Siavahda's Blog, page 64
May 30, 2022
Must-Have Monday #87
This week is PACKED full of witches, but we also have faeries, dragons, and merboys to enjoy!
Her Majesty's Royal Coven (Her Majesty's Royal Coven, #1) by Juno Dawson Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black lesbian MC, sapphic Black secondary character, trans secondary character, queer Latina trans secondary character, nonbinary BIPOC secondary character
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft in this the first installment of this epic fantasy trilogy about a group of childhood friends who are also witches.
If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.
Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven sounds like everything I ever wanted, and I can’t wait to dive in!
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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This sounds like a really interesting premise, and I’m hopeful that the book’s going to live up to it!
Deep in Providence by Riss M. Neilson Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black-Filipina sapphic MC, Latina MC, Black MC with anxiety, queer Black side character, various Black, Latine and Filipine side characters
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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"Haunting, intimate, and beautifully told: a magical debut novel from a writer to watch.” —Emily M. Danforth, national bestselling and award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron PostA spellbinding young adult fantasy debut following three best friends who turn to magic when they're haunted by a friend's death...and perhaps her spirit, combining the atmospheric thrills of The Hazel Wood with the nuanced realism of Erika L. Sanchez.
For best friends Miliani, Inez, Natalie and Jasmine, Providence, Rhode Island has a magic of its own. From the bodegas and late-night food trucks on Broad Street to The Hill that watches over the city, every corner of Providence glows with memories of them practicing spells, mixing up potions and doing séances with the help of the magic Miliani’s Filipino grandfather taught her.
But when Jasmine is killed by a drunk driver, the world they have always known is left haunted by grief...and Jasmine's lingering spirit. Determined to bring her back, the surviving friends band together, testing the limits of their magic and everything they know about life, death, and each other.
And as their plan to resurrect Jasmine grows darker and more demanding than they imagined, their separate lives begin to splinter the bonds they depend on, revealing buried secrets that threaten the people they care about most. Miliani, Inez and Natalie will have to rely on more than just their mystical abilities to find the light.
Thrilling and absorbing, Deep in Providence is a story of profound yearning, and what happens when three teen girls are finally given the power to go after what they want.
“Magic runs like a glittering thread through this densely woven tale of friendship, grief, and identity, and what begins as a backbeat of creeping dread deftly builds into a landscape of supernatural terrors. Neilson balances her page-turning fantasy narrative against the coming of age of a trio of bereaved best friends with grace, delicacy, and startling humanity.” —Melissa Albert, New York Times-bestselling author of the Hazel Wood series and Our Crooked Hearts
I’ve heard nothing but adoring praise for Deep In Providence, and it sounds absolutely wonderful (if also sad). I love stories about teen witches, and all signs point to this being an excellent one!
The Fae Keeper (The Witch King, #2) by H.E. Edgmon Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans gay MC, brown achillean love interest, queer BIPOC secondary cast
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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In the heart-stopping sequel to The Witch King, Wyatt and Emyr attempt to rebuild Asalin despite unexpected new enemies within their kingdom.
Two weeks after the door to Faery closed once more, Asalin is still in turmoil. Emyr and Wyatt are hunting Derek and Clarke themselves after having abolished the corrupt Guard, and are trying to convince the other kingdoms to follow their lead. But when they uncover the hidden truth about the witches' real place in fae society, it becomes clear the problems run much deeper than anyone knew. And this may be more than the two of them can fix.
As Wyatt struggles to learn control of his magic and balance his own needs with the needs of a kingdom, he must finally decide on the future he wants—before he loses the future he and Emyr are building…
There was no way I was leaving the sequel to Witch King off a Must-Have list! The Fae Keeper is also the finale of the duology, so I can’t be the only one expecting serious fireworks!
Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Latin-America-esque setting and cast
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see her father fight in their arena, which will one day be hers.
But disaster strikes during their five hundredth anniversary show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s father is horribly injured. Facing punishment from the Dragon Guild, Zarela must keep the arena—her ancestral home and inheritance—safe from their greedy hands. She has no choice but to take her father’s place as the next Dragonador. When the infuriatingly handsome dragon hunter, Arturo Díaz de Montserrat, withholds his help, she refuses to take no for an answer.
But even if he agrees, there’s someone out to ruin the Zalvidar family, and Zarela will have to do whatever it takes in order to prevent the Dragon Guild from taking away her birthright.
An ancient city plagued by dragons. A flamenco dancer determined to save her ancestral home. A dragon hunter refusing to teach her his ways. They don't want each other, but they need each other, and without him her world will burn.
Besides an utterly stunning cover, Together We Burn also has a brilliant premise – dragonadors! I absolutely need to know more. (And if I’m rooting for the dragons, well… Le duh!)
Out of the Blue by Jason June Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder--or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They've pollluted the planet so much that there's a floating island of trash that's literally the size of a country.
In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest's pespective on humans begins to change, they'll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings...
This sophomore novel from Jason June dives into the many definitions of the world home and shows how love can help us find the truest versions of ourselves.
This sounds super sweet and cute, and I’m looking forward to adorable merboy escapism!
All Signs Point to Yes by Cam Montgomery, Adrianne White, g. haron davis, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Mark Oshiro, Eric Smith, Emery Lee, Byron Graves, Karuna Riazi, Roselle Lim, Alexandra Villasante, Lily Anderson, Kiana Nguyen Representation: BIPOC MCs, queer MCs
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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Supposedly this jumps around a bunch of different genres, but I most perked up at the inclusion of aromantic relationships! Also, I’m a sucker for a punny title and I love this one.
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey, Ben Miller Genres: Queer Protagonists
Published on: 31st May 2022
Goodreads
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Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveals more than we might expect?
Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects.
Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.
Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history.
Honestly, I don’t need to hear anything but the title. GIMME.
The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow (The Crystal Calamity, #1) by Rachel Aaron Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Biracial Lakota MC
Published on: 1st June 2022
Goodreads
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Deadwood meets The Lord of the Rings in this Epic Fantasy of the West!
Hungry darkness, haunted guns, tunnels that move like snakes—the crystal mines of Medicine Rocks, Montana are a place only the bravest and greediest dare. Discovered in 1866, the miraculous rock known as crystal quickly rose to become the most expensive substance on the planet, driving thousands to break the treaties and invade the sacred buffalo lands of the Sioux. But mining crystal risks more than an arrow in the chest. The beautiful rock has a voice of its own. A voice that twists minds and calls unnatural powers.
A voice that turns men into monsters.
Mary Good Crow hears it. Half white, half Lakota, rejected by both, she’s forged a new life guiding would-be miners through the treacherous caves. To her ears, the crystal sings a beautiful song, one the men she guides would gladly burn her as a witch for hearing. So, when an heiress from Boston arrives with a proposition that could change her life, Mary agrees to push deeper into the caves than she’s ever dared.
But there are secrets buried in the Deep Caves that even Mary doesn’t know. The farther she goes, the closer she gets to the voice that’s been calling her all this time. A voice that could change the bloody story of the West, or destroy it all.
Rachel Aaron is one of my favourite authors, and The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow sounds wildly different from anything she’s previously published – but that just makes it exciting! Very much grabby-hands for this one!
The Peacekeeper (The Good Lands, #1) by B.L. Blanchard Genres: Speculative Fiction
Representation: Ojibwe cast + MC
Published on: 1st June 2022
Goodreads
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Against the backdrop of a never-colonized North America, a broken Ojibwe detective embarks on an emotional and twisting journey toward solving two murders, rediscovering family, and finding himself.
North America was never colonized. The United States and Canada don’t exist. The Great Lakes are surrounded by an independent Ojibwe nation. And in the village of Baawitigong, a Peacekeeper confronts his devastating past.
Twenty years ago to the day, Chibenashi’s mother was murdered and his father confessed. Ever since, caring for his still-traumatized younger sister has been Chibenashi’s privilege and penance. Now, on the same night of the Manoomin harvest, another woman is slain. His mother’s best friend. The leads to a seemingly impossible connection take Chibenashi far from the only world he’s ever known.
