Siavahda's Blog, page 42
July 24, 2023
Must-Have Monday #146
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
For the last week of July we have EIGHT books!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MC, queernorm world
Published on: 25th July 2023
Goodreads
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Emergent Properties is the touching adventure of an intrepid A.I. reporter hot on the heels of brewing corporate warfare from Nebula Award-nominated author Aimee Ogden.
A state-of-the-art AI with a talent for asking questions and finding answers, Scorn is nevertheless a parental disappointment. Defying the expectations of zir human mothers, CEOs of the world’s most powerful corporations, Scorn has made a life of zir own as an investigative reporter, crisscrossing the globe in pursuit of the truth, no matter the danger.
In the middle of investigating a story on the moon, Scorn comes back online to discover ze has no memory of the past ten days—and no idea what story ze was even chasing. Letting it go is not an option—not if ze wants to prove zirself. Scorn must retrace zir steps in a harrowing journey to uncover an even more explosive truth than ze could have ever imagined.
I fell head-over-heels for Odgen’s novella Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters two years ago, and I’m excited to dive in to her writing again! Scorn sounds like an absolutely fascinating MC, and that blurb has me hooked. I need to find out what happened to Scorn’s memory!
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 25th July 2023
Goodreads
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Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.
An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.
What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.
Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?
A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)
I am very interested in magical utopias, even utopias-that-aren’t, and I’ve been hearing great things about Wang for years. Time to pounce, I think!
Us, Et Cetera by Kit Vincent Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: M/M
Published on: 25th July 2023
Goodreads
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A captivating LGBTQ fantasy that blends the enchantment of Cinderella with the futuristic world of The Matrix, delving into questions about the nature of life, the pursuit of freedom, and the price one must pay for love.
Eke lives in a nice house, in a wealthy neighborhood, with an upstanding family: Mr. and Mrs. Kensworth and their three children. But Eke is not family; Eke is property. He’s an AI whose job is to keep the house clean and organized, and no matter how much Eke secretly wishes to be allowed outside to see the stars or to make a real friend, he’s either ignored or bullied by the family that owns him. To make things worse, the Kensworths purchase a shiny new AI named Kyp, who quickly becomes everyone’s favorite, leaving Eke feeling more isolated than ever. That is until a terrifying party incident brings the two AIs together, sparking a chain of events that forces them to commit the unthinkable: defy human orders and run away.
With AI hunters hot on their trail, Eke and Kyp set out on a perilous journey across the country, fighting for their lives, searching for the true meaning of freedom, and even daring to fall in love.
I’ve seen some mixed reviews of this one – it doesn’t sound like the AI aspect is explored super well – but if you’re looking for a sweet queer romance with SFF elements, this might be a good fit!
The Sun and the Void (The Warring Gods, #1) Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists Representation: Venezuelan-coded setting & cast, sapphic MCs
Published on: 25th July 2023
Goodreads
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In a lush world inspired by the history and folklore of South America, a sweeping epic fantasy of colonialism, ancient magic, and two young women's quest for belonging unfolds.
Reina is desperate.
Stuck living on the edges of society, her only salvation lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never known. But the journey is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster.
Attacked by creatures that stalk the region, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn—and keep—her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.
Eva Kesare is unwanted.
Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries her best to be perfect and to hide her oddities. But Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls to her.
Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet, it’s hard to deny power when it has always been denied to you. Eva is walking a dangerous path, one that gets stranger every day. And, in the end, she’ll become something she never imagined.
I DNFed this one, despite anticipating it so much – but the writing style just didn’t work for me. Which doesn’t mean it won’t work for you! You can read the first chapter for free here, which should give you some idea of if the prose is going to bother you.
Bonesmith (House of the Dead, #1) by Nicki Pau Preto Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Published on: 25th July 2023
Goodreads
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Gideon the Ninth meets the Game of Thrones White Walkers in this dark young adult fantasy about a disgraced ghost-fighting warrior who must journey into a haunted wasteland to rescue a kidnapped prince.
Ready your blade. Defeat the undead.
In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr—a ghost-fighting warrior—is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defense against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.
Determined to reclaim her family’s respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers—a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place…and the House of Bone’s sworn enemy.
As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there’s more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they’ll need to work together to combat the real a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.
Argh, I hate the idiots who write comps like this – comparing to something like Gideon the Ninth is setting a book up to fail! But taking it wholly on its own merits, Bonesmith sounds like it could be fun – I was impressed with Preto’s Crown of Feathers trilogy (PHOENIX-RIDERS!!!) so I’m expecting good things of this new series!
The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 27th July 2023
Goodreads
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Ropa Moyo is no stranger to magic or mysteries. But she’s still stuck in an irksomely unpaid internship. So she’s thrilled to attend a magical convention at Dunvegan Castle, on the Isle of Skye, where she’ll rub elbows with eminent magicians.
For Ropa, it’s the perfect opportunity to finally prove her worth. Then a librarian is murdered and a precious scroll stolen. Suddenly, every magician is a suspect, and Ropa and her allies investigate. Trapped in a castle, with suspicions mounting, Ropa must contend with corruption, skulduggery and power plays. Time to ask for a raise?
I love this series, which despite the age of its main character reads very much as Adult Fantasy to me. This is the UK release – alas, Mystery won’t be out in the US for another few months, I think? But if you can nab a copy now, you should!
First Creation: A Trans M/M Erotic Horror Novella by mars adler Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MCs, M/M
Published on: 28th July 2023
Goodreads
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In an alternate biblical history, the war between angels and demons is unending and brutal.
Amitiel, an angel of God, and Stolas, a fallen angel-turned-spy, should be enemies. However, after they uncover a shocking secret that drives them to desert, they go on the run together in modern-day America. Both are injured, and it’s only by chance that they stumble upon a long-abandoned church.
Ensconced in the alluring, stifling church with a forgotten cemetery and too many peach trees, they finally have time to heal. They also have time to think and plan, which is as much a blessing as it is a curse.
Amitiel must come to terms with his strange hunger and forbidden desires, while Stolas plans their next move. They both grapple with the knowledge of where their food rations came from, and that something is very wrong in the heart of Heaven itself. God has vanished, and if he isn't giving the orders, who is condoning the atrocities the angels commit in the name of winning?
FIRST CREATION is an erotic horror novella. It is a love letter to fallen angels, rediscovering religion in a way that works for you, queer rage, and hunger of all kinds. It deals with some very heavy themes and is not intended for anyone under the age of 18. For a full list of content warnings please check the author's website.
Is this going to give me nightmares??? Perhaps, but I’m gonna read it anyway. I LOVE fuckery with angels and demons and queerness (what ex-Catholic doesn’t???) and I’ve been frustrated by all the stories lately that promise me darkness and don’t deliver. I suspect mars adler has my back on this one…
Dolly Butler's Eight-Day Week by Annette Kane Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, F/F
Published on: 28th July 2023
Goodreads
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June 1908: Cross-dressing Dolly Butler is starting a new career as a detective with her very own Soho agency.
Her first case takes her into the brutal world of an East End plumage factory where it’s not just birds that are under threat. While Dolly is off sleuthing, her adored lover, Caroline, hides from her violent husband at Dolly’s home. However, when their embittered housemaid becomes aware of Dolly and Caroline’s ‘unnatural practices’, she becomes intent on destroying their happiness. Her scheming, and Dolly’s refusal to confront a friend’s suspicions about Caroline’s mysterious past, puts them all in grave danger.
In a page-turning, darkly comic story of obsession, self-delusion and deception, can Dolly save the woman she loves, as well as face the grisly reality of her new line of business – and the truth about herself?
I am HERE for cross-dressing sapphic historical fiction, yes PLEASE! I think your best bet for getting your hands on this one is buying directly from the publisher, since it seems to be difficult to find elsewhere.
Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #146 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 20, 2023
Far From the Perfect Companion Novel: Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey
Cassiel's Servant (Kushiel's Legacy, #1.5) by Jacqueline Carey Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy
Representation: Bi/pansexual love interest, secondary bi/pansexual character, minor M/M
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 1st August 2023
ISBN: 1250208351
Goodreads
The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: “Love As Thou Wilt."
Returning to the realm of Terre d’Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a hero’s journey for a new era.
In Kushiel’s Dart, a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it.
Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive.
From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind… and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep.
Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.
“Decadent and dark, Cassiel’s Servant reveals the secrets of the mysterious Cassiline brotherhood. In this gorgeously realized novel, Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange and offers us a new and dazzling perspective on a character we thought we knew.”—Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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~who’s gonna tell them pride is a sin???
~Skaldia was a lot worse than we thought
*spoilers abound for anyone who hasn’t read Kushiel’s Dart!*
I read Kushiel’s Dart and Cassiel’s Servant back-to-back, and I’m still not sure if that was a good idea or not. Cassiel’s Servant does not compare well – but in fairness, what book could? And yet Servant seemed to be written expecting the reader to be very familiar with Dart indeed – some conversations, and some entire scenes, were glossed over with quick summaries rather than giving us a play-by-play, presumably because we already know how this conversation or that scene goes. So if you haven’t read Dart for a while, you may be a little lost in those moments – or feel a little cheated out of the story. Despite the heavy page-count, those glossing-over moments – which start when Joscelin meets Phedre – made Servant feel rushed to me, as if Carey didn’t really want to linger over the same story she’d already told in Dart.
Which I would normally think is pretty fair, but if you didn’t want to write the story again, why write a companion novel like this?
Joscelin’s voice is very different to Phedre’s, but while that is good writing craft – in the sense that it would be odd if two such different characters had similar voices – it made for a much less enjoyable reading experience for me. One of the things I love about Dart is the lushness, the decadence, the beautiful language – and with Servant, there’s none of that, because of course, Joscelin thinks things like decadence are…not ‘sinful’ exactly, but definitely not something to be encouraged. His descriptions of things, then, are much simpler and less ornate than Phedre’s – and that does not make it a bad book; it just makes it one that is unappealing to me specifically.
What I think is genuinely odd about Servant is that, I’m not sure we actually get much more insight into Joscelin as a character than we had before – and some of what we do get feels very forced. For example, we learn that during his training as a Cassiline, Joscelin had a best friend he was incredibly close to; arguably the most important relationship he’d ever had with anyone up to that point, up to and including his family (who, after all, he left when he was ten years old). But this is pretty jarring, because if this friendship was so important, was this important, how is this the first time we’re hearing about it? How did it never come up in Dart, or Chosen, or Avatar? And the reading experience of Servant is made strange by it, because – why doesn’t he mention it now? Only he can’t, because he never did in Dart, and although Carey does give us a few conversations and smaller scenes between Joscelin and Phedre that didn’t make it into Phedre’s account, in order to keep things believable those conversations and scenes have to be pretty minor and unimportant, or else why wouldn’t Phedre have talked about them in Dart?
I’m not sure if this is bad writing so much as it is an inevitable trap of writing this kind of a companion novel. Carey’s hands are tied by what she wrote decades ago for Dart. There’s no way around that.
(So perhaps it’s better to go into Servant not having reread Dart first? Because it might read better, if you don’t quite remember how everything is going to go already.)
