Review – A Touch of Light by Thiago Abdalla
First of all, congrats to Abdalla for becoming a SPFBO8 finalist! Not an easy accomplishment and one well earned.
A Touch of Light has been on my TBR for what feels like ages now – before being entered in the SPFBO8 contest- and I’m very excited to be able to say I finally got to it. The world this story takes place is fascinating; religions that either demonize or embrace death, a plague that turns people into mindless killers, and warring political factions across many nations. Plus gigantic griffins with riders (always a plus).
You can tell that Abdalla put a lot of love into the development of Avarin and the powers that control it. For me, the worldbuilding really shines in the intersection of power between politics and religion. Anyone who know my reading tastes knows that I love when religion is discussed as a source of control within a society instead of just a belief system and that is done wonderfully here. Convincing the masses to sacrifice or kill for the good of a higher power is a core part of human history (and present) so it’s fascinating to see it unfold on the page.
However, the pacing of the plot and character arcs felt a bit off to me. The style of this book is to give the reader piecemeal bites of information through the characters eyes as they move throughout the world. This can be a very effective storytelling technique and I understand why Abdalla chose this route, but for me these pieces were too slow to move/fall into place. To the point where the plot felt repetitive at times; I mostly felt this with Nasha’s chapters. I certainly don’t need all of the information in the first installment of a series, but a bit more groundwork would have been helpful for my reading experience.
Unfortunately, another side-effect of this style was that the characters felt more like avatars for the plot rather than people I could connect to and grieve for (aside from Lynn who I cared for deeply). As a character-based reader, this did dull the emotional impact of some revelatory scenes, but if you are more plot-driven I don’t think this will be an issue at all.
Overall, I blew through this read every time I sat down with it as I wanted to know what happened next and found the world captivating to be in. I am very much interested in continuing with the series and seeing how all the political threads are woven together with the plot twists revealed in the next installment.
3.5 stars (rounded up for GR)
Buy from Amazon
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