The major city of Shikaakwa is home to the victim’s cruelly estranged family—and to two people Chibenashi never wanted to see again: his imprisoned father and the lover who broke his heart. As the questions mount, the answers will change his and his sister’s lives forever. Because Chibenashi is about to discover that everything about those lives has been a lie.
I love the premise of a North America that was never colonised SO MUCH, and I can’t wait to see what Blanchard does with it!
To Catch a Moon by Rym Kechacha Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Hispanic MC
Published on: 2nd June 2022
Goodreads
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Mexico City, 1955. The painter Remedios Varo sits in her kitchen with her friend, the artist Leonora Carrington. Together they let their imaginations soar beyond their canvases to create new worlds.
In the surreal landscape of her imagination, Varo’s creations take on a life and power of their own. A wheeled spirit of the earth kidnaps a baby star; a woman who is half owl draws herself a daughter; a juggler entrances a crowd of grey-cloaked men, a lion and a goat. The rules that govern this world bend and creak, old alliances break, and an impending apocalypse forges the most unlikely of friendships.
To Catch a Moon popped up on my radar just recently, and it sounds strange and gorgeous and incredibly magical! I keep refreshing the publisher’s page looking for the ebook preorder, but they probably won’t go live until pub day. I AM MOST IMPATIENTLY WAITING!
The post Must-Have Monday #87 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 29, 2022
Sunday Soupçons #12
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!
Just one quick one this week!
The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Neurodivergent bisexual MC, brown gay MC, post-addiction MC, M/M
Goodreads
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In this lush, magical, queer, and feminist take on Hamlet in modern-day New York City, a neuro-atypical physicist, along with his best friend Horatio and artist ex-fiancé Lia, are caught up in the otherworldly events surrounding the death of his father.
Meet Ben Dane: brilliant, devastating, devoted, honest to a fault (truly, a fault). His Broadway theatre baron father is dead—but by purpose or accident? The question rips him apart.
Unable to face alone his mother’s ghastly remarriage to his uncle, Ben turns to his dearest friend, Horatio Patel, whom he hasn’t seen since their relationship changed forever from platonic to something…other. Loyal to a fault (truly, a fault), Horatio is on the first flight to NYC when he finds himself next to a sly tailor who portends inevitable disaster. And who seems ominously like an architect of mayhem himself.
Meanwhile, Ben’s ex-fiancé Lia, sundered her from her loved ones thanks to her addiction recovery and torn from her art, has been drawn into the fold of three florists from New Orleans—seemingly ageless sisters who teach her the language of flowers, and whose magical bouquets hold both curses and cures. For a price.
On one explosive night these kinetic forces will collide, and the only possible outcome is death. But in the masterful hands of Lyndsay Faye, the story we all know has abundant surprises in store. Impish, captivating, and achingly romantic, this is Hamlet as you’ve never seen it before.
The first time I tried to read The King of Infinite Space, I DNF-ed it, and I picked it up again hoping for something that would put my brain to sleep before bed. This time though, I was hooked almost instantly and devoured the whole book in a bit under 24 hours – I didn’t want to put it down and VEHEMENTLY resented anything that made me!
Faye’s prose is fast and glorious, but it’s neck-and-neck with the cast for my favourite aspect of the book. Ben, Horatio and Lia are all amazing characters, and I’m so glad Faye decided to give them all turns in the spotlight, switching back and forth between their three PoVs – Ben in particular made me laugh a lot, and I highlighted a whole bunch of his lines as Simply Epic. I’ve never read Hamlet or seen it performed, but that didn’t seem to be a loss; if anything, you’d be better served by being at least passingly familiar with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and/or The Scottish Play, since Robin Goodfellow and the Three Sisters both show up in important roles (and very much reimagined from their previous incarnations).
The fantasy elements were pretty minimal until right up near the end, but I had no problem with that: there was so much drama, so many complex characters and character dynamics to go over with a microscope, so much wow-factor, that I’m pretty sure I would have had almost as much fun if this had been pure contemporary-fic.
I did have to knock half a star off my rating because I wasn’t happy with the ending – it seemed so unnecessary, and is the kind of happy ending that really isn’t – but with that qualifier, I’d still recommend it for anybody looking for complicated characters, a whirlwind plot, and lots of yummy, philosophy-and-physics introspection!
What have you been reading this week?
The post Sunday Soupçons #12 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 28, 2022
(Even More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction!
tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.comAs has become tradition, here is my annual Coolest Magical Abilities list for Wyrd & Wonder!
Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Fun, froofy and glorious: a coming-of-age story in a new trilogy from World Fantasy Award-winning author C.S.E. Cooney.
Nothing complicates life like Death.
Lanie Stones, the daughter of the Royal Assassin and Chief Executioner of Liriat, has never led a normal life. Born with a gift for necromancy and a literal allergy to violence, she was raised in isolation in the family’s crumbling mansion by her oldest friend, the ancient revenant Goody Graves.
When her parents are murdered, it falls on Lanie and her cheerfully psychotic sister Nita to settle their extensive debts or lose their ancestral home—and Goody with it. Appeals to Liriat's ruler to protect them fall on indifferent ears… until she, too, is murdered, throwing the nation's future into doubt.
Hunted by Liriat’s enemies, hounded by her family’s creditors and terrorised by the ghost of her great-grandfather, Lanie will need more than luck to get through the next few months—but when the goddess of Death is on your side, anything is possible.
As you might expect, the Fire Knights of Liriat can manipulate flame – but it’s where they get the flame that’s jaw-dropping. The Fire Knights wear beautiful, razor-sharp claw-sheathes – so when they put their hands together in what we think of as the ‘prayer’ position, those claw-sheathes draw blood. And it’s that blood that they set alight and manipulate.
That is what we at Every Book a Doorway call an Aesthetic!
The Name of All Things (A Chorus of Dragons, #2) by Jenn Lyons Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
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You can have everything you want if you sacrifice everything you believe.
Kihrin D'Mon is a wanted man.
Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, he has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin.
Janel's plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin's old enemy, the wizard Relos Var.
Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world―the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants.
And what he wants is Kihrin D'Mon.
Jenn Lyons continues the Chorus of Dragons series with The Name of All Things, the epic sequel to The Ruin of Kings.
Janel is no spellcaster, but she does have one, frankly bizarre, magical ability…every night she dies, and every morning she comes back to life. And no, it’s not because she’s any kind of vampire! It’s because – well, I can’t tell you, that would be a major spoiler. But I think we can agree that’s a pretty impressive – if not necessarily useful – magical ability?
The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater Genres: Horror, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
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Don’t trust the Liar.
Do not cross the King.
Never, ever go in the River.
In Red Valley, California, you follow the rules if you want to stay alive. But they won’t be enough to protect Sadie now that she’s become the Liar, the keeper of the town’s many secrets. Friendships are hard-won here, and it isn’t safe to make enemies.
And though the Liar has power — power to remake the world, with just a little blood—what Sadie really needs is answers: Why is the town’s sheriff after her? What does the King want from her? And what is the real purpose of the Liar of Red Valley?
The Liar fulfils a very…specific function in the Red Valley community. The lies she writes down in her book – with a little of the blood of the people whose lies they are – become…true.
Think about that for a sec. Because that is a pretty enormous power.
Yeah.
If that’s not a cool magical ability, I don’t know what is!
The Chimes by Anna Smaill Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Goodreads
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The Chimes is set in a reimagined London, in a world where people cannot form new memories, and the written word has been forbidden and destroyed.
In the absence of both memory and writing is music.
In a world where the past is a mystery, each new day feels the same as the last, and before is blasphemy, all appears lost. But Simon Wythern, a young man who arrives in London seeking the truth about what really happened to his parents, discovers he has a gift that could change all of this forever.
A stunning literary debut by poet and violinist Anna Smaill, The Chimes is a startlingly original work that combines beautiful, inventive prose with incredible imagination.
In a world where people’s memories are anchored to objects instead of being safely inside their heads, Simon is able to access the memories of others – even the deceased – by touching their memory-objects. As you might imagine, in his world, that’s a game-changer – for one thing, it’s the only way anyone can keep track of history, and we all know the dangers of forgetting history…
An Illusion of Thieves (Chimera, #1) by Cate Glass Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads
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In Cantagna, being a sorcerer is a death sentence.
