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Susurrus
A darkly romantic story of love, suffering, and magic.
No evil sorceress is born evil.
Iskra wants magic and a home, but her magic keeps killing the people she loves. Just when happiness is finally with in her grasp, another wizard intervenes. Now, she needs to choose: rebuild her life again, or channel her destructive power into bloody revenge.
No evil sorceress is born evil.
Iskra wants magic and a home, but her magic keeps killing the people she loves. Just when happiness is finally with in her grasp, another wizard intervenes. Now, she needs to choose: rebuild her life again, or channel her destructive power into bloody revenge.
- GenresFantasy
314 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
About the author
B. Morris Allen
165 books26 followersB. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and frequently wonders whether it's time for a new career. He's been traveling since birth, and has lived on five continents. When he can, he makes his home on the Oregon coast. In between journeys, he edits Metaphorosis magazine, and works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. His dark fantasy novel Susurrus came out in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 17, 2017
I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.
I have to say I did not like the way this was written.
It was over descriptive, which in turn made the book over long.
Not for me.
I have to say I did not like the way this was written.
It was over descriptive, which in turn made the book over long.
Not for me.
July 19, 2017
-I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Susurrus, by B. Morris Allen, is a touching epic that illustrates the harsh realities of life, as well as the beautiful follies of reality, as a sorceress strives to find happiness despite the destruction that follows her.
Iskra was a young girl who was orphaned when her father died from starvation. She was found by Neris, a peddler who had cared for her and unwittingly became a second father to her. As her journey throughout the book continues, she learns about the different types of magic, as well as the tragedies that are associated with them. From bloody promises to ill-conceived gales, in the end all Iskra felt she could do was watch the world continue on without her. But despite that, she manages to continue living, carrying the memories of her precious loved ones with her.
Allen masterfully executes how risky magic can be, and that no matter how tempting it may seem, there’s no room for naiveté. Iskra has tried over and over again to protect her friends, but in the end is only able to save herself, sometimes accidentally, sometimes unwillingly. Initially, she could only continue cursing herself, but eventually she manages to find her way back to the feelings she had way back to when the prospect of magic was still so new to her, and when everything seemed so simple at the time. What captured my heart the most was how Iskra began as a young slate, and was continually shaped by the people around her, the hopes and dreams she had, alongside the bloodshed she caused.
What I also loved about the story was Iskra’s character development, as she deals with the blissful ignorance of youth. Throughout the book, I saw just how much she changed, as she went on meeting friends and lovers. Though she tries to seek out her power for her own happiness, she learns that, in the end, it was the lessons of her loved ones that finally made her content. Though the ending was a bit bittersweet, it was nevertheless appropriate.
Because of this, I give this book a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Iskra’s use of magic at the beginning was, at best, like the Faustian contracts that are so very prevalent in our culture. She achieves a powerful skill, but because she doesn’t know how to use that skill, she can only watch her loved ones die. And yet, even then she still could carve out a place in the world for her to being to. I would, thus, recommend this book for fans of George R.R. Martin and Steven Erikson.
Susurrus, by B. Morris Allen, is a touching epic that illustrates the harsh realities of life, as well as the beautiful follies of reality, as a sorceress strives to find happiness despite the destruction that follows her.
Iskra was a young girl who was orphaned when her father died from starvation. She was found by Neris, a peddler who had cared for her and unwittingly became a second father to her. As her journey throughout the book continues, she learns about the different types of magic, as well as the tragedies that are associated with them. From bloody promises to ill-conceived gales, in the end all Iskra felt she could do was watch the world continue on without her. But despite that, she manages to continue living, carrying the memories of her precious loved ones with her.
Allen masterfully executes how risky magic can be, and that no matter how tempting it may seem, there’s no room for naiveté. Iskra has tried over and over again to protect her friends, but in the end is only able to save herself, sometimes accidentally, sometimes unwillingly. Initially, she could only continue cursing herself, but eventually she manages to find her way back to the feelings she had way back to when the prospect of magic was still so new to her, and when everything seemed so simple at the time. What captured my heart the most was how Iskra began as a young slate, and was continually shaped by the people around her, the hopes and dreams she had, alongside the bloodshed she caused.
What I also loved about the story was Iskra’s character development, as she deals with the blissful ignorance of youth. Throughout the book, I saw just how much she changed, as she went on meeting friends and lovers. Though she tries to seek out her power for her own happiness, she learns that, in the end, it was the lessons of her loved ones that finally made her content. Though the ending was a bit bittersweet, it was nevertheless appropriate.
