is also fast-moving and impulsive, which makes some key events more dramatic, even as they break Aria’s heart. 

Royalslinger examines some fascinating topics, including death and the afterlife, as Aria tries to cope positively with a series of daunting setbacks. Does she have the physical strength and moral courage to confront her mother, Ko Iseul? Are the Freeslingers really traitors? Is her mother really ‘a power-hungry monster wanting world domination at any cost’? The challenges keep coming. 

 Aria fortunately also finds a heart-warming, peaceful refuge celebrating Makariti in Aotearoa New Zealand with Tui. But she has to return to Hanguk for a final, fateful confrontation. This story is richly detailed and fast-moving, with crafty plot-twists which keep the reader always slightly off-balance, just like Aria, who is trying to make sense of the two worlds she inhabits. 

 Graci Kim has created a complete fantasy universe for her characters. 

 Royalslinger is the best young adult novel of 2026. 

 Trevor Agnew 4 Aug 2026 

 [Review 3858.]