Romy escapes her hardscrabble upbringing when she becomes courtesan to the Shadow Lord, a revolutionary noble who brings laws and comforts once reserved for the wealthy to all. When her brother, Neri, is caught thieving with the aid of magic, Romy's aristocratic influence is the only thing that can spare his life—and the price is her banishment.
Now back in Beggar’s Ring, she has just her wits and her own long-hidden sorcery to help her and Neri survive. But when a plot to overthrow the Shadow Lord and incite civil war is uncovered, only Romy knows how to stop it. To do so, she’ll have to rely on newfound allies—a swordmaster, a silversmith, and her own thieving brother. And they'll need the very thing that could condemn them all: magic.
The title of this one might make you think the magical ability in question is creating illusions – but nope! Or well, not in any usual sense. Romy can turn herself into anyone – including people who’ve never existed – by…becoming that person. As in, even she herself believes she is who and what she wants others to see her as. When she’s ‘in character’, she won’t respond to the name Romy not because she doesn’t want to give the game away, but because she’s lost all memory of who that is.
And if you believe yourself to be a persona you’ve created…how do you get back to your real self again?
The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1) by K.D. Edwards Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home.
With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court.
In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?
The main characters of The Tarot Sequence are amazing, but it’s one of the secondary characters I want to feature today: Ciaran, who has the seemingly uncontrollable power to change the colour, texture and material of things around him. Black-and-white becomes rainbow neon, wood becomes stone, and inconvenient ushers even find the colours of their eyes changed when Ciaran is…well, being Ciaran.
It’s not clear what triggers Ciaran’s powers or if he has any conscious control of them at all, but it’s definitely an ability I’ve never seen anywhere else!
Inda (Inda, #1) by Sherwood Smith Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Although it’s called the Waste Spell, the fact that everyone can do it makes it, functionally, a world-wide magical ability in my eyes, and it is surprisingly game-changing. Whispering the Waste Spell vanishes any bodily waste, even if that waste is still inside your body – no need to take bathroom breaks while adventuring, or pause to throw up after a night carousing. But most importantly, it also works as fool-proof contraceptive, which has massive implications for the rights of those who can get pregnant, and knock-on effects on global views of sex and sexuality.
You wouldn’t think what’s basically toilet-magic would be awesome, but I assure you, it is awesome.
Pennyblade by J.L. Worrad, James Worrad Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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A sharp-tongued disgraced-noble-turned-mercenary has to stop the world collapsing into chaos in this gripping, savagely funny epic fantasy packed with unforgettable characters, for fans of Joe Abercrombie.
Exile. Mercenary. Lover. Monster. Pennyblade.
Kyra Cal’Adra has spent the last four years on the Main, living in exile from her home, her people, her lover and her past. A highblood commrach—the ancient race of the Isle, dedicated to tradition and the perfection of the blood—she’s welcome among the humans of the Main only for the skill of her rapier, her preternatural bladework. They don't care which of the gleaming towers she came from, nor that her grandmother is matriarch of one of Corso’s most powerful families.
But on the main, women loving women is a sin punishable by death. Kyra is haunted by the ghost of Shen, the love of her life, a lowblood servant woman whom Kyra left behind as she fled the Isle.
When a simple contract goes awry, and her fellow pennyblades betray her, Kyra is set onto a collision course with her old life, and the age-old conflict between the Main and the Isle threatens to erupt once more.
The commrach – who are very, very fucked-up elves – have an extremely odd, passive magical ability: objects that they touch and handle a lot become imbued, heightening their natural qualities. Imbued statues (you have to stroke them) look more life-like and emotional than clumsy human carvings, imbued swords are sharper and stronger than a normal blade, and a mask carved to be frightening becomes scream-inducing once it’s been imbued. This isn’t an ability the commrach have any conscious control over (other than, you know, choosing not to pet a statue), but it’s extremely interesting – and, of course, something they hold up as evidence for their being better than humans.
The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Wind: To match one's body with one's heart
Sand: To take the bearer where they wish
Song: In praise of the goddess Bird
Bone: To move unheard in the night
The Surun' do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But Uiziya now seeks her aunt Benesret in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay.
Among the Khana, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.
As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter.
Set in R. B. Lemberg's beloved Birdverse.
What would you call the ability to weave fabric out of sand – or wind – or song – or bone?
Especially when those fabrics then have pretty incredible magical abilties of their own?
Monkey Around by Jadie Jang Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
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The debut novel from Jadie Jang is an action-packed urban fantasy delivering a bold new take on the Monkey King in San Francisco - complete with murder and mayhem!
San Francisco has a Monkey King - and she’s kinda freaked out.
Barista, activist, and were-monkey Maya McQueen was well on her way to figuring herself out. Well, part of the way. 25% of the way. If you squint.
But now the Bay Area is being shaken up. Occupy Wall Street has come home to roost; and on the supernatural side there's disappearances, shapeshifter murders, and the city’s spirit trying to find its guardian.
Maya doesn’t have a lot of time before chaos turns up at her door, and she needs to solve all of her problems. Well, most of them. The urgent ones, anyhow.
But who says the solutions have to be neat? Because Monkey is always out for mischief.
Shapeshifters aren’t rare in fantasy, but Maya is no ordinary shapeshifter. As well as transforming into any animal she pleases, she can also turn into smoke, rubber, cement – you name it, and she can do it. That’s not a kind of shapeshifting we see often!
As a bonus: she can turn her plucked hairs into all manner of objects and gadgets. She’s pretty unstoppable, let’s put it that way!
Don’t forget to check out my first and second lists of cool magical abilities – or jump over here to start exploring interesting magic systems!
The post (Even More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 27, 2022
Ten (Even More) Ridiculously Cool Magic Systems!
tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.comEvery year that I’ve taken part in Wyrd & Wonder, I’ve made lists of cool magic systems and cool magical abilities – and I’m continuing the traditional in 2022!
I define a magic system as a practice that lets you do many things – whereas a magical ability, however versatile, fundamentally lets you do one thing.
Now that that’s settled – let me show you some of my favourite magic systems!
Star Eater by Kerstin Hall Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
Goodreads
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All martyrdoms are difficult.
Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost.
So when a shadowy cabal approaches Elfreda with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Sisterhood, and enters a glittering world of opulent parties, subtle deceptions, and unexpected bloodshed.
A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all.
In the world of Star Eater, gifted women use a magic called lace for all sorts of things. That’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is where they get the lace: when their store of lace runs low, they…eat bits of their mothers.
You heard me.
These women are put into comas when they reach a certain age, and their daughters cut neat slices of out of their arms or legs or wherever and eat them to power their own lace. It’s definitely the most messed-up source of magic I’ve seen in a while, as is the entire cultural and political system that’s grown up around it. None of which Hall flinches away from.
Cannibal nuns, everyone.
A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1) by Naomi Novik Goodreads
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A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.
There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.
Novik came up with a simple but ingenious magic system for her Scholomance series: spells are fuelled by mana or malia. Mana is energy and power you make yourself; malia is taken from other living things, including other humans. Using a lot of malia will eventually mess you up, but it’s much, much easier than working up a big dollop of mana.
What I love about this system is that mana is created by effort – which means that you get more mana for doing something difficult that you hate, than doing something you enjoy. If you like exercise, you won’t get as much mana for doing laps as someone who is out of shape and despises running will; this has the knock-on effect of meaning that once you get good enough at your mana-producing task – like crochet or sit-ups or whatever – you have to switch to something new and start all over again. Can you imagine how frustrating that would be?!
Geekomancy (Ree Reyes, #1) by Michael R. Underwood Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
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Clerks
meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy eBook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.
Ree Reyes's life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comicshop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.
When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic BOOM echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town's magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.
Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?
This is probably the magic system I’d most like to learn, since it allows its practitioners to temporarily gain the superpowers, magic, or other uncanny abilities of their favourite characters – either by watching the character’s tv show, reading their comic, however one engages with the media format in question. Geekomancers can also use replica props like Dr Who’s sonic screwdriver as if they were the real thing, so yeah, this is kind of my favourite magic system ever!