Because of this, I give this book a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Iskra’s use of magic at the beginning was, at best, like the Faustian contracts that are so very prevalent in our culture. She achieves a powerful skill, but because she doesn’t know how to use that skill, she can only watch her loved ones die. And yet, even then she still could carve out a place in the world for her to being to. I would, thus, recommend this book for fans of George R.R. Martin and Steven Erikson.
August 1, 2017
I received this Advanced Readers Edition in exchange for an honest review.
Let me start by saying, oh Lordy, was this ever a long book! Over 600 pages!! And unfortunately, it felt just as long (if not longer!) than the page numbers lead one to believe. I have to give the author credit, his writing is very good. It's descriptive enough to really give the reader a sense of exactly what he is talking about, but on the flip side, there was a lot of unnecessary description that just prolonged the book further and offered no real merit to the story.
My first misgiving with Susurrus was that by the time I had read the first 50 pages, I realized that I was really no further ahead in the story. All that had really happened was that Iskra's father died and she was walking somewhere with a magician. And it was a very detailed walk, much more so than the death of her father. At least a couple chapters worth. It was excessive which made for a dry read, and I had to force myself to keep reading because at some point they had to reach their destination and then something interesting was bound to happen......right?
Wrong. They reached their destination and from there everything happened so quickly I was overwhelmed and had to take a break from reading. Literally. I went a whole day without reading anything to try to orient myself with the new direction of the book. When I got back to it, there were many times that I had to pause or reread what I had already read, in an attempt to try to catch myself up to yet another new climate. There were may times that Iskra had life changing cliff hangers and in the next paragraph (within the same chapter) her life would be completely different and time had advanced months/years. It was very disorienting to read.
The one thing that I really enjoyed about the book was the setting. I was intrigued by the idea of a magical world that had different types of magic in every city. It was interesting to read about them and to find out who could possess them and how they worked. It was an interesting draw back for each place that their types of magic only extended as far as their city's borders. It was also interesting to me to see how Iskra could hold each places magic in her to call upon whenever she wanted, although I never quite understood why she was the only one to harness this type of power; it was mildly entertaining to see how she could put each place's magic into use for her own design.
To read my whole review please go to https://opinionatedbw.blogspot.ca/
Let me start by saying, oh Lordy, was this ever a long book! Over 600 pages!! And unfortunately, it felt just as long (if not longer!) than the page numbers lead one to believe. I have to give the author credit, his writing is very good. It's descriptive enough to really give the reader a sense of exactly what he is talking about, but on the flip side, there was a lot of unnecessary description that just prolonged the book further and offered no real merit to the story.
My first misgiving with Susurrus was that by the time I had read the first 50 pages, I realized that I was really no further ahead in the story. All that had really happened was that Iskra's father died and she was walking somewhere with a magician. And it was a very detailed walk, much more so than the death of her father. At least a couple chapters worth. It was excessive which made for a dry read, and I had to force myself to keep reading because at some point they had to reach their destination and then something interesting was bound to happen......right?
Wrong. They reached their destination and from there everything happened so quickly I was overwhelmed and had to take a break from reading. Literally. I went a whole day without reading anything to try to orient myself with the new direction of the book. When I got back to it, there were many times that I had to pause or reread what I had already read, in an attempt to try to catch myself up to yet another new climate. There were may times that Iskra had life changing cliff hangers and in the next paragraph (within the same chapter) her life would be completely different and time had advanced months/years. It was very disorienting to read.
The one thing that I really enjoyed about the book was the setting. I was intrigued by the idea of a magical world that had different types of magic in every city. It was interesting to read about them and to find out who could possess them and how they worked. It was an interesting draw back for each place that their types of magic only extended as far as their city's borders. It was also interesting to me to see how Iskra could hold each places magic in her to call upon whenever she wanted, although I never quite understood why she was the only one to harness this type of power; it was mildly entertaining to see how she could put each place's magic into use for her own design.
