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devirtualized's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Slavery, Gore, Blood, War, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Torture, Ableism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Infertility, Sexual content, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Animal death
courtlytea's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I bought a book at Supanova for a friend who couldn't be there, and received this free with the purchase. I'm so glad I kept it for myself because it blew my mind. It ticked all the boxes for me. An imaginative elemental magic system, thorough world-building, a suspenseful plot and meaty characters starring cool heroines, as well as the only fictional love triangle I've ever been sympathetic to – all described with evocative prose I savoured slowly.
Sierra is a heroine I loved. She's tenacious and doesn't want to hurt anyone but is prepared to reduce her adversaries to giblets if she has to, unleashing the raw power her talent raises sympathetically from others' pain and pleasure. The story opens with her fleeing from the Blood Mage Kell, the Queen's torturer who uses Sierra to generate power in his rituals.
She is pursued by the ruthless Rasten, Kell's tormented apprentice since his enslavement as a boy, who is only relieved from his master's torture when he is instructed to turn it on his victims. He is a dour and duplicitous spectre, lying in wait for the right time to turn on his master using Sierra's power. For most of the book he is a sly voice in Sierra's head, communicating through a connection forged by his rituals, that is in turns taunting, threatening, and coaxing her to return to Kell's dungeons with him.
Sierra's path crosses with Isidro, the only victim ever to survive Kell's torture through sheer luck, an honourable warrior now horribly crippled physically and emotionally. She was present when he was tortured and the two strangers quickly form a deep bond while on the run with Isidro's brother Cam and their friends, themselves evading capture by the evil Queen Valeria.
One hundred years since mages were hunted to extinction in Ricalan, Cam's party is taking a huge risk in harbouring Sierra in a land where magecraft is maligned and suppressed. The characters are forced to rely on unlikely allies to survive the harsh arctic environment and their relentless enemies, and this makes for great drama.
Isidro's torment wrung my nerves, and I really enjoyed the fraught dynamic between he and Delphine, a sassy scholar doing her best within the advanced barbarism of Akharian culture.
The author has an f'ed-up imagination and the traumas suffered by the characters were overwhelming at times. Spurrier deals in extremes of emotion: transcendent heights of power, horrifying agony, pitch black pits of despair, and desperate lust. It hurt so good. 10/10 would steal from my friends again.
Sierra is a heroine I loved. She's tenacious and doesn't want to hurt anyone but is prepared to reduce her adversaries to giblets if she has to, unleashing the raw power her talent raises sympathetically from others' pain and pleasure. The story opens with her fleeing from the Blood Mage Kell, the Queen's torturer who uses Sierra to generate power in his rituals.
She is pursued by the ruthless Rasten, Kell's tormented apprentice since his enslavement as a boy, who is only relieved from his master's torture when he is instructed to turn it on his victims. He is a dour and duplicitous spectre, lying in wait for the right time to turn on his master using Sierra's power. For most of the book he is a sly voice in Sierra's head, communicating through a connection forged by his rituals, that is in turns taunting, threatening, and coaxing her to return to Kell's dungeons with him.
Sierra's path crosses with Isidro, the only victim ever to survive Kell's torture through sheer luck, an honourable warrior now horribly crippled physically and emotionally. She was present when he was tortured and the two strangers quickly form a deep bond while on the run with Isidro's brother Cam and their friends, themselves evading capture by the evil Queen Valeria.
One hundred years since mages were hunted to extinction in Ricalan, Cam's party is taking a huge risk in harbouring Sierra in a land where magecraft is maligned and suppressed. The characters are forced to rely on unlikely allies to survive the harsh arctic environment and their relentless enemies, and this makes for great drama.
Isidro's torment wrung my nerves, and I really enjoyed the fraught dynamic between he and Delphine, a sassy scholar doing her best within the advanced barbarism of Akharian culture.
The author has an f'ed-up imagination and the traumas suffered by the characters were overwhelming at times. Spurrier deals in extremes of emotion: transcendent heights of power, horrifying agony, pitch black pits of despair, and desperate lust. It hurt so good. 10/10 would steal from my friends again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Slavery, Gore, and Blood
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