Flesh and Fire (Vineart War #1) by Laura Anne Gilman Goodreads
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From acclaimed bestselling author Laura Anne Gilman comes a unique and enthralling new story of fantasy and adventure, wine and magic, danger and hope....
Once, all power in the Vin Lands was held by the prince-mages, who alone could craft spellwines, and selfishly used them to increase their own wealth and influence. But their abuse of power caused a demigod to break the Vine, shattering the power of the mages. Now, fourteen centuries later, it is the humble Vinearts who hold the secret of crafting spells from wines, the source of magic, and they are prohibited from holding power.
But now rumors come of a new darkness rising in the vineyards. Strange, terrifying creatures, sudden plagues, and mysterious disappearances threaten the land. Only one Vineart senses the danger, and he has only one weapon to use against it: a young slave. His name is Jerzy, and his origins are unknown, even to him. Yet his uncanny sense of the Vinearts' craft offers a hint of greater magics within magics that his Master, the Vineart Malech, must cultivate and grow. But time is running out. If Malech cannot teach his new apprentice the secrets of the spellwines, and if Jerzy cannot master his own untapped powers, the Vin Lands shall surely be destroyed.
In Flesh and Fire, first in a spellbinding new trilogy, Laura Anne Gilman conjures a story as powerful as magic itself, as intoxicating as the finest of wines, and as timeless as the greatest legends ever told.
How about magic via wine??? Each spellwine has its own powers, but all are made by the Vinearts, those who have the special knack required for growing and tending to the magical grapes that make the wines. (Interestingly, all Vinearts are asexual.) Actually using a spellwine correctly is deceptively simple – drink, then command – but it’s all too easy for the inexperienced, untaught, or arrogant to make pretty terrible mistakes. Regardless, it’s a very beautiful, sensual magic system!
The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy
Goodreads
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Brimming with romance, betrayal, and enchantment, The Embroidered Book reveals and reimagines a dazzling period of history as you have never seen it before.
‘Power is not something you are given. Power is something you take. When you are a woman, it is a little more difficult, that’s all.’
1768. Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette.
The sisters are alone, but they are not powerless. When they were only children, they discovered a book of spells – spells that work, with dark and unpredictable consequences.
In a time of vicious court politics, of discovery and dizzying change, they use the book to take control of their lives.
But every spell requires a sacrifice. And as love between the sisters turns to rivalry, they will send Europe spiralling into revolution.
At first glance, the magic gradually learned by two royal sisters looks fairly traditional; you need ingredients, symbols, and rituals to cast a spell. We’ve seen that kind of thing before. But these spells also require sacrifices – not bloody ones, but arguably worse: feelings and memories. It’s not hard to see how a magic system like that can twist up a person – one spell required one of the main characters to give up her love for her dog, and how can you keep a relationship with your sister when you keep sacrificing memories of her? It’s a magic system that seems designed to turn its practioners into unfeeling narcissists, and I find that horribly fascinating.
The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson Goodreads
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On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother--The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper--has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.
But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.
To follow in her grandmother's footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.
Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything--ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun--to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea.
Sailing ships on the Forever Sea is even more complicated than sailing on oceans of water – because these ships aren’t powered by the wind, but by bones. The bones of dead captains are arranged in patterns and constructs reminiscent of a cat’s cradle, and each arrangement has a different effect on the ship; go faster, slower, higher, lower, etc.
Oh, and did I mention that these arrangements of bones have to made in a bowl of magic fire??? Because they do. Although most fire-tenders learn the bone constructs by rote, a very rare few can hear or sense something in the flames that tells them what bones – in what pattern – are required. A lot of it seems to be instinct and intuition, though – the fire, alas, does not speak in words.
How and why this works the way it does isn’t explained in the first book, but it’s definitely unusual and interesting enough to merit a spot on my list!
The Impossible Contract (Chronicles of Ghadid #2) by K.A. Doore Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Second in K. A. Doore's high fantasy adventure series the Chronicles of Ghadid, a determined assassin travels to the heart of the Empire in pursuit of a powerful mark, for fans of Robin Hobb, Sarah J. Maas, and S. A. Chakraborty
Thana has a huge reputation to live up to as daughter of the Serpent, who rules over Ghadid’s secret clan of assassins. Opportunity to prove herself arrives when Thana accepts her first contract on Heru, a dangerous foreign diplomat with the ability to bind a person’s soul under his control.
She may be in over her head, especially when Heru is targeted by a rival sorcerer who sends hordes of the undead to attack them both. When Heru flees, Thana has no choice than to pursue him across the sands to the Empire that intends to capture Ghadid inside its iron grip.
A stranger in a strange city, Thana’s only ally is Mo, a healer who may be too noble for her own good. Meanwhile, otherworldly and political dangers lurk around every corner, and even more sinister plans are uncovered which could lead to worldwide devastation. Can Thana rise to the challenge―even if it means facing off against an ancient evil?
Mentioned in passing in the first book of this trilogy but featured in The Impossible Contract are the immensely important healers of Ghadid – who can manipulate water. That’s already a big deal in a desert-city, but what especially fascinated me is that they can use water to heal – not, as you might guess, by manipulating the water in the human body, but in some kind of exchange; the water evaporates, ‘used up’, as the wound is healed. Not only is that very cool by itself, it’s made even more so by how it affects and is affected by the desert culture around it!
Wit'ch Fire (The Banned and the Banished, #1) by James Clemens Goodreads
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On a fateful night five centuries ago, three made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.
Fleeing the minions of darkness, Elena is swept toward certain doom-and into the company of unexpected allies. Aided by a one-armed warrior and a strange seer, she forms a band of the hunted and the cursed, the outcasts and the outlaws, to battle the unstoppable forces of evil and rescue a once-glorious empire...
At first glance, the magic system of The Banned and the Cursed series looks odd but simple: those who can wield magic expose their hands to sunlight, which ‘charges’ a rose-shaped design on their palm. As they use up their magic, the rose design becomes paler, until they need to recharge again.
But – spoiler! – Elena’s magic can draw from far more than just sunlight. It turns out there are lots of different kinds of light, and some of them – and how Elena manages to access them – are genuinely mind-blowing. It’s hard to say more without going into real spoiler territory, but I really do love this magic system!
Ashlords (Ashlords #1) by Scott Reintgen Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads
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Red Rising meets The Scorpio Races in this epic fantasy following three phoenix horse riders--skilled at alchemy--who must compete at The Races--the modern spectacle that has replaced warfare within their empire.
Every year since the Ashlords were gifted phoenix horses by their gods, they've raced them. First into battle, then on great hunts, and finally for the pure sport of seeing who rode the fastest. Centuries of blood and fire carved their competition into a more modern spectacle: The Races.
Over the course of a multi-day event, elite riders from clashing cultures vie to be crowned champion. But the modern version of the sport requires more than good riding. Competitors must be skilled at creating and controlling phoenix horses made of ash and alchemy, which are summoned back to life each sunrise with uniquely crafted powers to cover impossible distances and challenges before bursting into flames at sunset. But good alchemy only matters if a rider knows how to defend their phoenix horse at night. Murder is outlawed, but breaking bones and poisoning ashes? That's all legal and encouraged.
In this year's Races, eleven riders will compete, but three of them have more to lose than the rest--a champion's daughter, a scholarship entrant, and a revolutionary's son. Who will attain their own dream of glory? Or will they all flame out in defeat?
When you hear ‘alchemy’ you probably think vaguely of turning lead into gold, or maybe the philosopher’s stone. In Reintgen’s world though, alchemists create…horses.
No, that’s not a typo. For real: alchemists use all kinds of ingredients to create magical horses with different abilities or qualities, phoenix horses which crumble into ash at sundown but can cover incredible distances – and perform supernatural feats – during the day. This is another one where the magic system is very interesting, but so is the way it interacts with the culture around it!
The Philosopher's Flight (The Philosophers Series, #1) by Tom Miller Goodreads
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Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.
When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women.
Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers—and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.
In the tradition of Lev Grossman and Deborah Harkness, Tom Miller writes with unrivaled imagination, ambition, and humor. The Philosopher’s Flight is both a fantastical reimagining of American history and a beautifully composed coming-of-age tale for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.
Working magic with sigils and other magical symbols is pretty traditional – but in the world of Philosopher’s Flight, these symbols aren’t being drawn in chalk or written in blood. Instead, they’re carved out of smoke. Or a mix of corn flour and sand that’s shot out of a mechanical regulator – allowing the ‘practical philosopher’, as they’re called, to freaking fly.
And pretty much anything else they please.
Practical philosophy is treated as a science in Miller’s world, but is absolutely what we in this world would call magic. Drawing symbols with strange substances for supernatural results??? Obviously magic. Mysteriously, women are much stronger philosophers than men in this verse – faster fliers, capable of teleporting further, etc – which is something I hope is eventually explained in the books! Either way, it’s a fascinating system that leads into some seriously incredible worldbuilding – you can find my starry-eyed review of book one of the series here!
Don’t forget to check out my first and second lists of cool magic systems – or jump over here to start exploring cool magical abilities!
The post Ten (Even More) Ridiculously Cool Magic Systems! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 26, 2022
Gorgeous and Glorious: Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual trans MC, F/F, multiple secondary trans characters
Published on: 7th June 2022
ISBN: 0063161206
Goodreads
Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman’s story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane’s Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles’ vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy.
The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.
Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the “prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman’s body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.
But the gods—a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries—have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.
An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight…and chooses to trust.
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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~do read for epically deadly trans woman Achilles
~and amazing Egyptian sorceresses
~never trust a god
~or a dolphin
There are books that strike you like a hammer against bronze, making you reverberate with their glory. Making you peal out your fierce, wild joy like the greatest and sweetest of shining bells.
Wrath Goddess Sing is one of those books.
*
It is theoretically possible than some other author could have put in the years of work and research that clearly went into every detail of Wrath Goddess Sing.
But no one else could have made this story as beautiful and as bold, as extraordinary and as entrancing, as poignant and powerful and profound as Deane has done.
With prose like a wine-dark sea, she sweeps us away into a rich, complex world like no other Trojan War retelling we’ve ever seen: one anchored in real Bronze Age history, weaving together so many unexpected threads, peeling back the…the polish, the Anglicisation of the tale we all know, to get at a story that’s never been told before.
Because we do all know this tale, don’t we? At least vaguely? Via any one of the dozens of film adaptions if nothing else? Maybe you’ve read other retellings; maybe you even studied The Illiad at school or at uni, like I did, and thus don’t really think Deane can take you by surprise. Not really. Not much. She still has to make Wrath Goddess Sing recognisably the story of Achilles, right? How different could it be from what we’ve heard before?
Spoiler: the answer is very. Wrath Goddess Sing is very different, and that took me by surprise and utterly delighted me. I’ve studied the Illiad! In an academic setting! For two years! I picked up Wrath Goddess Sing for a queer take on an old story, not expecting for one minute that Deane could really, genuinely work in twists and turns and takes that I not only hadn’t seen before, but also wouldn’t see coming.
But she absolutely did. She has done.
And it is breathtaking.
Here’s what I mean about peeling back the Anglicisation of the Illiad: if you do know a bit about the story of the Trojan War, there are names you’ll expect to see here – Paris is a big one, and so is his brother Hector. But there is no Paris, and no Hector, in Wrath Goddess Sing. For that matter, there’s also no Troy! Because all those names – of characters and places – they are the names that went into the English translations of the Illiad. But Deane has scorned all of that, and replaced it all with the original, historically accurate names and terms. A few are as we know them – Achilles, Odysseus, Sparta – and others are still recognisable – like Patroklos instead of the more familiar Patroclus. But many are as unfamiliar as the made-up proper nouns of a secondary-world fantasy novel, and honestly, I think that may be the best way to approach Wrath Goddess Sing: forget what you know, or think you know, about the Trojan War. Because this book will not map neatly onto your expectations. It’s much better to come to this story as though you’re opening up an original fantasy epic, where you know nothing and no one and everything is new to you.
That way your preconceptions can’t get in the way.
*
How are you supposed to describe a book like this? How can I possibly do it justice???
I want to geek the hell out and tell you that the title of Wrath Goddess Sing is also the first three words of the Illiad; I want to talk about the Easter eggs scattered throughout the book for Classics students, how I grinned like an idiot when I spotted Aphrodite’s son and screamed at the many-coloured coat; I want to gesticulate wildly as I explain just how much I love Deane’s take on the gods, how the same beings are cross-pollinated across multiple cultures and HOW AWESOME THAT IS.
This is a book that demands caps-lock, and also grand, epic poetry; I want to write hymns to it. I have sat down so many times to work on this review, and – have you ever heard the Earnest Hemmingway quote about writing?
‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.’
Trying to write about Wrath Goddess Sing is like that. It’s touched me so deeply, moved me so much, filled me with such fierce crowing joy that trying to talk about it is – it all overflows. If I could cut open my fingers and bleed over my keyboard, the oracles could divine everything I don’t know how to say in the raw wet red, but short of that… Words fail me.
Love is madness, she thought.
And in the grips of that madness, those who love become deadlier than the gods, and lose all rational fear.
It’s everything, is the thing. It has the most incredible prose, an incredibly human cast, magic and intrigue and danger. It’s a story about a mortal war that is simultaneously a war among the gods. It’s poetic and crude, brilliant and hilarious, intricate and deceptively simple. It will have you cheering and sobbing and laughing and gasping; it will give you chills and get into your dreams. It’s so beautiful. It’s so clever. And it’s a fucking battle-cry of a book, especially here, especially now.
Because yes, this is a queer book. A trans book. It doesn’t just feature a trans protagonist; it’s transgressive in its storytelling, in its approach to myth and history, in its underlying message. In its complete subversion of our expectations and assumptions and beliefs. In how, and what, it challenges and celebrates.
Wrath Goddess Sing doesn’t feel like a novel; it feels like magic, like something impossible, like Deane has stepped out of the world to show us a truth we had no idea was there. The only thing more impressive than the scope of her imagination is that she had the skill to pull it off, perfectly, and write a book worthy of her vision. I’m in awe.
And I guess I owe my old Classics teachers an apology, because I’ll never consider The Illiad the ‘real’ version ever again. Wrath Goddess Sing is too true to not be true.
They’ll be talking about this book long after they’ve forgotten The Illiad. Don’t miss it.
The post Gorgeous and Glorious: Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 25, 2022
I Can’t Wait For…When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, Jewish cast
Published on: 18th October 2022
Goodreads
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In publishing-speak, here's what we at the LQ office sometimes describe as the Queer lovechild of Sholem Aleichem and Philip Roth:
Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.
Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America.
But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they've left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.
With cinematic sweep and tender observation, Sacha Lamb presents a totally original drama about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.
I adore stories about more classical angels and demons, and I love the idea of an angel and demon studying together! (What could they be studying? Philosophy? Religion? Humans???)
The journey to America is a pretty classic story all on its own, but I’m willing to bet it’s going to look pretty different to anything I’ve read before, given that these aren’t mortal characters. And I’m already dying to find out all about their adventures, and what their relationship is like! Are they friends? Do they bicker? Is Uriel THE Uriel??? I must know!
And, of course, mega bonus points for being queer, although I don’t know the exact details on that yet!
What do you think – will you read it when it comes out?
The post I Can’t Wait For…When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 16, 2022
Must-Have Monday #86
SEVEN amazing-looking books this week, including alternate histories, Black vampires, and New Atlantis!
The Hourglass Throne (The Tarot Sequence, #3) by K.D. Edwards Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, Bi/pansexual love interest, M/M, secondary asexual character, secondary Indigenous nonbinary character, secondary Indigenous characters, secondary Black character, queernorm culture
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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As Rune Saint John grapples with the challenges of assuming the Sun Throne, a powerful barrier appears around New Atlantis’s famed rejuvenation center. But who could have created such formidable magic . . . what do they want from the immortality clinic . . . and what remains of the dozens trapped inside?
Though Rune and his lifelong bodyguard Brand are tasked with investigating the mysterious barrier, Rune is also busy settling into his new life at court. Claiming his father’s throne has irrevocably thrown him into the precarious world of political deception, and he must secure relationships with newfound allies in time to keep his growing found family safe. His relationship with his lover, Addam Saint Nicholas, raises additional political complications they must navigate. But he and Brand soon discover that the power behind the barrier holds a much more insidious, far-reaching threat to his family, to his people, and to the world.
Now, the rulers of New Atlantis must confront an enemy both new and ancient as the flow of time itself is drawn into the conflict. And as Rune finds himself inexorably drawn back to the fall of his father’s court and his own torture at the hands of masked conspirators, the secrets that he has long guarded will be dragged into the light—changing the Sun Throne, and New Atlantis, forever.
The climax of the first trilogy in the nine-book Tarot Sequence, The Hourglass Throne delivers epic urban fantasy that blends humor, fast-paced action, and political intrigue.
IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! The finale of the first trilogy of The Tarot Sequence more than sticks the landing; it’s everything all of us could possibly hope for. If you loved the previous books, you have to read this one – and if you haven’t read this series yet, what on earth are you waiting for?!
Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien, Kat Weaver Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Lesbian MC, gay Jewish MC
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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A Champagne Gothic!
Three days after I was expelled from the Marable School for Girls, our poor Simon arrived.
In the 1920s gothic comedy Uncommon Charm, bright young socialite Julia and shy Jewish magician Simon decide they aren't beholden to their families' unhappy history. Together they confront such horrors as murdered ghosts, alive children, magic philosophy, a milieu that slides far too easily into surrealist metaphor, and, worst of all, serious adult conversation.
I’ve been looking forward to this one since I heard about it, and I’m so excited that it’s almost here!
Let the Mountains Be My Grave by Francesca Tacchi Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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Let the Mountains Be My Grave unfolds at breakneck pace in 1944 Italy, where partisan Veleno thinks of nothing but killing as many Nazis as he can before leaving this world. Beloved by the ancient Italic goddess Angitia, Veleno is the perfect person to recover a strange weapon the Nazis are planning to use against the Allies in the battle of Montecassino, but doing so may force him to confront his death differently than he expects.
Advanced praise for Let the Mountains Be My Grave:
“A touching story about finding hope in times of war and desolation, with a fascinating take on the survival of pagan magic.”—Xiran Jay Zhao, author of Iron Widow
“If you liked Inglorious Basterds but wish there was more kissing and ancient theology, this is the book for you!”—R.J. Theodore, author of Flotsam and Salvage
“A novella that reads like a shot of adrenaline, Let the Mountains Be My Grave is an explosive, high-octane queer Nazi-fighting fantasy packed with tightly-paced action, ancient Gods, and unexpected allies.” —Anya Ow, author of Cradle and Grave
“An intense and thrilling historical fantasy that combines bloody action, sharp character work, ancient gods, and a touch of romance.” —Charles Payseur, author of The Burning Day
Like Uncommon Charm, this is another novella from Neon Hemlock, and another book I very much expect to adore!
Begin the World Over by Kung Li Sun Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Gay Black MC, BIPOC cast, M/M
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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Begin the World Over is a fictional alternate history of how the Founders’ greatest fear—that Black and indigenous people might join forces to undo the newly formed United States—comes true.
In 1793, as revolutionaries in the West Indies take up arms, James Hemings, has little interest in joining the fight for liberté —talented and favored, he is careful to protect his relative comforts as Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved chef. But when he meets Denmark Vesey, James is immediately smitten. The formidable first mate persuades James to board his ship, on its way to the revolt in St. Domingue. There and on the mainland they join forces with a diverse cast of characters, including a gender nonconforming prophetess, a formerly enslaved jockey, and a Muskogee horse trader. The resulting adventure masterfully mixes real historical figures and events with a riotous retelling of a possible history in which James must decide whether to return to his constrained but composed former life, or join the coalition of Black revolutionaries and Muskogee resistance to fight the American slavers and settlers.
I got to read the first part of this and enjoyed it immensely, and I can’t wait to read the rest!
The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1) by Chelsea Abdullah Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Arabic cast & setting
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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Neither here nor there, but long ago…
Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.
With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.
Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, The Stardust Thief weaves the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.
I have to admit, this one didn’t work for me – it reads much more like YA than Adult Fantasy – but I know a lot of others are going to love it!
Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod, Jess Taylor Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MC, F/F
Published on: 17th May 2022
Goodreads
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It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars.
Taylor Barzelay has the perfect life. Good looks, good grades, a starting position on the basketball team, a loving family, even an adorable corgi. Every day in Taylor’s life is perfect. And every day is torture.
Taylor is actually the Galaxy Crowned, an alien princess from the planet Cyandii, and one of the few survivors of an intergalactic war. For six long, painful years, Taylor has accepted her duty to remain in hiding as a boy on Earth.
That all changes when Taylor meets Metropolis girl Katherine “call me Kat” Silverberg, whose confidence is electrifying. Suddenly, Taylor no longer wants to hide, even if exposing her true identity could attract her greatest enemies. From the charming and brilliant mind behind the popular podcast The Voice of Free Planet X, Jadzia Axelrod, and with stunningly colorful artwork by Jess Taylor comes the story of a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star.
I don’t read a lot of comics, but this one hits pretty close to home – definitely going to check it out!
Darknesses (Darknesses #1) by Lachelle Seville Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, Black love interest, F/F
Published on: 19th May 2022
Goodreads
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It’s been a year since Oasis stumbled away from Blessed Falls with wings carved into her back and too many scars to count.
A year spent razing delusions of being an angel's vessel, proving to her brother that she doesn’t belong in a psych ward, and mourning the loss of her mother's vinyl pressed ashes.
A year spent struggling to feel human again.
Enter Laura, the mesmerizing stranger who claims to hear Oasis’ heartbeat, who reads her hand-written memoir like scripture, who makes her feel closer to found than lost.
Laura is the most recent face of the eternal Count Dracula, ruler of the shadows, chimera of the Devil, and embittered victim of libel.
The Van Helsing Institute have been waiting for a glimpse of the dragon’s underbelly, and eagerly approach Oasis for her help in a ploy to kill Dracula for good. But not every wound from Blessed Falls has cicatrized, and Oasis realizes she may be a danger to Laura—and to herself.
Yet no one is as dangerous as Laura—the first vampire, the Devil's plaything, and the person with whom Oasis finally feels human.
Oceans of time have passed since she last had a drink, and she will not let Oasis go easily.
I’ve been so looking forward to this one! The excerpt makes me think of Twilight, but grown-up and queer and dark. In other words, freaking awesome.
Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #86 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 15, 2022
Sunday Soupçons #11
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!
This week’s mini-review is – gasp! – not SFF! But I do have a soft spot for contemporary foodie romances – especially queer ones! – which this was!
Chef's Kiss by T.J. Alexander Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, nonbinary love interest, F/NB
ISBN: B09JPJNZ4P
Goodreads
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A high-strung pastry chef’s professional goals are interrupted by an unexpected career transition and the introduction of her wildly attractive nonbinary kitchen manager in this deliciously fresh and witty queer rom-com.
Simone Larkspur is a perfectionist pastry expert with a dream job at The Discerning Chef, a venerable cookbook publisher in New York City. All she wants to do is create the perfect loaf of sourdough and develop recipes, but when The Discerning Chef decides to bring their brand into the 21st century by pivoting to video, Simone is thrust into the spotlight and finds herself failing at something for the first time in her life.
To make matters worse, Simone has to deal with Ray Lyton, the new test kitchen manager, whose obnoxious cheer and outgoing personality are like oil to Simone’s water. When Ray accidentally becomes a viral YouTube sensation with a series of homebrewing videos, their eccentric editor in chief forces Simone to work alongside the chipper upstart or else risk her beloved job. But the more they work together, the more Simone realizes her heart may be softening like butter for Ray.
Things get even more complicated when Ray comes out at work as nonbinary to mixed reactions—and Simone must choose between the career she fought so hard for and the person who just might take the cake (and her heart).