To read my whole review please go to https://opinionatedbw.blogspot.ca/
September 24, 2017
Susurrus:
* a whispering, murmuring or rustling sound. —Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
* a darkly fantastic story of magic, love, and suffering. —Susurrus by B. Morris Allen
Last week I visited several of the ancient stone circles that dot the Highlands of Scotland. One thing many had in common were special stones representing the pivotal roles of maiden/mother/crone. Ancient people knew—as we sometimes forget—that these roles were the glue that identified and ultimately protected their little communities against a frequently baffling and dangerous world. When we visited the stone circle called Easter Aquhorthies near Inverurie, we saw that one stone had elements of all three aspects: it was triangular (maiden), reddish (mother) and weathered (crone). I couldn’t help thinking of Susurrus, in which narrator Iskra comes to embody all three elements.
In his new novel Susurrus, author B. Morris Allen shows us the path taken by one woman as she moves through these roles in search of the most elusive magic of all—love and peace. When we meet her, Iskra is a tiny child barely scraping out a living with her sick father. When he dies, she sets out on a journey that is to take many lifetimes and change a world. At first, she travels with Neris, an itinerant peddler who becomes her second father. He asks what she wants. Although she can’t pronounce the word sorceress, she knows her goal.
[QUOTE] “I want to learn magic,” she answered. For he was part magician, and Father had told her stories of magic and its uses. “I want to be a soserrus.”
“A susurrus?” he asked, deliberately misunderstanding. “Not a creak? Not a thunder? Not a babble?” [END QUOTE]
But Neris tells her he doesn’t do magic, although he teaches her some sleight-of-hand tricks. Eventually, he brings her to his lover Frando, whose powerful wife Kiya has amassed the local birth magic. Kiya plans to use Iskra to produce babies, and eventually, harvest magic from their birth. Settling reluctantly into the relative safety of Kiya’s palace, Iskra realizes Neris has done his best for her.
[QUOTE]“That home was what you made it, and you made it from love. And in teaching her that lesson, he had taught her to do magic after all.” [END QUOTE]
But when she hears that Neris is near death, a pregnant Iskra forces Nando to buy her freedom and she races to try to save him. She harvests the magic as she gives birth, but it results in tragedy. As she moves through her life, Iskra accumulates different forms of magic in her search for purpose and love. She encompases the maiden looking for lover, the mother renewing life through birth magic, the eternally-young crone. But the magic inevitably turns on her, even as it builds her power. Each place Iskra goes has a different magical lesson to teach her, but each is a reminder that she doesn’t yet know what she really needs.
I love a character-driven tale, and Iskra’s life is just that. The world-building is breathtaking, the writing is sparely elegant, and the pace has the deliberate march of an epic. But this is a dark epic, a story of lost love and opportunity for happiness, a Gulliver forever looking for a way home. Iskra’s life journey moves onto an epic stage, but at the end she isn’t the Goddess or even the Empress. She’s the embodiment of the maiden, the mother, the crone. She’s a woman. And her story is magic.
* a whispering, murmuring or rustling sound. —Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
* a darkly fantastic story of magic, love, and suffering. —Susurrus by B. Morris Allen
Last week I visited several of the ancient stone circles that dot the Highlands of Scotland. One thing many had in common were special stones representing the pivotal roles of maiden/mother/crone. Ancient people knew—as we sometimes forget—that these roles were the glue that identified and ultimately protected their little communities against a frequently baffling and dangerous world. When we visited the stone circle called Easter Aquhorthies near Inverurie, we saw that one stone had elements of all three aspects: it was triangular (maiden), reddish (mother) and weathered (crone). I couldn’t help thinking of Susurrus, in which narrator Iskra comes to embody all three elements.
In his new novel Susurrus, author B. Morris Allen shows us the path taken by one woman as she moves through these roles in search of the most elusive magic of all—love and peace. When we meet her, Iskra is a tiny child barely scraping out a living with her sick father. When he dies, she sets out on a journey that is to take many lifetimes and change a world. At first, she travels with Neris, an itinerant peddler who becomes her second father. He asks what she wants. Although she can’t pronounce the word sorceress, she knows her goal.
[QUOTE] “I want to learn magic,” she answered. For he was part magician, and Father had told her stories of magic and its uses. “I want to be a soserrus.”
“A susurrus?” he asked, deliberately misunderstanding. “Not a creak? Not a thunder? Not a babble?” [END QUOTE]
But Neris tells her he doesn’t do magic, although he teaches her some sleight-of-hand tricks. Eventually, he brings her to his lover Frando, whose powerful wife Kiya has amassed the local birth magic. Kiya plans to use Iskra to produce babies, and eventually, harvest magic from their birth. Settling reluctantly into the relative safety of Kiya’s palace, Iskra realizes Neris has done his best for her.