Putting this next bit behind a spoiler tag, although it’s really a very minor spoiler: [View post to see spoiler]
Going in a very different direction: wow do I hate the Cassiline Brotherhood. Like, violently hate it. Their – philosophy? faith? both? is hateful and appalling and in direct conflict with, you know, everything else about Terre d’Ange. As in, the Brotherhood literally thinks D’Angelines shouldn’t exist, and are definitely sinning (or something – still not sure sinning is the right word) by enjoying beauty and sex. Oh, and that women, specifically, are Wicked But Weak. (One of the great things about Servant is that Joscelin is clearly narrating from many years later, and is not shy about calling out his past self’s misogyny or hypocrisy, or that of the Brotherhood. This is a great relief, and sometimes wryly funny.)
And from a worldbuilding perspective… I don’t understand how the Brotherhood exists. I really don’t understand how their faith evolved out of Cassiel’s existence. If I were imagining what a group of people who sought to emulate Cassiel might be like, the Brotherhood are absolutely not it. They’re basically a tiny cult within Terre d’Ange who believe everyone else is – not damned, but fundamentally wrong in their very existence, and that someday Cassiel will save everyone, including Elua, by convincing them all to go to the quasi-Christian Heaven instead of the paradise realm that is the D’Angeline afterlife.
What even.
I was expecting – waiting for, even – for the Brotherhood to be great advocates of platonic love, and for some discussion or debate about the merits of platonic vs romantic or erotic love. But that didn’t happen. And we already know Cassilines swear celibacy, and that that’s in emulation of Cassiel – but I wasn’t prepared for the disgust with which the Brotherhood views sex itself. You can be celibate without thinking sex is disgusting and sinful, and given, you know *gestures at the whole of Terre d’Ange* the sex-negativity (is that a term?) feels so impossibly out of place.
To be clear, these are things I, subjectively, did not like about the worldbuilding – but I also think that, objectively, they make very little sense.
On the other hand, we know the Brotherhood is dying out, and maybe this – the fundamental conflict between the Brotherhood’s views and everyone else’s – is a big part of why? But if that’s the case, then I would have liked for that to have been stated, and discussed. It could have made for some really interesting discussion! Instead, there’s only talk about how the Brotherhood has become less fashionable, which doesn’t seem to be the same thing.
Obviously, Joscelin’s life before meeting Phedre is the biggest difference – plot-wise – between Servant and Dart. That’s a given. So…what does Joscelin’s perspective on events we already know add to the familiar story?
Honestly? Not a lot, in my opinion. As previously mentioned, there are a few small snapshot-scenes that are original to Servant – and I was amused to see that very occasionally, Phedre and Joscelin remembered conversations just a little differently – but some of the ones I was hoping for are missing: for example, Joscelin summarises for us the night he spends entertaining Morhban’s soldiers as a storyteller – we don’t actually get to see how that night went. We never hear the story Joscelin came up with to explain how a Mendicant came to possess Cassiline daggers and vambraces – which particularly crushed and frustrated me; it was something I was so looking forward to hearing, and what’s the point of this kind of companion novel if you skip over the things that Phedre wasn’t around for?
And what I said about the change of voice (Phedre -> Joscelin) affecting the prose – well, Joscelin’s worldview strips away most of what makes Dart – and all three trilogies set in this world – unique. Without the sensuality and sexuality of Dart, we’re left with a story that is…not dull, because these are objectively exciting events. But it’s Phedre’s perspective, and the D’Angeline culture as a whole, that transforms Dart from an interesting High Fantasy into something really groundbreaking and special. Joscelin’s perspective and culture (because he really was effectively raised in another culture entirely) not only does not offer that – the D’Angeline view – specifically; it offers us nothing new in exchange. If anything, it takes away from the story and world we know, rather than adding anything to it. It diminishes it.
It takes something that was breathtaking and beautiful, and reduces it to…just another fantasy novel. Not bad. But nothing special.
That line from the blurb – ‘The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: “Love As Thou Wilt.”’ That book was Kushiel’s Dart. Cassiel’s Servant would not, could not, and does not, inspire.
As a standalone, Cassiel’s Servant is perfectly fine. Not mindblowing, not terrible, just – fine.
But the Perfect Companion, it most certainly is not.
The post Far From the Perfect Companion Novel: Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 19, 2023
I Can’t Wait For…The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson!
The Principle of Moments (Order of Legends, #1) by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Black cast, Black disabled/chronically ill queer MC
Published on: 18th January 2024
Goodreads
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In self-deified Emperor Thracin’s brave new galaxy, Humans are not citizens. Instead, they are laborers indentured to the empire, working to repay the billions in debt they unwittingly incurred when they settled on Gahraan—a planet already owned by someone else.
Asha Akindele has lived her whole life on Gahraan, eking out an existence between factory assembly lines and constant terror—studying stolen aeronautics manuals in the dead of night and trying not to get herself killed for mouthing off to a guard. Then she discovers she has a sister imprisoned by the Emperor, and is forced to make a choice: stay enslaved, but relatively safe, or escape and risk everything in the name of family.
Obi Amadi is a time-traveller, sick with a legendary disease. Armed only with his prosthetic arm, his ever-constant melancholy, and the humour he uses to mask it, he has spent years travelling through time and space in search of a cure for the sickness currently unmaking him limb by limb. His mandate: Find the cure, go home. And maybe figure out along the way if the prince he thinks sometimes he might love could be that home.
When Obi saves Asha’s life, they make a pact: both will do all they can to get the other to the Emperor’s stronghold unscathed. With the reluctant aid of Xavior, a mouthy deckhand with a mysterious past, Asha and Obi attempt to navigate a galaxy that hates them to find the things they both believe will make them whole.
But a prophecy has started that has other plans, and not only is Asha forced to make a terrible choice, she must soon reckon with the legacy of an ancient religion and its heroes, who may be awakening, reincarnated in ways beyond her comprehension.
I have been SO EXCITED for this book for SO LONG – it won the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award back in 2020, which CRUELLY TEASED US ALL by publishing summaries/blurbs of the winning book – this one!!! – without giving us any way to READ IT. Then the publishing deal was announced in 2021! Then the release was pushed back, because, you know *gestures at world*. It’s currently set for release January 2024, and I just want to make it extremely clear that I have been VIBRATING WITH EXCITEMENT for this book since 2020.
(I don’t begrudge how long it’s taking to get into my paws, btw. I actually like stalking books like this – checking in at least once a month to see if there’s any news, setting up alerts in my favourite places, keeping my lists of Books To Look Out For up to date, adding new titles to my Anticipated Releases calendar. I grant you it’s weird, but it’s fun for me. is my autism showing yet)
And I mean, look at that blurb!!! Evil space capitalism, a queer disabled time traveller, prophecies and reincarnation. PRINCES WHO MIGHT BE HOME. An emperor who clearly needs deposing. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE???
Pretty sure the prophecies and reincarnation makes this science fantasy, which is an underutilised and underappreciated genre I am always dying to see more of. And then we have what’s not mentioned in the blurb – like the fact that this book (or maybe the trilogy as a whole?) is century-spanning, which has me all kinds of interested – I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel that took place over that kind of time, and I’m interested to see what that looks like. BUT AS WELL, Jikiemi-Pearson has also promised us
an alien library that takes days to cross on foottragic reincarnation romance!excerpts of an academic text exploring the mythic traditions of a lost planet, complete w annotationsI don’t know which of these I’m most excited about, to be honest. ALIEN LIBRARIES. REINCARNATION ROMANCES. ANNOTATED IN-WORLD TEXTS!
…Okay, it might be the texts. Just. But only because I’m such a worldbuilding nut!
It’s Black, it’s queer, it’s science fantasy. I have yet to come across one single detail about it that I am not in love with. And it’s available for preorder!!! Has been for a while, in fact.
So, you know, if you haven’t already: GO PREORDER IT.
The post I Can’t Wait For…The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 17, 2023
Must-Have Monday #145
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
FOURTEEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
The Crane Moon Cycle: An LGBTQ Epic Fantasy Duology by J.C. Snow Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 17th July 2023
Goodreads
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Across wars and worlds, through death and life, in mortal and immortal hearts, the binding holds.
Aili Fallon is determined to escape her past, and won't let anything get in the way of her training as a combat nurse. But when the woman she loves binds her with blood and disappears in flames, she gambles with her own existence to find her again.
Crossing into a forgotten life and death, Aili is bound by a curse a thousand years in the making. As human wars rage and demons hunt the immortal and defenseless phoenix, Aili and her beloved Liu Chenguang fight to heal the wounds of two lives, with their own hearts and millions of mortal souls at stake.
The Crane Moon Cycle Duology contains the full books of The Phoenix and the Sword and The Shoreless River, a complete epic fantasy of love, loss, and redemption, set in a world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend.
I’d not heard of this series until I came across the omnibus, but it sounds – kind of amazing??? The reviews I’ve read have me VERY excited!
Be Sure (Wayward Children, #1-3) by Seanan McGuire Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Asexual MC, sapphic MC, F/F, fat MC, trans secondary character, BIPOC secondary characters
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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2022 Hugo Award for Best Series
Where it all began―the first three books in Seanan McGuire's multi-Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series.
Join the students of Eleanor West, and jump through doors into worlds both dangerous and extraordinary.
Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway
Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Meet Nancy, cast out of her world by the Lord of the Dead; Jack and Jill, each adopted by a monster of the Moors; Sumi and her impossible daughter, Rini.
Three worlds, three adventures, three sets of lives destined to intersect.
Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations / No Visitors / No Quests
But quests are what these children do best...
Another omnibus it’s hard not to be excited about, even if I’ve already read the three novellas it contains – Be Sure combines the first three books of the Wayward Children series into one volume! With a gorgeous cover by the inestimable Rovina Cai!
If you haven’t read this series yet, this is a wonderful place to start – and I wouldn’t be surprised if many already-fans, like me, end up with a copy for their bookshelves!
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Biracial Japanese MC
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.
They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.
It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.
Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.
With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.
---
CW: miscarriage, fertility issues, terrorism, death of a child, racism, gore, strong language
I’ll admit, this is a premise that wouldn’t normally interest me – I generally don’t enjoy generation ships or investigative plotlines – but I’ve heard so many excellent things about Deep Sky that I’m deeply curious about it! So I’ll be giving it a go, for sure.
Blade of Dream (Kithamar, #2) by Daniel Abraham Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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From New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse, comes the second novel in a monumental epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year.
“An atmospheric and fascinating tapestry, woven with skill and patience.” – Joe Abercrombie, New York Times bestselling author of A Little Hatred
Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories endure.
This is Garreth’s. Garreth Left is heir to one of Kithamar’s most prominent merchant families. The path of his life was paved long before he was born. Learn the family trade, marry to secure wealthy in-laws, and inherit the business when the time is right. But to Garreth, a life chosen for him is no life at all. In one night, a chance meeting with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. He falls in love with a woman whose name he doesn’t even know, and he will do anything to find her again. His search leads him down corridors and alleys that are best left unexplored, where ancient gods hide in the shadows, and every deal made has a dangerous edge. The path that Garreth chooses will change the course of not only those he loves, but the entire future of Kithamar’s citizens.
In Kithamar, every story matters -- and the fate of the city is woven from them all.
I am endlessly heart-eyes for Daniel Abraham, and I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy – though I’ve since learned that each book in the series is actually a standalone in the same setting? I’m fine with that; it would be pretty hard, I think, for Abraham to write something I didn’t want to read!
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Autistic sapphic MC
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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A searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.
They’ll scare you straight to hell.
Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold.
Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy.
I did DNF this one, but it was really an it’s-not-you-it’s-me thing – it still very much deserves a feature!
The Jasad Heir (The Scorched Throne, #1) by Sara Hashem Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Egyptian-coded setting and cast
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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Ten years ago, the kingdom of Jasad burned. Its magic outlawed; its royal family murdered down to the last child. At least, that’s what Sylvia wants people to believe.
The lost Heir of Jasad, Sylvia never wants to be found. She can’t think about how Nizahl’s armies laid waste to her kingdom and continue to hunt its people—not if she wants to stay alive. But when Arin, the Nizahl Heir, tracks a group of Jasadi rebels to her village, staying one step ahead of death gets trickier.
In a moment of anger Sylvia’s magic is exposed, capturing Arin’s attention. Now, to save her life, Sylvia will have to make a deal with her greatest enemy. If she helps him lure the rebels, she’ll escape persecution.
A deadly game begins. Sylvia can’t let Arin discover her identity even as hatred shifts into something more. Soon, Sylvia will have to choose between the life she wants and the one she left behind. The scorched kingdom is rising, and it needs a queen.
In this Egyptian-inspired debut fantasy, a fugitive queen strikes a deadly bargain with her greatest enemy and finds herself embroiled in a complex game that could resurrect her scorched kingdom or leave it in ashes forever.
I’m quite wary of Jasad Heir – it sounds potentially too romance-heavy for me, and I’m really not a fan of tournament stories. But I’ve seen so many glowing reviews from readers I trust, so I’ll probably at least give it a try!
Ethera Grave (The Graven, 3) by Essa Hansen Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Asexual MC
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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In the final book of this genre-breaking, roller coaster of a space opera trilogy, bold new voice Essa Hansen will stretch the limits of your imagination in this adventure perfect for fans of The Expanse and A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
Caiden has finally been reunited with his sister Leta after ten years on the run with his unique starship and managed to convince his longtime enemy—Threi—to join his side. But the multiverse isn’t safe yet. Threi’s sister Abriss is still the most powerful being in existence. And she still wants to collapse their beautiful, diverse, constellation of multiverses down to one, growing more powerful and more ruthless with each unique universe she destroys. As Abriss’s strength grows, her sanity wanes under the burden of the universe’s whispers. And Caiden must weigh his final choices against a new risk: if he finally unlocks the ancient Graven abilities lying dormant in his genetics and saves the multiverse, he risks losing himself to the whispers just as Abriss has. For the last time, Caiden and his makeshift family must carry the fate of all the worlds in their hands.
This is the finale of the Graven trilogy! I didn’t make it through book two, but I will almost certainly be trying it again, because Hansen’s imagination is incredible and I do genuinely want to know how everything wraps up.
The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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A sweeping YA fantasy about legacy, betrayal, sisterhood, and politicizing emotion in the quest for power—all balanced by a slow-burn LGBTQ romance.
For centuries, the citizens of Velle have waited for their New Maiden to return. The prophecy states she will appear as the third daughter of a third daughter. When the fabled child is finally born to Velle’s reigning queen all rejoice except for Elodie, the queen’s eldest child, who has lost her claim to the crown. The only way for Elodie to protect Velle is to retake the throne. To do so, she must debilitate the Third Daughter—her youngest sister, Brianne.
Desperate, Elodie purchases a sleeping potion from Sabine, who sells sadness. But the apothecary mistakenly sends the princess away with a vial of tears instead of a harmless sleeping brew. Sabine’s sadness is dangerously powerful, and Brianne slips into a slumber from which she will not wake. With the fates of their families and country hanging in the balance, Sabine and Elodie hurry to revive the Third Daughter while a slow-burning attraction between the two girls erupts in full force.
A must-read for fans of the BookTok sensations Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
Tooley’s books always get such beautiful covers! I admit to some eyebrow-raising at the whole third daughter of a third daughter thing – unless there’s some special restrictions in the worldbuilding, it doesn’t seem like a difficult thing to arrange; three is a pretty common number of children to have! But Tooley’s prose is usually right up my alley, so I’ll be picking this up nonetheless.
The Chaos Monster (Secrets of the Sky, #1) by Sayantani DasGupta Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Indian-American MCs
Published on: 18th July 2023
Goodreads
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From New York Times bestselling author Sayantani DasGupta comes a new series in which everything is connected to everything, and it’s up to twins Kiya and Kinjal to save it all.
When 10-year-old Kinjal hears a strange noise in the middle of the night, he grabs his twin sister, Kiya, and the two go searching in the forest at the edge of their new house. There, they find Snowy and Midnight, two winged pakkhiraj horses from the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers who have come to this dimension to seek help -- bees are disappearing, along with the nectar the pakkhiraj horses need to survive.
Whisked away to a magical realm, the twins must use Kiya’s scientific skills and Kinjal’s love of books and language. But then they discover that the disappearance of the bees is more nefarious than they thought, and the plot goes all the way to the top.
This sounds utterly enchanting, and I am a huge fan of flying horses. And look at that cover – even the dog has wings!
The Pomegranate Gate (The Mirror Realm Cycle, #1) by Ariel Kaplan Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Jewish cast, major bi/pansexual character, queer MC
Published on: 20th July 2023
Goodreads
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Two worlds bound by a pomegranate gate...
Toba Peres can speak but she can’t shout; she can walk but she can’t run; and she can write in five languages… with both hands at the same time.
Naftaly Cresques dreams every night of an orange-eyed stranger; when awake, he sees things that aren’t real; and he carries a book he can never lose and never read.
When the Queen of Sefarad orders all the nation’s Jews to leave or convert, Toba and Naftaly are forced to flee, but an unlucky encounter leaves them both separated from their caravan. Lost in the wilderness, Toba follows an orange-eyed stranger through a mysterious gate in a pomegranate grove, leaving Naftaly behind.
With a single step, Toba enters an ancient world that mirrors her own. There, she finds that her fate—and Naftaly’s—are bound to an ancient conflict threatening to destroy both realms.
This is the UK release – Pomegranate Gate won’t be out until September in the US, alas! – but as someone who recently finished the arc, I URGE you to grab a copy if you can! This is officially one of my new all-time favourites, and I’m determined to write an extra-beautiful review for it. If you get your books from the UK, go get it; if you buy in or from the US, preorder it!!!
The Night Field by Donna Glee Williams Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 20th July 2023
Goodreads
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A magnificent, moving ecological fable: welcome to The Real, where Pyn-Poi's people live in harmony with nature - until a brown fog threatens their whole world.
Pyn-Poi's mother Marak wants her to grow up to be the matriarch of the tribe, learning how to cook, to make medicines, how to care for everyone, but Pyn-Poi would rather be out among the trees like her father Sook-Sook, learning how persuade tree roots into bridges, to feel when shoots are too crowded, when drooping leaves need attention.
'A moving ecological fable, written with her signature grace and compassion' Elaine Isaak, author of The Singer's Legacy
Then something starts going wrong in The Real: when the rains come, instead of nourishment, they bring a stinking brown fog that's poisoning people and plants alike. Pyn-Poi is the treewoman now: it's her job. Their only chance is for her to climb to the land beyond the Wall, where the Ancestors live, to plead for their intercession
Pyn-Poi never expected to find a whole new world up there, with people who are very different from her own family and friends - a land where they are killing nature, and that's killing The Real.
The trees have a job for Pyn-Poi, and to succeed, she is going to have to be brave and strong and true - no matter what.
This sounds very odd, but promisingly odd, which is exactly the kind of odd we like around here!
Storming Heaven (The Age of Bronze #2) by Miles Cameron Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 20th July 2023
Goodreads
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Before iron helmets and steel swords, when dragons roamed the world, was an age of bronze and stone, when the Gods walked the earth, and people lived in terror.
A scribe, a warlord, a dancer, a mute insect and a child should have no chance against the might of the bickering gods and their cruel games. But the gods themselves are old, addicted to their own games of power, and now their fates may lie in the hands of mere mortals . . .
By divine plan a plague of cannibals has been unleashed across the world, forming an armada which preys on all who cross their path. Meanwhile the people who allied against the gods have been divided, each taking their own path to attack the heavens - if they can survive the tide of war which has been sent against them.
All they need is the right distraction, and the right opportunity, to deal a blow against the gods themselves . . .
An original, visceral epic weaving together the mythologies of a dozen pantheons of gods and heroes to create something new and magical, this tale of the revolt against the tyranny which began in Against All Gods is a must read from a master of the fantasy genre.
While not my favourite of Cameron’s books, I did enjoy the first book in this series, Against All Gods, and will absolutely be reading this sequel! Though I may need to reread book one first.
The Chatelaine by Kate Heartfield Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 20th July 2023
Goodreads
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Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Novel
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
The Chatelaine has come.
The year is 1328 and Hell has overrun Bruges. Demons stalk the streets and revenants swarm the walls. The city’s men have fallen and only widows remain.
But Hell should fear them.
Margriet de Vos killed her first soldier when she was eleven. She has buried six children and will fight for the daughter left to her. Their only wealth is gone, taken into the inferno. And she will not be stolen from. The Devil be damned.
Together with a man-at-arms with unfinished business, a widow and her forgehammer, and a alderman's wife who escapes with her children, Margriet will raise a raiding party like Hell has never seen.
Originally published as Armed in Her Fashion.
I started reading the first version of this book – Armed In Her Fashion – but when I found out Heartfield was releasing a new edition that had been significantly edited, I decided to wait and read this one. What I read of Armed In Her Fashion was so interestingly WEIRD that I’m looking forward to diving back in!
Black Sails to Sunward by Sheila Jenné Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: F/F
Published on: 22nd July 2023
Goodreads
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In a world of frock coats, solar sails, and rigid class boundaries, Lucy joins the Martian Imperial Navy as a midshipman. Mars and Earth are at war, and Lucy hopes for quick promotion. But when she arrives aboard ship, she finds her childhood ex-friend, Moira, already there. Class differences got in the way of their budding romance five years ago, and both of them are nursing grudges.
Those same class differences are threatening the ship, as the enlisted spacers threaten a mutiny and Lucy is forced to support the abusive officers. When Moira becomes a pirate, taking Lucy captive, the tables are turned. Lucy now has to rely on her enemy for her life.
Her oath as an officer forbids her from helping the pirates, but it’s becoming obvious that the Martian Empire doesn’t deserve her loyalty. If she throws in her lot with the pirates, her family is doomed to poverty, but it could give her a chance to reconcile with Moira and claim the love she rejected so long ago.
I have a soft spot for sci fi with Regency aesthetics, which it sounds like this is! I’m also intrigued that it’s the start of a series, because when I first heard about it I thought it was a standalone.
Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #145 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 16, 2023
Sunday Soupçons #21
soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor
Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!
Given that my last two ‘proper’ reviews have been Very Unhappy – and the next one up isn’t very happy either – I wanted to provide proof that not everything I’ve been reading is awful! (In fact, most of it’s been EXCELLENT, but I’ve had so few spoons lately that I’m not getting written all the reviews I want to write!)
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1) by Mark Lawrence Genres: Science Fantasy
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, dual-PoVs
ISBN: B0B6B5CPF6
Goodreads
A boy has lived his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities.
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.
The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.
Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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There is a library. It is, in fact, the Library, containing, potentially-probably, everything ever written by every sentient species to ever evolve on the planet. (And, just possibly, from some species who didn’t.) It is impossibly endless, beyond labyrinthine – and no, there is no Dewey Decimal system at work on these shelves to order them, or even a catalogue of the books that exist on those shelves. Librarians die, sometimes, going beyond the tiny area that has been properly mapped.
There is a girl – Livira – who, through semi-miraculous circumstances, becomes an apprentice librarian despite her background of extreme poverty. Just a little bit ruthless and probably braver than is good for her, she dares explore beyond the mapped areas, and each discovery she makes there is stranger than the last.
There is a boy – Evar – who, along with his not-biological siblings, lives in the Library. In one giant room, in fact. He doesn’t know how his people came to be trapped – or hidden? – in this room, but everyone else is gone now, and if there’s a way out, he’s never found it. Unlike Livira’s librarians, Evar and his family don’t hold the books as particularly sacred – but when he finds a book that tells him not to read it, he, too, ends up making some seriously mindblowing discoveries about the nature of the Library – and maybe the nature of reality.
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is very much one that builds up and up and up on you – and not annoyingly slowly, either, but also not at such a breakneck speed that events feel rushed. Your comprehension of just what’s going on here dawns bit by bit, and the implications–!!! Some of it is in-jokes with the reader – a reference to Edgar Allen Poe, for example – but even those…they make you grin, until you start to think about what their existence in this book means. If the ancient builders of the Library – whoever they were – knew Poe, does that mean The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is set on our world? Is this setting meant to be our future?
There’s so much twistiness here, and that’s only the tiniest part of it, something I mention to whet your appetite. If you like stories that don’t go anywhere you expect, with giant, unfathomable mysteries, this is definitely one to pick up.
Lawrence also encourages the reader to consider the importance of knowledge repositories like libraries – and of the accessibility of those knowledge repositories. Liv’s society is defined by the existence of the Library, and by who controls it, and by what books the monarch orders distributed. This is simultaneously a book about the dangers of restricted knowledge, and the dangers of unrestricted knowledge: what happens when a librarian discovers the instructions for making, say, an atom bomb, in a society that hasn’t even invented firearms yet? Should that society have access to that knowledge? (Should any society, regardless of its level of technological development?) If not, how do you pick and choose what is hidden and what is free to be known? And who do you trust to do the choosing?
But no need to fear that this is a very preachy, lecture-y story; it definitely has a philosophical bent, but it’s also a damn good – adventure? mystery? romance? All of those and more, really. I admit I found the beginning a little dull, but things moved at a very good pace, and I loved how often this book left me gaping at its surprises!
Strongly recommended.
Of Absence, Darkness (Death's Lady #2) by Rachel Neumeier Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Representation: Brown cast except for the MC/s
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
ISBN: B092RBXN23
Goodreads
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Down the rabbit hole, but not to Wonderland.
Daniel never imagined that Tenai's memories of her earlier life might be absolutely true. But when he and his daughter are swept up in the plots of her enemies and dropped abruptly into a world of dark magic and darker history, Daniel must find a way to aid Tenai against the all-too-real echoes of her past.
Though the hidden schemes of Tenai's enemies offer peril enough, the worse threat comes from within: if Tenai cannot master the vast rage she still carries, her own fury may shatter her world.
After devouring the first, novella-length entry in this series, it took me a while to get around to these, the ‘main’ books. I find that I have to be in a particular mood to enjoy Neumeier’s writing style – but once I’m in that mood, or mode, or headspace, or whatever, absolutely nothing else will do. (Which is why I’m now reading three of her other books simultaneously. NEUMEIER OR NOTHING!)
The Death’s Lady series – and you really must read the first book, the novella, even if the main books do make sense without it – follows Daniel and his daughter Jenna, as they meet the strange woman Tenai, who insists she comes from another world, and is immortal due to a bargain made with Lord Death. Daniel, a psychiatric doctor, naturally assumes this is a very complex series of false memories overlying great trauma, but Tenai manages to adjust and make a life for herself in our world. The series gets going when – in the opening pages of Of Absence, Darkness – Tenai is pulled by unknown persons back to her own world – and Daniel and Jenna get pulled along with her.
What follows is a strangely soothing, high-stakes political Portal Fantasy. Tenai is a much-feared figure in her own world, and whoever pulled her back to it clearly wants her to make war against the current king. She doesn’t want to do that, but…it’s complicated, and what is necessary to prevent her presence from causing widespread instability is…a lot to ask. But it is asked of her nonetheless.
Daniel is a great PoV character to have here, and I think it was a good choice to tell the story through him (and Jenna, who becomes a PoV character in As Shadow, A Light) rather than Tenai herself. It underscores the…the intrinsic strangeness of Tenai, which would have been lost, probably, if we spent the book in her head instead. And, as is one of the great appeals of Portal Fantasy, it’s great to have a character who’s as clueless about the world they’re dropped into as we are – and who shares our views when something about this fantasy world is…something that’s not easy for us to wrap our heads around!
I’m definitely tired of such patriarchal settings as this, but Neumeier’s prose is more than enough to make up for it: soothing, as I said, and ridiculously more-ish. I flew through these, and am currently happily ensconced in the spin-off novella. Very much recommended for fans of political intrigue!
Have you read these? Do you want to? Let me know!
The post Sunday Soupçons #21 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 15, 2023
Not My Goddess: Inanna by Emily H. Wilson
Inanna (Sumerians #1) by Emily H. Wilson Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Middle Eastern setting and cast, Black MC, bi/pansexual MC
PoV: First-person, past-tense, three POVs
Published on: 1st August 2023
ISBN: B0BDK4R3SL
Goodreads
The fates of a young goddess, a warrior, and a mortal soldier collide in this enthralling and lyrical fantasy re-telling of The Epic of Gilgamesh that will captivate readers of Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint.
Stories are sly things…they can be hard to catch and kill.
Inanna is an impossibility, the first full Anunnaki born on Earth. Crowned the goddess of love by the twelve immortal Anunnaki who are worshipped across Sumer, she is destined for greatness.
But Inanna is born into a time of war. The Anunnaki have split into warring factions, threatening to tear the world apart. Forced into a marriage to negotiate a peace, she soon realises she has been placed in terrible danger.
Gilgamesh, a mortal human son of the Anunnaki, and notorious womaniser, finds himself captured and imprisoned by King Akka who seeks to distance himself and his people from the gods. Arrogant and selfish, Gilgamesh is given one final chance to prove himself.
Ninshubar, a powerful warrior woman, is cast out of her tribe after an act of kindness. Hunted by her own people, she escapes across the country, searching for acceptance and a new place in the world.
As their journeys push them closer together, and their fates intertwine, they come to realise that together, they may have the power to change to face of the world forever.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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~where are the stories coming from?
~fake wings
Mythological retellings are always a risk, especially when it’s a myth – or mythological figure – you particularly care about. Everyone has a slightly different take on an ancient goddess, and sometimes whether or not the book is any good is irrelevant, if the author’s take differs too much from yours.
That’s not the problem here, though. Inanna just isn’t a very good book.
Inanna switches between three PoVs; Inanna herself, a newborn goddess when the book opens; Gilgamesh, the mortal son of a god, who is really just out to have a good time; and Ninshubar, a runner and huntress from a tribal society far, far away from Sumer, the book’s main setting. If you happen to have a special interest in the mythology of the goddess Inanna, Ninshubar’s inclusion will probably make you sit up and pay attention – I wasn’t expecting to see her here, and was pleased to be wrong.
If you don’t know much about ancient Sumer and its myths, then…this may be a bumpy road for you. Because something I noticed almost at once was how little Wilson explained, or even described, the world and characters she created here. For example, the gods – known as the Anunnaki – seem to be divided up into ‘water gods’ and ‘moon gods’ and so on – but what that signifies is never explained. Are their powers sourced differently? Is it like a political party kind of thing? Are they different families or bloodlines? I have no clue.
Or we can talk about the famous and Very Impressive elephant gates, to which we are introduced thusly
Enkidu walked towards the elephant gates with his head craned backwards, and his mouth open. “Is it all one piece of stone?” he said.
“No, three pieces,” I said. “Each elephant is carved from one whole lump of granite, and then the centrepiece from a third.”
…Hi, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be picturing right now. How are these three (?) elephants positioned so that they make a gate? Is one standing on top of the two others to make the top arch of the gate? Are the elephants on all fours or rearing? Or are there only two elephants, and the centrepiece is something else, not another elephant? If this is supposed to be a big impressive thing, why are you not describing it at all???
Alternately, sometimes we do get descriptions, but they make no sense
When the ancient throne was empty, Inanna took her place on it, her feet dangling. She looked very small and plain, in her old white dress. And yet she looked like she belonged there.
…No, now you’re contradicting yourself. If she looks small and plain, she cannot look like she belongs in a throne. If she looks like she belongs in a throne, then she must not look small and plain, even if only by force of charisma or presence or whatever. Make up your mind which!
Story-wise, I was not impressed. Inanna feels like a series of things Happening Just Because, with too many random side-quests that go nowhere and make no sense. (If An thought the super important extra-special thing was in location x, why didn’t he go himself, or send someone he trusted, decades or centuries ago, instead of waiting all this time and then handing off the quest to Gilgamesh? Etc.) Ninshubar’s arc was the most interesting from beginning to end – it certainly didn’t hurt that, coming from another culture, she’s extremely sceptical of the Sumerians and Anunnaki, and doesn’t buy into what they’re selling; for much of the book, she was the only sensible character, annoyed and frustrated with the passivity of the rest of the cast. It was easy to identify with her, because I, too, wanted to grab Inanna and shake her. (More on that in a minute.) As a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh, I think Inanna fails pretty hard, not least because I didn’t once feel the deep, all-consuming love that’s supposed to be there between Gilgamesh, one of our protagonists, and Enkidu, a man whose life he saves. Whether you interpret it as romantic or platonic, that intense passion is the defining quality of the Epic, and it just isn’t here. You could have cut Enkidu from this book completely, and it would have made very little difference to anything. His part in Inanna, and thus Gilgamesh’s relationship with him, is a blip, there and then gone.
What on earth was the point?
Gilgamesh and Inanna both come across as very passive characters; Gilgamesh is moved around the political board by higher powers, going from one place to another and back again to very little purpose, and Inanna…
Dear gods, how do I talk about Inanna in this book?
Inanna, the goddess, is the goddess of love and war. She is the Queen of Heaven. She made a huge mark historically – you can see iterations of her all across the Fertile Crescent, and can make a very strong argument that even later goddesses like Aphrodite and Venus were heavily influenced by her. So she is slash was, a big deal.
Wilson…makes some very weird choices regarding Inanna’s powers and personality and overall arc that I did not like, and that I think made for objectively bad storytelling. For example, despite being told, while still an infant, by the king of the gods that she will be a goddess of love and war – something she remembers perfectly, because fair enough, I guess gods don’t lose those early memories – despite being specifically told not to forget the war part… Inanna absolutely forgets the war part. And never tells anyone about it. We later find out why the king never tells anyone – sorta – but it remains absolutely inexplicable to me that as a young, proud goddess, Inanna would never mention it, never boast about it, never even think about it. Inanna also has no powers – the object that is supposed to give or be her power, called a me, does not work. No one thinks to ask the king, who gave it to her, what it does or how to activate it, apparently. That would make too much sense, I guess.
[View post to see spoiler]The point is, Wilson takes this immensely powerful goddess, and makes her powerless. Which I strongly feel defeats the entire purpose in writing about Inanna. Arguably worse: Inanna has no curiosity about anything. She asks no questions. She doesn’t think about things. She has no drive and no passion. Sure, her mother tells her to submit to her husband’s family, when she goes and gets married – but Inanna isn’t emotional or curious or anything underneath that submission. The submission could have been written as a mask, with A Lot going on underneath; instead, Inanna feels flat and two-dimensional, bizarrely shallow. She’s either passively moved by the plot, or she acts on a whim that comes out of nowhere; she never has any thoughtful agency. Her Big Moment, when she defies her husband’s family and goes questing, is…her getting up and walking out of the city. Walking. With no supplies, no map, no allies, no plan. She just gets up and walks, naive as a flower fairy, handwaving all the ways in which this is completely irrational.
But she is wearing the fake wings made of eagle feathers the Anunnaki wear for special occasions, so there’s that, I guess.
What?
Then there’s the sexual abuse. For the record, it happens off-page, but it’s there, so if that’s a trigger for you, well, now you know.
I really, really struggled with this. I don’t want to read about molestation and paedophiles, I find it deeply unpleasant, but that’s a personal taste thing and doesn’t actually make the book bad. What I think does make the book really, really fucking bad is how appallingly it’s handled, by the characters and the narrative. I don’t know why you would write Inanna as a victim of sexual abuse, but maybe it could be empowering for other survivors, if they saw Inanna go through this and still rise to become Queen of Heaven. That could be a thing. I could buy that.
I cannot buy how nonchalant Inanna is about what happens to her. I cannot buy how it has zero effect on her personality, on her outlook, even on her views on or approach to sex. Inanna thinks it’s no big deal – and the narrative doesn’t contradict her. It’s irrelevant. It means nothing. It affects nothing. And I can’t help thinking that’s a hugely ignorant, stupid, and disrespectful way to write about a very painful, difficult topic. What in the actual fuck.
(Also? You did not have to write her as getting married at 13. This is spec fic. If you have gods, you can make the age of consent whatever you want it to be. Alternatively, you could choose to not have her grandfather be a disgusting groomer paedophile. That sure was a Choice That Was Made. Fucking yikes.)
I mean, it goes down like this, a passage which made me throw up in my mouth.
“I’ve got a new game I would like to play with you,” he said.
“What is it, Grandfather?” I kept my hands soft in my lap.
“Come into my bedroom and I will show you,” he said.
For some long moments, we looked at each other.
“What are you thinking?” he said, his leopard eyes gleaming in the firelight.
“That I am a goddess of love,” I said.
I lifted my chin to him, to show that I was not afraid.
“Come and love me, then,” he said, and put out his hand to me.
What did I just read, and why did you make me read it, when the entire book goes on like it never happened?
If I haven’t made it clear yet, I think the prose here is blunt and plain and…unalive is the best way I can think to describe it. And this is a very bad style in which to rewrite myths. Possibly the best-known myth about Inanna is the Descent, wherein Inanna goes down into the underworld and, later, manages to return. It’s always given me goosebumps. But here, it is stripped of its magic, stripped of the ritual, the hypnotising insistence that Inanna must remove or leave behind an item of power – a tie to the living world – as she passes through each of the seven gates. Inanna takes the grand, spine-shivery story of the Descent and reduces it to banality, quick and rushed, and gods it made me miss Vellum, which did the Descent properly. I’m going to have to reread it, to wash this mess out of my memory.
But it’s all like that. There’s no magic here. There’s no awe and no wonder. And sometimes that’s because the writing isn’t up to the task of creating it, but sometimes it’s due to narrative choices – like making the Descent a simple matter of passing through doors. In both cases, it makes for a majorly disappointing reading experience.
[View post to see spoiler]There are so many other bits and pieces I want to talk about, things that make no sense or contradict other things, but they’re all spoilers and this rant review is already very long. I am Tired of talking about this book. Inanna is not entirely without merit – there’s some sneaky stuff going on in the background that is horrifying but very clever, and will no doubt be a much bigger deal in the sequel. And that was one hell of a le gasp!!! ending. But this is not a book I would recommend to anyone who loves Inanna-the-goddess, and I would definitely not want it to be anyone’s introduction to her. Irrespective of that, I genuinely think this is an objectively boring, poorly-written novel – perfectly fine on a technical writing level, but soulless, and packed full of things that happen, or are the way they are, Just Because, regardless of whether they make sense or not.
Borrow it from the library if you must, but I cancelled my preorder. Inanna isn’t worth your time, and certainly not your money.
The post Not My Goddess: Inanna by Emily H. Wilson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 14, 2023
Your Gender Binary Remains Imaginary: SFF for International Non-Binary People’s Day!
I rec trans and nonbinary SFF so often, it’s hard to find ones I haven’t recommended before – but happily, we live in a literary era where there’s more all the time! Thus, for this International Non-Binary People’s Day, I have six SFF novels and novellas for you!
Happy reading!
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown nonbinary MC, queer Chinese love interest
Goodreads
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Ru is a boy from nowhere. Though he lives somewhere--the city of Calcutta--his classmates in school remind him he doesn't look like them, and must come from somewhere else. When Ru asks his parents, they tell him they are descended from nomads. But even nomads must come from somewhere. The question, forever on the mind of the boy from nowhere, is where.
Ru dreams things that wouldn't seem out of place in the fantasy novels his father read to him when young. Fragments of a culture that doesn't exist in this world, but might in another, where sky and sea are one, and humans sail this eternal ocean on the backs of divine beasts.
Ru dreams of dragons, of serpents impossible.
Perhaps Ru remembers dragons. Alone in a city that's home but doesn't feel like it, Ru befriends Alice, his neighbor from the nearby Chinatown. As they grow with their friendship, Ru finds that Calcutta may yet be a home for him. But with his best friend starting to realize that Ru's house and family hide a myriad of secrets, the question haunts him still--where is his family from? Are they truly from nowhere, migrants to this reality? And if so, what strange wings brought them across the vast reaches of impossibility to here--and what is their purpose?
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar is a book that is possibly even more ethereally beautiful than its cover – and its cover, as you can see, is breathtaking. This is soft and magical and dreamy, with possibly my favourite take on dragons ever, which is wildly and yet tenderly unique. (There’s also a fictional book – written by the protagonist’s father – that I would commit terrible sins to get my hands on!) I would happily dive into a full series of novels about the Dragoners, but this particular story is perfect as a novella, exactly as long as it should be, no longer or shorter. The writing craft that went into this is every bit as impressive as Das’ incredible imagination.
This is one of those books you shelve inside your heart and never forget. Trust me.
Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Biracial Japanese trans MC, Latino MC, polyamory
Goodreads
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An edgy, queer cyberpunk detective mystery by an exciting new trans voice from New Zealand.
Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet?
It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.
Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...
A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.
Bang Bang Bhodisattva surprised me by being extremely funny and joyful, despite being set in a pretty dystopian near-future. I was constantly having to read passages aloud to the hubby so he’d understand why I was giggling to myself in a corner. There’s a really strong element of finding ways to be happy with the people you love even when the world’s on fire; of found-family, and oppressed minorities sticking together. I’m desperately hoping there will be sequels; not because this book ends on a cliff-hanger, but because I adore this cast so much and need to see them again!
If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chinese nonbinary MC
Goodreads
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Being an intern at One Wizard sounds magical on the page, but in practice mostly means getting yelled at by senior mages and angry clients alike. And so, after receiving a frantic call from a young man who’s awoken to a talisman on his bedroom wall—and no memory of how it got there—Journeyman Wen jumps at the chance to escape call-center duty and actually help someone for once.
But the case ends up being more complicated than Wen could ever have anticipated. The client has been possessed by a demon prince from Hell, and he’s not interested in leaving.
This is a ridiculously cute, sweet novella about the hell that is Customer Support – especially when you do actually want to help people. The MC Wen steps outside of the scripted dialogue for tech support, and ends up entangled with a mysterious sigil and a demon prince who is definitely not where he’s supposed to be!
Two Dark Moons (Sãoni Cycle, #1) by Avi Silver, Haley Szereszewski Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Sohmeng Par is sick of being treated like a child. Ever since a tragic accident brought her mountain community’s coming-of-age ritual to a halt, she’s caused nothing but trouble in her impatience to become an adult. But when she finally has the chance to prove herself, she’s thrown from her life in the mountains and into the terror of the jungle below.
Cornered by a colony of reptilian predators known as the sãoni, Sohmeng is rescued by Hei, an eccentric exile with no shortage of secrets. As likely to bite Sohmeng as they are to cook her breakfast, this stranger and their family of lizards are like nothing she’s ever seen before. If she wants to survive, she must find a way to adapt to the vibrant, deadly world of the rainforest and the creatures that inhabit it—including Hei themself. But Sohmeng has secrets of her own, and sharing them could mean losing everything a second time.
To reiterate the mini-review I wrote for this: Sometimes a family is you, the kid that screech-danced and bit you, and a pack of (not!-)murderous lizards. And that’s okay.
Actually, it’s great. The Sãoni Cycle follows a culture where your gender is determined by the moon you were born under – and that gender is supposed to determine your entire personality. I loved the whole idea of this – and then we get to meet the sãoni in the jungle??? *chef’s kiss* Marvellous!
The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MCs, NB/NB
Goodreads
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Paris, 1823. Victor Beauchêne has led a stifling existence, unrecognized for both his cleverness and his gender, except in the pages of his meticulous diary. Abruptly cut off from his family’s fortune, he takes the opportunity to start a new life in a shabby boarding house with his beloved spinster aunt Sophie. There, he stumbles upon two kinds of magic: a pen with eerie powers of persuasion and a reserved, alluring art student named Julien.
Brilliant, unconventional Julien is also Julie, a person whose magical paintings can transform their body or enchant viewers. Haunted by a terrible episode in their past, they’ve come to Paris for artistic success—the ordinary, non-magical kind. Victor, too handsome and far too inquisitive, is a dangerous distraction from their ambitions.
Drawn to each other, Victor and Julie strike up a cautious correspondence of notes slid under doors. It soon unfolds into a passionate romance. Outside the bedroom, their desires clash: Julie wants to distance herself from the world of magic and Victor wants to delve deeper. When the ruthless abuser from Julie’s past resurfaces, he aims to take control of her powers and ruin more lives. Victor and Julie are the only ones who can stop him. Do they trust each other enough to survive the threat to their love and their lives?
The Scandalous Letters of V and J is a historical fantasy romance with two nonbinary main characters, told primarily in letters and diary entries. It is approximately 100,000 words long and sexually explicit.
Mostly told through letters, notes, and journal entries, this is a historical fantasy featuring two very different nonbinary people, the relationship that builds between them, and some very cool magics. (Plus some scarier ones.) I’m pretty sure everything Davin’s published so far features queer characters, so if you enjoy Letters, make sure to check out their backlist!
Forthcoming
Pluralities by Avi Silver Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads
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"Wait—rewind. I was still a girl back then, before the universes converged."
Guided by premonitions and a fateful car ride, a burned-out retail worker stumbles into the grand exit from womanhood. Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away, an alien prince goes rogue with his sentient spaceship, seeking purpose in the great glimmering void. As the two of them come together in a fusion of body and mind, they must reckon with their assigned identities.
Tender, witty, and daring, Pluralities is a slipstream-meets-space-adventure story honoring the long and turbulent journey into gender euphoria.
Although it’s not out yet, may I recommend you keep an eye out for Avi Silver’s Pluralities? I’m reading an arc now and honestly, I’m loving it even more than I did Two Dark Moons. You can preorder it now from the publisher, or wait a little longer for it to appear in all the usual places. But either way, put it on your tbr!
You can find some of my other nonbinary SFF recs at the links below!
Your Gender Binary Is Imaginary: Non-Binary Characters in Fantasy (+bonus scifi)
Your Gender Binary Is Still Imaginary: SFF For International Non-Binary People’s Day!
Celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility With SFF!
SFF Faves From Trans an Nonbinary Authors!
Happy International Non-Binary People’s Day, everyone!
The post Your Gender Binary Remains Imaginary: SFF for International Non-Binary People’s Day! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 13, 2023
Insulting On Every Level: Lilith by Nikki Marmery
Lilith: the heroine women have waited six thousand years for by Nikki Marmery Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 9th October 2023
ISBN: B0BSN1MBT8
Goodreads
ONE OF STYLIST'S BEST NEW FEMINIST RETELLINGS TO READ IN 2023
In the Garden of Eden, at the beginning of time, an outrageous lie is born: that women are inferior.
Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. But when Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him, she refuses – and is banished forever from Paradise. Demonised and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has a secret: she has already tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Endowed with Wisdom, she knows why Asherah – God’s wife and equal, the Queen of Heaven – is missing. Lilith has a plan: she will rescue Eve, find Asherah, restore balance to the world and regain her rightful place in Paradise.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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~God is a brat
~the heroine women have waited 6000 years for is an idiot
Where the fuck do I start.
I can see what Marmery tried to do here, and why some other readers are going to feel so EmpoweredTM by this book, but honestly? It’s a trainwreck. The internal logic is whatever Marmery wants it to be at any given moment, rather than something that actually, you know, makes sense and holds the story together. Lilith breaks its own rules constantly, culminating in the absolutely ridiculous ending, which only works if you let none of your braincells anywhere near it. And the entire book is one loud, preachy lecture on the kind of bioessentialist Woman PowerTM nonsense I thought we were done with in the 80s.
Lilith is the First Woman, created at the same time as Adam in the garden of Eden. All is well until Adam starts becoming obsessed with power and control, inventing money and weaponry and The Patriarchy, basically. Just in case we didn’t get the message that he’s a terrible person, he also rapes her – but it’s fine, because Lilith shrugs it off like it was nothing, insulted but otherwise unaffected. The reader belatedly discovers that Yahweh is not the One God at all, because He has a wife and partner, Asherah; it is Asherah who created Adam and Lilith (and presumably everything else in Eden), because, and I quote,
Naming is to man what birthing is to woman.
Yahweh only named things, you see, which is meaningless, because
naming holds no power.
Asherah has bestowed upon Lilith the Secret, which makes Lilith capital-w Wise. This Wisdom is more or less summed up as ‘man and woman are equal, and have no dominion over the earth, because they are a part of it.’ But Asherah is missing, and the book really gets moving when Lilith abandons Eden to go look for Her. Although she doesn’t find Asherah, she does discover that she and Adam are far from the only humans in the world; later, she discovers that Yahweh and Asherah are far from the only gods to exist, too.
(This is important.)
Yahweh, here, is characterised as the ultimate Old White Cis Dude, insisting that He is the only one with power, the only god, that everything male is good and everything female is, at best, disgusting. He is petulant, spoiled, and bullying, a figure who would be pathetic if He didn’t have the power to enforce His horrible views on the world. He is a petty child next to the infinite wisdom and grace of Asherah.
I find this incredibly lazy writing. There is absolutely no nuance here, and what’s weirder and worse is that this is very clearly an ex-Christian take on God. I sympathise, because yeah, this is pretty much the impression of God I was left with too after I got far the fuck away from my Catholic upbringing – but Lilith isn’t a Christian figure. Lilith comes from Jewish folklore, and I’m not at all saying there is no dodgy patriarchal bs in Judaism – but there is an enormous difference between the Christian and Jewish views and approaches to God. I feel like the least you could do, in telling Lilith’s story, is respect the culture and faith she comes from.
If that doesn’t bother you, nevermind, there are plenty more things this book does badly. The writing itself, for example, can’t decide what it wants to be; it swings wildly from fancily archaic to dissonantly modern (Adam describes the Wisdom as ‘mumbo-jumbo’), with quick dips into the bizarrely juvenile (Lilith calls the angel Semangelof ‘the scariest of the three [angels]’ – ‘scariest’, as if she’s a child rather than a grown adult). Later, disappointed that she can’t find Asherah, Lilith literally zones out for a thousand years sitting in one spot, until another character comes along to info-dump everything that’s happened while she wasn’t paying attention. She immediately takes an enemy’s word for it that her long-lost companion could have returned to her any time he wanted, and gets mad about it, despite having every reason not to trust the person who told her this. While on the hunt for a woman with a specific birthmark, centuries later, it takes her sixteen years – of sleeping beside her, bathing her, dressing her, etc – to notice that the woman she’s hung her hopes on does not have this birthmark. And when she does find her prophet, she accepts that this woman ‘has to die’ despite no one providing any reason why this death has to happen. It’s ‘just because’.
‘The heroine women have waited 6000 years for’? Hi, you made her an idiot.
(She’s also shallow. Her first thought upon meeting Eve? Is that Eve is ugly – so not-pretty that she doesn’t even have a reflection.
So unremarkable was she, even the waters failed to mark her presence.
Wow. Great sisterhood messaging there. Really.)
Or how about the worldbuilding? Marmery is, at first, superficially clever with this; I liked that there were other humans outside of Eden, worshipping other gods who were just as real as Yahweh and Asherah. I approved of the reveal that Asherah is and was known by other names in other places, before and after Eden. Marmery finds ways to give a nod to Asmodeus and Naamah – demonic figures often connected to Lilith in the folklore – and to explain what exactly Lilith is doing visiting babies in the middle of the night (also from the folklore).
But.
One of the biggest driving forces of the book is the existence (and attempted destruction) of the Underworld – later known as Sheol – which is a dark, terrible place. When we first encounter it, it’s ruled by Ereshkigal, the Sumerian queen of the dead. Cool. But as faith in Asherah wanes, the dead stop coming to this particular underworld. (Where else they might be going, if anywhere, is never explained.) They only start coming again when Lilith spreads the word of her. Sheol is clearly tied to faith in Asherah (or some form of her); only souls who know of Asherah end up there.
Except, no: later, we learn everyone ends up in Sheol. Where Ereshkigal is eventually replaced by Satan.
What??? How are all the souls of all the others who worship other gods ending up in Sheol? Speaking of, since Yahweh isn’t the only god, where are the rest of them? What are they doing? Do they have Wisdom of their own? Could Lilith appeal to them for help?
Marmery tried to be inclusive by saying other gods exist – but then forgets about them completely, breaking her own worldbuilding in the process. After we learn of their existence, they’re never brought up again; aside from a brief glimpse of Ereshkigal, we never see them, which makes absolutely no sense in context.
Then there’s the ending.
[View post to see spoiler]And I haven’t even touched on the creepy gross bioessentialism yet.
Women Create, you see. Because pregnancy and childbirth! Women are connected to the Earth, are the keepers of the Wisdom, it’s wrong for women to be subjugated not because, you know, subjugation is inherently evil, but because women are Special.
A woman’s body tethers her to this earth. We are wedded to this life, to its pleasures and its sorrows. Our bodies cycle like the seasons, we bleed with the moon. We yield children, as the earth yields its fruits.
I am not going to write an essay on how womanhood is not tied to your ability to be pregnant or give birth, how you don’t have to ‘bleed with the moon’ to be a girl and how not everyone who does is a woman anyway. I don’t have the fucking spoons to have this argument again, especially when I know how much this new agey Women PowerTM stuff appeals to so many cis women. I’ve already read the early reviews calling Lilith empowering and validating, with no thought to how this kind of philosophy is actively transphobic, ignores the existence of nonbinary people like myself, forces women who don’t feel this way about their femininity outside of the group, and shoves men into a tiny little cage. Yes, the patriarchy is fucked-up and always has been. Telling men they can’t create won’t fix it, and the definitely-not-intersectional ‘feminist’ utopia you’re dreaming of has electric fences around it to keep me out.
So fuck you, basically.
with all female power banished, it was a place of subjection and tyranny. Of perpetual stasis, not regeneration. Of Shalts and Shalt Nots issued by male authority. A place of masculine hierarchy, domination, and progress, unbalanced by the female urge to nurture, sustain, and renew.
(Also? One throwaway line about how men aren’t born bad doesn’t negate you writing every male character – except the one related to you and the one who is a literal angel – as a misogynistic bigot or a spineless weakling. Finishing up with a neat little adage about how only when the two halves come together will everything be perfect rings pretty damn hollow when the entire book preceding it makes out that male ‘half’ to be awful without exception. Talking about halves at all is bioessentialist and transphobic! THERE’S MORE TO HUMANITY THAN MEN AND WOMEN. It’s 2023, why are we still having to have this fucking conversation?)
Ultimately, this book is the story of Lilith languishing through history, looking to restore women’s rights. Which could have been, should have been, a really excellent story. But instead of letting Lilith do it herself, Marmery arbitrarily decides that Lilith needs a human prophet to do it, and sends her on a quest through time to find that prophet, instead. Why? The whole point of the modern, feminist take on Lilith is that she is independent and powerful in her own right; why can’t she spread the word of Asherah herself? ‘Because.’ That’s all the reason we get.
The whole premise of the book makes no sense; Lilith should have been the star, and she isn’t. She spends what should have been her story looking for others to raise them up. But even if she were the star, she’s a fairly one-dimensional character here, especially with the bouts of outrageous stupidity that hit her whenever Marmery requires it For Plot. The overlying (I’m not calling it underlying when there’s nothing the least bit subtle about it) message of this book is the kind of bioessentialist ‘feminism’ I thought we were done with in the 80s, where women are magical because childbirth and the only good kind of men are the ones who worship them. It’s simplistic and it’s incorrect and it’s boring.
This is not my Lilith, and this book isn’t worthy of her.
Or of you, either. Skip this one and read something better instead – it’s not as if that bar is set especially high.
The post Insulting On Every Level: Lilith by Nikki Marmery appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 10, 2023
Must-Have Monday #144
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
TWELVE books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Claws and Contrivances (Regency Dragons, #2) by Stephanie Burgis Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 10th July 2023
Goodreads
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Passionate, idealistic Rose Tregarth may have been invited into her uncle's remote home in the heart of Wales as an act of kindness to a poor relation, but it doesn't take her long to realize that her newly-met family members are eccentric, creative, deeply lovable - and in need of all the help they can get. If the crumbling medieval walls of Gogodd Abbey aren't to collapse around their heads at any moment, someone will have to step up and take charge of the situation. Fortunately for all of them, Rose has never lacked in determination.
Add in more and more mysteriously appearing little dragons and a threatening new neighbor who could easily star as the villain in one of her aunt's Gothic novels, and Rose is soon up to her ears in plots and schemes to save all the people and beasts she's come to love...with the help of a sweet, baffled dragon scholar whom Rose has swept into a fake betrothal for purely temporary, practical purposes.
With her fierce, loyal heart, Rose is more than ready to take care of everyone around her, dragons and humans alike. However, it may take an act of true magic to clear her eyes to the future - and the gentleman - she desires for herself.
Burgis is one of my go-to authors for delightful escapism, and Claws and Contrivances is the second book in her Regency Dragons series! I’m pretty sure this works as a standalone though, so you can dive right in if you don’t want to read the first book first!
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown cast, bi/pansexual MC, M/M, minor nonbinary characters
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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Nestled at the head of a supercontinent, framed by sky and sea, lies Luriat, the city of bright doors. The doors are everywhere in the city, squatting in walls where they don’t belong, painted in vivid warning. They watch over a city of art and avarice, of plagues and pogroms, and silently refuse to open. No one knows what lies beyond them, but everyone has their own theory and their own relationship to the doors. Researchers perform tests and take samples, while supplicants offer fruit and flowers and hold prayer circles. Many fear the doors as the source of hauntings from unspeakable realms. To a rare unchosen few, though, the doors are both a calling and a bane. Fetter is one of those few.
When Fetter was born, his mother tore his shadow from him. She raised him as a weapon to kill his sainted father and destroy the religion rising up in his sacred footsteps. Now Fetter is unchosen, lapsed in his devotion to both his parents. He casts no shadow, is untethered by gravity, and sees devils and antigods everywhere he goes. With no path to follow, Fetter would like to be anything but himself. Does his answer wait on the other side of one of Luriat’s bright doors?
This is a wildly unique fantasy I couldn’t put down, a surprisingly easy read given how many layers there are to the story, and how heavy some of the themes are. Can’t recommend it enough!
The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Asian-coded sapphic MC, F/F, nonbinary secondary character
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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The dust may have settled in the war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the Empire’s surrender means little. Especially to a lowly scribe like Enitan, given her country’s continuing status as a Vaalbaran province. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when imperial agents assassinate her lover and abduct her sibling, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and embarks on a rescue mission, weaving her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital.
Her enemies are countless, clever, and powerful beyond measure. There’s a new God-Emperor on the throne, and her reign promises to change the continent forever. And as Enitan sinks deeper into the Empire’s bloody conspiracies, she discovers just how far she’s willing to go to exact vengeance, save her sibling, and perhaps even restore her homeland’s freedom.
This one’s an entertaining read if you can suspend your disbelief enough to accept the heavy reliance on coincidences to move the story forward.
Ebony Gate (Phoenix Hoard, #1) by Julia Vee, Ken Bebelle Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Chinese MC
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle's Ebony Gate is a female John Wick story with dragon magic set in contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What's a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?
A female John Wick story with dragon magic??? You DEFINITELY have my attention!
Dark Water Daughter (The Winter Sea, #1) by H.M. Long Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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A stormsinger and pirate hunter join forces against a deathless pirate lord in this swashbuckling Jacobean adventure on the high-seas.
Launching the Winter Sea series, full of magic, betrayal, redemption and fearsome women, for readers of Adrienne Young, R. J. Barker and Naomi Novik.
Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection - and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary's dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.
Samuel Rosser is a disgraced naval officer serving aboard The Hart, an infamous privateer commissioned to bring Lirr to justice. He will stop at nothing to capture Lirr, restore his good name and reclaim the only thing that stands between himself and madness: a talisman stolen by Mary.
Finally, driven into the eternal ice at the limits of their world, Mary and Samuel must choose their loyalties and battle forces older and more powerful than the pirates who would make them slaves.
Come sail the Winter Sea, for action-packed, high-stakes adventures, rich characterisation and epic plots full of intrigue and betrayal.
I’ve heard very good things about Dark Water Daughter, and I love the sound of the stormsingers. A person who can take on an armada single-handedly??? I love big, powerful magics, so yes, I’m here for this!
Digging for Heaven by Jenna Jarvis Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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The lands of Jeenobi and Aelshia are separated by hundreds of miles of dangerous desert, and antithetical views on dragons. Now, under a tenuous new peace agreement, Jeenobi has agreed to ban dragon slaying within its borders.
As a visiting ambassador to Jeenobi and a rider to the dragon Loren, Litz expected to meet resistance to all she represents. She did not expect Kella, the kingdom’s most famous living dragon slayer, and she certainly didn’t expect to find her attractive.
When Litz is forced into extraditing Kella to Aelshia for trial, they’ll discover more monstrous things in the wilds of the desert than each other, and they’ll need to put aside their differences if they want to survive. The future of both nations may hang in the balance.
Dragons + politics sounds like an amazing combination, so I have high hopes for this one!
The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Indian MC
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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For fans of Shuggie Bain and A Burning, a queer coming-of-age novel set in 1990s India, about a young man who joins a traveling theater troupe.
Shagun knows he will never be the kind of son his father demands. After the sudden deaths of his beloved twin sisters, Shagun flees his own guilt, his mother’s grief, and his father’s violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. But he doesn’t find true belonging until he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the Hindu myths of his childhood.
Welcomed by the other storytellers, Shagun thrives, easily embodying mortals and gods, men and women, and living on the road, where his father can’t catch him. When Shagun meets Marc, a charming photographer, he seems to have found the love he always longed for, too. But not even Marc can save him from his lingering shame, nor his father’s ever-present threat to send him to a conversion center. As Shagun’s past begins to engulf him once again, he must decide if he is strong enough to face what he fears most, and to boldly claim his own happiness.
Utterly immersive and spellbinding, The Sea Elephants is both dark and beautiful, harrowing and triumphant. An ode to the redemptive joys of art, Shastri Akella’s debut novel is a celebration of hard-won love—of others and for ourselves.
I don’t pick up literary fiction very often, but I’ve heard nothing but great things about Sea Elephants, so I’m quite tempted…
The Sea in You by Jessi Sheron Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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15-year-old Corinth was just trying to clean up the beach; she never expected to meet a mermaid, let alone be nearly drowned by one. It was the start of a very strange friendship!
After Skylla, the deadly fanged mermaid, mysteriously lets Corinth live, they grow closer through a cautious exchange of stories, gifts, jokes, and sign language. Mermaids, it turns out, eat people, but however terrifying Skylla may look, she’s a little younger, a little smaller, and perhaps a little too soft for all that. Bewitched by Corinth and their growing bond, she learns about all the best things in life on land: books, burgers, donuts, and this strange chattering human sound called laughter. But a storm is brewing – both at sea and in Corinth’s increasingly dangerous relationship with her obsessively jealous boyfriend – and a magical bargain may be the only thing that can save her, at a tremendous cost.
A whimsical dark fantasy retelling of “The Little Mermaid,” The Sea in You upends everything you thought you knew about magical creatures of the deep, on a whirlwind journey to a whole new world you’ve only dreamed of before!
Officially Ghost Ship is the third book in a series, but I’ve been assured they all work as standalones – which is fortunate, because sapphic pirates are the ones I’m interested in, rather than the previous books!
The Sea in You by Jessi Sheron Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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15-year-old Corinth was just trying to clean up the beach; she never expected to meet a mermaid, let alone be nearly drowned by one. It was the start of a very strange friendship!
After Skylla, the deadly fanged mermaid, mysteriously lets Corinth live, they grow closer through a cautious exchange of stories, gifts, jokes, and sign language. Mermaids, it turns out, eat people, but however terrifying Skylla may look, she’s a little younger, a little smaller, and perhaps a little too soft for all that. Bewitched by Corinth and their growing bond, she learns about all the best things in life on land: books, burgers, donuts, and this strange chattering human sound called laughter. But a storm is brewing – both at sea and in Corinth’s increasingly dangerous relationship with her obsessively jealous boyfriend – and a magical bargain may be the only thing that can save her, at a tremendous cost.
A whimsical dark fantasy retelling of “The Little Mermaid,” The Sea in You upends everything you thought you knew about magical creatures of the deep, on a whirlwind journey to a whole new world you’ve only dreamed of before!
There’s been a bit of confusion around the pub date for this – it might be out next week instead? – but I’m so excited for it I’m going ahead and featuring it anyway. Worst-case scenario, I feature it next week as well, no big deal!
After seeing some panels of Sea In You on social media, I literally cannot wait to dive in (hah!) to this one – it looks gorgeous and complex with some really interesting merpeople worldbuilding!
A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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From the author of The Sound of Stars and The Kindred comes a YA space opera about a reincarnated god and a grumpy pilot on a mission to save a beloved space DJ and stop an intergalactic war.
Zaira Citlali is supposed to die. After all, she’s the god Indigo reborn. Indigo, whose song created the universe and unified people across galaxies to banish Ozvios, the god of destruction. Although Zaira has never been able to harness Indigo’s powers, the Ilori Emperor wants to sacrifice her in Ozvios’s honor. Unless she escapes and finds Wesley, the boy prophesized to help her defeat Ozvios and the Ilori, once and for all.
Wesley Daniels didn’t ask for this. He just wants to work as a smuggler so he can save enough money to explore the stars. Once he completes his biggest job yet—bringing wanted celebrity Rubin Rima to a strange planet called Earth—he’ll be set for life. But when his path crosses with Zaira, he soon finds himself in the middle of an intergalactic war with more responsibility than he bargained for.
Together, Zaira, Wesley, and Rubin must find their way to Earth and unlock Zaira’s powers if they’re going to have any hope of saving the universe from total destruction.
I’m always intrigued by stories about gods, or reincarnated gods, and Song of Salvation sounds like it promises a great deal of fun shenanigans!
A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, nonbinary Jewish secondary character
Published on: 11th July 2023
Goodreads
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Swan Lake meets The Last Unicorn by way of the Brothers Grimm in a dreamy, original fairytale in verse which transports readers to the Bavarian Alps.
Bavaria. 1880. Hilde was dreamed into existence by the god Odin, and along with her five sisters, granted cloaks that transform them into swans. Each sister’s cloak is imbued with a unique gift, but Hilde rejects her gift which connects her to the souls of dying creatures and forces her to shepherd them into the afterlife—the “Other Wood.”
While guiding the soul of a hawk to the Other Wood, Hilde meets the handsome Baron Maximilian von Richter, whose father was once a favorite of the king and left him no inheritance. Hilde is intrigued by Richter’s longing for a greater life and strikes a deal with She will manifest his dreams of riches, and in return, he will take her to the human world, where she will never have to guide souls again.
But at the court of King Ludwig II in Munich, Hilde struggles to fit in. After learning that fashionable ladies are having themselves painted, she hires non-binary Jewish artist Franz Mendelson, and is stunned when Franz renders her with swan wings. The more time she spends with Franz, the more she feels drawn to the artist’s warm, understanding nature, and the more controlling Richter becomes. When Hilde’s swan cloak suddenly goes missing, only Franz’s ability to paint souls can help Hilde escape her newfound prison.
This is a novel-in-verse, which I don’t always enjoy, but A Warning About Swans sounds so lovely that I really want to give it a go!
Tasmakat (Tuyo, #7) by Rachel Neumeier Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 15th July 2023
Goodreads
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It's a long way from the northern mountains back to the summer lands—and all the challenges Aras left behind are waiting. Worse, no matter how Aras handles those problems, the summer king's judgment of his actions is certain to be harsh.
Released from every vow he ever swore to Aras, Ryo could remain among his own people. But he can't abandon Aras to confront his king alone—especially as the struggle they endured in the land of the shades still haunts them both.
But, as they journey south, Ryo realizes that Aras may be losing control of his sorcery. Even if Ryo can persuade the summer king to judge Aras kindly, that may only be the beginning of the challenges they face. If Aras' strength of will fails, even Ugaro stubbornness may not be enough to prevent disaster…
I think this is the last (planned) book in Neumeier’s Tuyo series. I’m very late to these books, but I adore them and encourage you to give them a go!
Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #144 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
July 7, 2023
Undomesticated Magic: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown cast, bi/pansexual MC, M/M, minor nonbinary characters
PoV: Third-person, present-tense
Published on: 11th July 2023
ISBN: B0B9L229QW
Goodreads
Nestled at the head of a supercontinent, framed by sky and sea, lies Luriat, the city of bright doors. The doors are everywhere in the city, squatting in walls where they don’t belong, painted in vivid warning. They watch over a city of art and avarice, of plagues and pogroms, and silently refuse to open. No one knows what lies beyond them, but everyone has their own theory and their own relationship to the doors. Researchers perform tests and take samples, while supplicants offer fruit and flowers and hold prayer circles. Many fear the doors as the source of hauntings from unspeakable realms. To a rare unchosen few, though, the doors are both a calling and a bane. Fetter is one of those few.
When Fetter was born, his mother tore his shadow from him. She raised him as a weapon to kill his sainted father and destroy the religion rising up in his sacred footsteps. Now Fetter is unchosen, lapsed in his devotion to both his parents. He casts no shadow, is untethered by gravity, and sees devils and antigods everywhere he goes. With no path to follow, Fetter would like to be anything but himself. Does his answer wait on the other side of one of Luriat’s bright doors?
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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~messiahs who really deserve murdering
~pearl-divers
~far too much paperwork
~a Very Deadly wisdom tooth
2023 seems to be the year of the baffling but amazing masterpiece; this is the second book I’ve read so far this year that has confused but amazed me.
BY ALL MEANS, KEEP ‘EM COMING!
The moment Fetter is born, Mother-of-Glory pins his shadow to the earth with a large brass nail and tears it from him.
The Saint of Bright Doors is more than a little tricky to summarise. It starts in a reasonably familiar mode, albeit with its own beautifully unique flavour; a young boy with supernatural abilities is trained as an assassin, raised to kill his distant, powerful father. Ah, yes, we think, settling in comfortably. We know this story! Let us embark upon it again, as retold through Chandrasekera’s eyes and hands and voice.
Well, my darlings, this is not, in fact that story. At all.
Because when Fetter gets to the big city, he just…stays there. Makes a quiet little life for himself. A boyfriend; a support group for other UnChosen Ones; helping out immigrants with their paperwork. He loses interest, and belief in, any great destiny of his own. After the, ah, unique way he was raised, he just wants some peace, to be normal, keep his head down and not make waves.
He has put away childish things. His mad, violent childhood; the indoctrination; his training as a child soldier in his mother’s war against his father: these things, these people are in his past.
He ends up Involved anyway.
I’m honestly astonished by how much Chandrasekera manages to pack in to under 400 pages. It’s as though an 800 page doorstopper has been distilled down to its purest and most potent possible form; nothing is rushed, everything has as much space as it needs, but it’s all so concentrated, powerful, especially coming at us through Chandrasekera’s prose, which grabs you by the throat like a garotte. I read the entire book in 24 hours, ravenous for every word, and I can tell it’s going to be a long time before I stop thinking about it.
This is a book that is equal parts about magic and fascism; about supernatural doors that can’t be opened and the weaponisation of organised religion; about devils (sorry, I mean laws and powers) and the inherent, inextricable violence of colonialism. And the thing is, I’ve read books that deal with these topics before (okay, maybe not the doors) but this feels very different, somehow – less cinematic, maybe, more human, messier, more difficult. The Saint of Bright Doors is not the story of a hero either creating or joining the resistance, and neatly cutting off the head of the snake in a dramatic climax; it doesn’t follow the pattern we’re used to, and Chandrasekera uses that to shock us open to a very different way of doing things. This is a book that plunges the reader into a state of dreamy dissonance in which anything and everything seems possible – and is.
I don’t know how to put it better than that.
Because if I try and actually explain The Saint of Bright Doors to you, it really sounds like it shouldn’t work. There’s so many threads, and none of them follow the tropes and conventions we reflexively expect; which should be jarring, but in the shocked dream-state Chandrasekera puts the reader in, it’s instead easy to just go with the flow the story, despite it being so unfamiliar in its bones. The characters are not who we expect (and want?) them to be either; Fetter in particular, as he has no interest in being a hero, doesn’t burn with passion to make things better or stop the evils being perpetuated by his father and said father’s followers. What do you do with a main character like that, in a story where terrible things are happening? Isn’t he obligated to join the resistance? Isn’t that where the story is? What’s going on?
It is obvious they fear infection, but infection by disease or ideas or identities?
I can only tell you that it all makes sense as you read it. This is very much one of those you had to be there things – The Saint of Bright Doors is a book you have to read to understand. But that shouldn’t be a problem, because despite what I’ve said it’s easy to read; the pages fly by. Fetter may not be the hero we want, but what he is is an immensely sympathetic (and relatable) twenty-something who doesn’t know what to do with his life, and is just trying to preserve it in the midst of chaotic horror. He’s so easy to understand, to empathise with; the lack of cinematic High Drama is what makes him read so real. There’s a particular, pivotal moment where he Does A Thing that makes no sense at all – but it makes no sense in such a completely human way. I’ve been in that same daze, where you keep walking forward even though you’ll never be able to explain to another person why you did; it jolted me, to see that state of mind captured so perfectly on the page. Fetter isn’t a hero because he’s a real person, and honestly, that makes for better reading.
And my gods, the magic! The supernatural aspects of this story feel both unique and raw; not raw in the sense of unpolished but in the sense of wild, aching, real-and-unpretty. Undomesticated, which is a word I’ve never used to describe magic before but fits so perfectly here. I’ve never read a fantasy where the magical elements felt quite like this; so strange but so believable, impossible but obvious at the same time. Just the fact that we have a support group for UnChosen Ones makes me want to shriek with delight, not (just) because that idea is so damn cool but because all of these people come from different, contradictory faiths that are despite that all equally valid – as evidenced by the fact that Fetter is far from the only one with magical talents. HOW DOES THAT WORK? HOW CAN THE PATH AND THE WALKING AND THE MAN IN THE FIRE ALL BE REAL AT THE SAME TIME? Gah!
(Do not expect an explanation. You will find no hard magic systems here.)
The bright doors are not locked. They are not even closed. The bright doors of Luriat are wide open.
The way the supernatural elements were braided into the fascism honestly stunned me – the more I think about it, the more impressed I am, the more I adore Chandraseker’s worldbuilding and twistiness and weird brilliant mind. But one does not, obviously, adore the fascism, and I’m not sure I’m smart enough to talk about this properly, to fully appreciate what Chandrasekera did here. We’re shown a supercontinent (not a world) being battered and burned by pogroms and war, fuelled and incited by the twin sects of the Path Above and the Path Behind, and it is horrifying without being nightmarish, somehow. We see mass executions and people being burned alive, but in that state of dreamy dissonance Chandrasekera has created it is possible to look at these things without flinching – and I think that’s the point.
Let me put it this way: usually, I skim or skip over these kinds of scenes. I simply Cannot. But Chandrasekera let me – made me? – look, and I think there’s something important in that, even if I can’t quite put into words what or why. Maybe because – flinching, and looking away, is…well, cowardly? We flinch away from these same horrors in the real world far too often; we prefer not to see, not to know, not to think about it. Chandrasekera doesn’t give us that option, hypnotises us into looking and seeing, while simultaneously making us able to see. Not by making it less horrifying, but by making us able to bear looking at it. Because we should look at it.
Do you see?
What I want to do, ultimately, is to break the cycle in which plague and pogrom for the segregated, disaggregated many lead to power and profit for the few. At least for a little while. I want to show people that the death and the loss we’ve learned to accept are neither a curse to be borne nor a price to be paid, but are the efficient functioning of Luriat, working as designed.”
One thing I do want to note is how well Chandrasekera captures the horrifying absurdity of fascism, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen fiction do before. There’s a bleak humour to the endless lists of governmental factions and departments, a ‘you have to laugh or you’ll cry’ weight to Fetter’s inability to keep straight all the different police and military death-squads. It’s not comedic, but it highlights the despairing wtf of the rational mind being confronted with irrational hate; how the reasoning is so bad it should be funny, would be funny if it were, you know, not about genocide. I can’t think of another book that points out that not only is fascism evil, it’s fucking stupid; that you can’t have fascism without impossible-to-comprehend levels of stupidity.
(Alas, not the kind of stupid that means unorganised, or unable to achieve its objectives. If only.)
And I appreciated, honestly, that none of the cast make any bones about the fact that fascism cannot be overthrown peacefully.
the power of rulers is always based on death magic, and you can’t topple that without violence.
This is a weird, wildly imaginative debut that bids you leave your expectations at the door; your prior experience with the fantastical genre will not help you here. There are layers upon layers to this story, and yet I promise you, it is not a dense, heavy read; it is more than a little surreal, and subversive, and strange, and I love it. The Saint of Bright Doors is a shooting star, coming upon you with no warning and full surprise to dazzle you dizzy. It is not fun, but it is impossible to put down and dear gods is it good.
If it doesn’t make all the Best of 2023 lists come December, it will be a crime.
It’s out next week. Don’t miss it.
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