Chef’s Kiss was a lot of fun for the first half, but the second half turned into an Issues Book. Which in hindsight I should have seen coming – it’s sort of hinted at in the blurb – but it was a downer. The romance was really sweet, and there was a ton of fun and giggles, but I was definitely not looking for an Issues Book.
Like, I see the need for Issues Books, they’re important. And I think Alexander did a good job of balancing the fun with the serious; Chef’s Kiss isn’t preachy. I just didn’t want to read about all the queerphobia poor Ray had to deal with. I like contemporary romance for the escapism; I really don’t want to be reminded of how awful the world can be when I’m reading something for fun.
All that said, this was really readable, and I did enjoy myself a lot. The romance was so cute! The banter was great, the dynamics really worked, and I laughed a lot. Definitely not a bad book by any means.
What have you been reading this week?
The post Sunday Soupçons #11 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 14, 2022
Breathlessly Beautiful: A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.com
A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown cast, gay MC, bisexual/demisexual autistic-coded MC, secondary pansexual character, secondary asexual nonbinary character, tertiary nonbinary characters, queernorm world
PoV: 3rd Person, Past Tense, dual PoVs
Published on: 30th August 2022
ISBN: 1250800404
Goodreads
“A delicious tangle of romance, fealty, and dangerous politics.”—Tasha Suri
The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.
Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.
To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.
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 kneeling
~and hair-washing
~dude is not the babydaddy
~a love, and service, out of legend
When I was a teenager and had no income of my own, upon turning the last page of a book I loved I would immediately go back to the first and start a second read. I haven’t done that in years, especially since I became a Proper Book Reviewer with ARCs to read (which come with deadlines), but – A Taste of Gold and Iron is a book I immediately want to reread.
This is a lush, sumptuous, ornate story full of desire and yearning; poignant, breathtaking, and utterly gorgeous. A Taste of Gold and Iron doesn’t just live up to its stunning cover, but actually outshines it.
(I know. Have you seen that cover?! I know. But it’s true! This book keeps all of its cover’s promises and then some!)
Kadou is a beautiful prince whose life, viewed from the outside, looks perfect. Under the surface, however, he suffers from what modern readers will immediately recognise as clinical anxiety and panic attacks, and a dread of confrontation – or accidentally doing harm – that makes him immensely sympathetic, even if he wasn’t also compassionate, honourable, and fiercely protective of his people (and he very much is). He considers his anxiety to be cowardice – which is a believable but incredibly sad interpretation in a setting that lacks our modern understanding of mental health – but he’s got to be one of the bravest characters I’ve ever seen.
Evemer is one of the khaya, an elite force who serve the royal family in all kinds of capacities before, often, graduating to government posts – and Evemer is the elite of the elite. He’s a perfectionist, rigidly adhering not just to the letter of the rules but their spirit too, upright and uptight and Unamused. After the prince is involved in a devastating scandal, Evemer is assigned to Kadou – of whom he does not approve at all.
Kadou can tell. It’s not fun.
And yet…and yet, these two slowly come together, like twin stars being drawn into each other’s orbits. What starts as ashamed misery from Kadou and simmering contempt from Evemer becomes, via Rowland’s masterful literary alchemy, something impossibly rich and shining; lead into gold, and we don’t need Kadou’s touch-taste magic to tell us how it tastes.
What surprised and delighted me was how (legitimately) complicated Rowland made it, and how long it took for Evemer and Kadou to get there; this is the slowest of slow-burns, soft and lush and thick with queer yearning. Reading A Taste of Gold and Iron was a little like watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly; an impossibly slow, yet inexorable, transformation. And knowing it’s going to happen does not make it any less marvellous – or hypnotising. Watching Evemer’s slow dissolution into flame, magma moving beneath that icy-perfect surface, discovering his own longing and desire, his capability for desire…learning the starry-eyed ideals locked away in his heart, how badly he wants a relationship of khaya to prince like those in the legends and epic poems… Or: watching Kadou reveal himself, piece by piece, layers drifting to the floor like silks…discovering for ourselves the strength he doesn’t believe he has, the strong iron core beneath the soft gold… And the two of them circling each other? Coming closer, working together, defending each other?
As if his very heart wasn’t lashed to Kadou like a ship to the compass star.
It sizzles, is what I’m saying here. The hair-washing scene! Good gods, I had to find a fan to cool myself down. And it’s all emotional – there’s nothing wrong with packing your book full of sex scenes if you like, but I can’t deny being more impressed by an author who manages to have a scene shimmering with intensity when absolutely nothing overtly sexual is happening. When it’s all honour and longing and being so deeply moved by another person’s gesture that you don’t know what to do with yourself.
Kadou’s whole body was comitting treason against him now.
Just. Wow.
Evemer had been trying very, very hard not to think about it. He would allow himself three minutes of thinking about it later, when he was alone with a locked door and his hands firmly clenched on his knees, and then he would definitively never think of it again.
Rowland expertly balances plot with introspection, with the result that A Taste of Gold and Iron feels like an impossible indulgence, a delicious, not-guilty-in-the-slightest secret, diving deep into their characters’ characters to languidly plumb their depths in ways that most stories seem to believe they’re not allowed to. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who was looking for breakneck-speed action, but nor would I be willing to give up a single scene in this book as ‘unnecessary’. There’s so much that would be cut – or be impossible to reproduce – were A Taste of Gold and Iron to become a film, but this book is the embodiment of everything we want out of fanfiction – the emotion and human moments popular media rarely gives us, and that fans thus write for themselves. But there’s no need for fanfiction here (although I’ll be delighted to read any that gets written), because this book skips that part of the process entirely and just gives us all the emotion and human moments we could possibly want direct from the source – and the result is exquisite.
You’re a godsend. Those words from Kadou that first day at the Shipbuilder’s Guild, the prince glittering on his horse, had swept through Evemer’s soul like a breath of unexpected wind and lit a glow in his heart like a single star on a cloudy night. These words now, Who else can I trust, lit him up like a dozen stars.
I’d also like to take a moment to mention the representation, because besides none of the cast being white, as someone on the spectrum myself I read Evemer as also being somewhere on the autism spectrum – the adherence to rules, the tendency to take things literally, counting things to calm himself down, etc. It would also be easy to read him as demisexual. And then we have casual pansexual and asexual rep on-page, a handful of nonbinary characters, and Kadou’s anxiety and panic attacks, and it’s just – it all adds so much more depth to the story and these characters. And makes me, personally, so happy.
Ultimately? Rowland keeps us hooked with gorgeous prose and an immensely loveable cast of characters; with fabulous jewellery and lovingly described clothing; with personal confrontations and political intrigue; with flashes of unexpected humour and intricate, skillful worldbuilding; and with these two men, their rich inner lives, and the relationship that forms between them. There’s something to adore on every page.
If by some anti-miracle you don’t have this preordered yet, preorder it immediately!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reread all my favourite passages again.
The post Breathlessly Beautiful: A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
May 12, 2022
A Paragon of Epic Fantasy: King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott
tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.com
King's Dragon (Crown of Stars, #1) by Kate Elliott Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Representation: Brown MC
PoV: Third Person, Past Tense, Multiple PoVs
ISBN: 0886777712
Goodreads
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The Kingdom of Wendar is in turmoil. King Henry still holds the crown, but his reign has long been contested by his sister Sabella, and there are many eager to flock to her banner. Internal conflict weakens Wendar's defences, drawing raiders, human and inhuman, across its borders. Terrifying portents abound and dark spirits walk the land in broad daylight.
Suddenly two innocents are thrust into the midst of the conflict. Alain, a young man granted a vision by the Lady of Battles, and Liath, a young woman with the power to change the course of history. Both must discover the truth about themselves before they can accept their fates. For in a war where sorcery, not swords, may determine the final outcome, the price of failure may be more than their own lives.
~matriarchal Europe
~a literal Book of Secrets
~humanoid dragons
~circle > cross
~be very afraid of the dogs
Sometimes a story – and storyteller – doesn’t have to create something wholly new to be groundbreaking. Sometimes you can create something truly special by leaning in to the conventions and cliches and breathing new life into the tried-and-true(-and-tired).
And that’s exactly what Kate Elliott did in her seven-volume Crown of Stars series (completed in 2006, averaging at about 650 pages per book). It may look like the most cliched of old-school fantasy – a Medieval Europe-esque setting, with castles and kings and a Christianity stand-in – but that’s just Elliott tricking you into letting your guard down.
So if the idea of the traditional and expected bores you…don’t turn away just yet. King’s Dragon might be camouflaged to blend in with the other epic fantasies of the 90s, but I promise: it is a very different animal!
I think that was intentional. I think Kate Elliott decided, deliberately, to take on the traditions of the genre and beat the all-male superstars at their own game.
And I think she’s succeeded.
The WorldbuildingLet’s start with the setting. King’s Dragon is set in an analogue of Medieval Europe which, at first glance, looks exactly how we expect Epic Fantasy to look – see aforementioned kings, castles, and Christianity. If anything, it’s more accurately Medieval than most books, because it’s clear Elliott has done a ton of research into every possible detail, from etiquette to clothing to food to the level of technology and scholarship – and all of it has been worked beautifully into the intricate story. But it all looks reasonably familiar.
Until suddenly, it really, really doesn’t.
Remember that Christianity-analogue I mentioned? The religion of Wendar and Varre (conjoined kingdoms under the rule of a single king, and not completely happy about it) is that of the Unities, which has priests and bishops (‘biscops’) and a holy saviour who preached the Word and was raised to Heaven (‘the Chamber of Light’). Younger children of noble families are given to the Church, as are freeborn children whose families can’t provide for them. There are saints, martyrs, even a pope (here called the ‘skopos’). The language of the Church is Dariyan, aka Latin, the language of the largest empire ever extant in the known world. There is a great deal of talk of submitting to the hierarchy of society, because God is the one who put that in place; of submitting to God and God’s will; the divine right of the monarchy; of holy virtues, sacrilege, and sin.
But.
In Christianity, God is not actually male, but beyond the confines of gender. Go back to the Hebrew Torah, and in some instances the word for God is actually the plural form. I can only presume that Elliott knows this too, because she took the idea and ran with it: the word ‘God’, in the world of King’s Dragon, is a plural. So instead of saying ‘God has blessed you’, a person instead says ‘God have blessed you’, because here, God is both Lord and Lady.
That might not immediately strike you as a big deal. In another book, in the hands of a lesser writer, maybe it wouldn’t be. Here, it changes everything. Here, the fact that the Lady rules the hearth has been interpreted to mean that it is women who own property, learn the trades of their mothers, and rule the home or estate. Men marry into their wife’s family and, since the Lord wields the sword, those from noble or richer families train for war – and that’s kind of it. Women are considered the stronger sex, revered for their ability to give birth (there is nonbinary rep later in the series, but it’s quite a few books away from King’s Dragon), and considered better suited to all things intellectual. So Wendar and Varre share a society that definitely skews to the matriarchal end of the spectrum – although it’s a fair bit more complicated than that, as any real-life society would be. Men are certainly not oppressed to the point that women were in our world’s history, for example, nor in the same kind of ways. Wendar and Varre are ruled by a king, and we meet plenty of men who hold a great deal of wealth, political power, or both.
…Though granted, now I think about it, they’re mostly men without wives.
Anyway HI, I AM COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH ALL THIS WORLDBUILDING!
To say nothing of all the kinds of Easter eggs scattered throughout the text for armchair Classical scholars; for instance, the word ‘skopos’ is Greek, but ‘biscop’ comes from Old English. Whereas in our world Virgil wrote the Aeneid, in Elliot’s world Virgilia instead penned the Heleniad – which personally I would love to read.
I’m sure there’s plenty more I didn’t pick up on, but the ones I did absolutely delighted me.
The StoryIt’s actually quite difficult to try and sum up the plot of King’s Dragon, because there are so many threads. In the simplest possible terms, the book is more or less split between Liath – a dark-skinned young woman whose father has given her some little training in forbidden sorcery – and Alain, a young man promised to the Church even though all he wants is to travel and have adventures. There are several more POV characters (the book is written in third person) but I suppose you could call Liath and Alain the main ones. Liath’s father is murdered by sorcery and she is made slave to the horrific (and horrifically beautiful) Father Hugh, while Alain is kept from taking the vows of the Church by no less than an apparition of the Lady of Battles, who makes it clear that she has her own plans for him. This all takes place alongside an invasion by the Eika, terrible dragon-humanoid creatures who are more complicated than they at first seem (no ravening orc hordes here, however much they appear to be mindless monsters at first), and a battle for succession between the two legitimate daughters of King Henry. The eldest daughter is a spoilt brat with no head for ruling, but the younger is cold and not well-liked – and all are aware that their father favours their illegitimate older brother over both of them.
Even though Sanglant, the illegitimate prince in question, has no interest in ruling anything but the King’s Dragons, the elite cavalry force of the kingdom.
Complicated? You have no idea. The succession laws of the kingdom state that no prince or princess can inherit until they have had their year’s Progress, during which they must either fall pregnant or sire a healthy child to prove their fertility. This is one of the few areas where I feel that the worldbuilding is skewed in men’s favour, since it’s obviously harder to become pregnant than impregnate someone else, meaning men have a better chance of succeeding in their Progress than women do. Which is plot-relevant: King Henry’s elder sister Sabella failed to become pregnant during her Progress, whereas Henry sired Sanglant – but Sabella has had children since, proving that she’s fertile and therefore, by some arguments, the rightful Queen. And Sabella is intent on claiming the throne – which would mean civil war.
Then there’s the complication of Sanglant himself. In the prologue of King’s Dragon, we learn that not only was Sanglant’s mother Aoi – think of them as elves who live in a realm not accessible to humans, although in later books it becomes apparent that they are in fact AZTEC-INSPIRED elves, which is so many levels of awesome I cannot even – anyway, not only was Sanglant’s mother Aoi, but confusingly, she considered his conception and birth a chore, and is eager to be gone the moment his infant self can survive without her. This probably has something to do with the casual prophecy – or maybe declaration – that she makes about him; that no disease or creature male or female will be able to kill him.
HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
There is foreshadowing for sure, but King’s Dragon – in fact, the first few books of the series – is more High Fantasy (concerned with the fate of kingdoms) than Epic Fantasy (concerned with the fate of the world). Corrupt biscops are working dark magic, unearthly creatures are hunting for Liath and her father’s book, a goddess of war is watching over Alain, but the reasons behind these things are, as yet, unexplained. The much more immediate issues of civil war and the invasion of the Eika take centre stage, and I admit, sometimes that made me impatient – I wanted the bigger picture, the Epic story rather than the High one. But a) Elliott’s prose is dense and rich and easy to get happily lost in, and b) it does make the whole story feel more believable, more real, more human, to focus in on the small picture first. Perhaps the Epic plotlines – which in fairness are being seeded already in this book – wouldn’t have as much impact if we didn’t have the background context, if we didn’t know all the players before we came to that part of the game. And it does put a very particular kind of twist in the reader’s stomach; knowing you don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle, but you have enough to be worried – especially since the characters themselves are completely unaware of what’s coming down the pipe. Sometimes it gets a little hard to breathe, seeing them all go about their lives unaware of the guillotine hanging over them.
As one final point about the plot, I do feel the need to mention that Liath is sold as a slave during this book, and forced to sleep with the man who bought her in order to survive. It’s not graphic, it happens off-page, but it is still incredibly hard to read, and the emotional, psychological repercussions do not end with King’s Dragon. It’s one plot-thread that always makes me feel sick – as I’m sure it’s supposed to.
All in AllThis is a game-changing Epic (High?) Fantasy that not enough people seem to know about, with incredible worldbuilding, characters who feel so real they practically leap off the page, and truly delicious subversions of so many traditional tropes and cliches. I am not sorry to be in love with the fact that most of the characters are women, or the fact that I adore this matriarchal take on Medieval Europe. Seven 600-page volumes seems like it just might be enough to cover all of the awesome Elliott has poured into this world – but somehow, I suspect I’m still going to be left wanting more.
If subversive, matriarchal Epic Fantasy sounds like your thing? Then this is the book (and series!) you need to read.
The post A Paragon of Epic Fantasy: King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