[QUOTE]“That home was what you made it, and you made it from love. And in teaching her that lesson, he had taught her to do magic after all.” [END QUOTE]
But when she hears that Neris is near death, a pregnant Iskra forces Nando to buy her freedom and she races to try to save him. She harvests the magic as she gives birth, but it results in tragedy. As she moves through her life, Iskra accumulates different forms of magic in her search for purpose and love. She encompases the maiden looking for lover, the mother renewing life through birth magic, the eternally-young crone. But the magic inevitably turns on her, even as it builds her power. Each place Iskra goes has a different magical lesson to teach her, but each is a reminder that she doesn’t yet know what she really needs.
I love a character-driven tale, and Iskra’s life is just that. The world-building is breathtaking, the writing is sparely elegant, and the pace has the deliberate march of an epic. But this is a dark epic, a story of lost love and opportunity for happiness, a Gulliver forever looking for a way home. Iskra’s life journey moves onto an epic stage, but at the end she isn’t the Goddess or even the Empress. She’s the embodiment of the maiden, the mother, the crone. She’s a woman. And her story is magic.
October 6, 2017
Susurrus is the story of an orphaned girl who wants nothing more than magic and a home. But when the magic doesn’t do what she wants and instead kills the people she loves, Iskra turns her back on the possibility of love. Unable to find a place for herself and yet forced to continue living, Iskra travels all over the world learning magic and living multiples lives, all of which ultimately end in misery.
I found this book a bit long and miserable, but with an overall good story. It is well written and descriptive, with some fun and exciting parts to temper the general misery. It is certainly not a happy read, but each new life Iskra leads is interesting and unique. Each life acts as a different section of the book, making it very easy to read in chunks, which is good because it would be a difficult book to get through in one or two sittings. Some parts are more fun to read than others (my favourite is her time with Tana and Snuggles), but all do add an important layer to the story.
There are a lot of different characters throughout the story, but Iskra is the only constant and most of the other characters are quite forgettable and unimportant. Iskra herself is a difficult character, because as the story progresses she becomes more self-centred and less likeable. Although this is a significant feature of the plot, it did make the book less enjoyable as it went on because I had no sympathy or connection with the main character. I particularly struggled with the way she blamed magic for all the unhappiness in her life, when actually the cause was usually her own selfishness or simple bad luck.
If Iskra had been more likeable during the start of the book, I may have got on better with it when she becomes more closed off. As it is, I would much rather to have gotten to know more about characters like Neris the peddler. Also, there was a weird amount of sex in the story. The sex is not graphic, detailed, or even particularly unnecessary, and it all fits into the story in different ways, but it was unexpected and just something to be aware of.
Overall, Susurrus is quite an average fantasy adventure. A solid, middling, 3*.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book a bit long and miserable, but with an overall good story. It is well written and descriptive, with some fun and exciting parts to temper the general misery. It is certainly not a happy read, but each new life Iskra leads is interesting and unique. Each life acts as a different section of the book, making it very easy to read in chunks, which is good because it would be a difficult book to get through in one or two sittings. Some parts are more fun to read than others (my favourite is her time with Tana and Snuggles), but all do add an important layer to the story.
There are a lot of different characters throughout the story, but Iskra is the only constant and most of the other characters are quite forgettable and unimportant. Iskra herself is a difficult character, because as the story progresses she becomes more self-centred and less likeable. Although this is a significant feature of the plot, it did make the book less enjoyable as it went on because I had no sympathy or connection with the main character. I particularly struggled with the way she blamed magic for all the unhappiness in her life, when actually the cause was usually her own selfishness or simple bad luck.
If Iskra had been more likeable during the start of the book, I may have got on better with it when she becomes more closed off. As it is, I would much rather to have gotten to know more about characters like Neris the peddler. Also, there was a weird amount of sex in the story. The sex is not graphic, detailed, or even particularly unnecessary, and it all fits into the story in different ways, but it was unexpected and just something to be aware of.
Overall, Susurrus is quite an average fantasy adventure. A solid, middling, 3*.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
October 20, 2017
I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review. Thank you for giving me the chance to read it!
The book was well written. I found it very hard to like Iskra. I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoys magic books but this one just wasn't for me.
The book was well written. I found it very hard to like Iskra. I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoys magic books but this one just wasn't for me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews