Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Four Profound Weaves

The Four Profound Weaves drops you into a world that normalizes queerness, polyamory, and genderfluidity amongst desert sands and nebulous magic systems, making an absolutely enchanting, intricate, and spellbinding tale. By having two elderly, transgender protagonists at the forefront, adventuring past their prime and asking questions about identity, transformation, and death, Lemberg expresses hope for different ways of being and inspires the courage to pursue them.

Despite how much passion and love this book was written with, the vague, lyrical prose did make it challenging to follow along initially. Additionally, the alternating perspectives seemed unnecessary, given how similarly both protagonists sounded, which added to the confusion. The Birdverse world is worth feeling lost for a bit though.

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jjjreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rorikae's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

'The Four Profound Weaves' by R.B. Lemberg is a thoughtful novella that follows two past friends as they attempt to rescue an item of value from an insidious collector.
Uiziya and the nameless man were acquaintances once upon a time and they reconnect as Uiziya seeks to learn the four profound weaves from her aunt and the nameless man seeks to be recognized for who he is. When Uizaya's aunt sets her a task to retrieve a weave from a local ruler who hoards treasures, the nameless man chooses to accompany her. This ruler holds something precious to him as well and by helping Uizaya complete this task, he may be able to finally close a chapter of his life that was previously stolen from him.
This novella is honestly hard to describe because Lemberg packs so much into a short length. The story feels far more expansive than one might think from the page count but I think this is in part because this is part of a wider universe that Lemberg often writes in. It is clear that they have spent a lot of time exploring this world and that comes through in this novella. There is a clear mythology within the world and this is explored throughout this particular story.
Ultimately, this is a story about trans identity. Both of the main characters are trans and each is grappling with different aspects of their identity. Uiziya has been hoping to learn from her aunt for years and this expectation has become a part of herself. The nameless man is seeking to be accepted for who he is after a lifetime of being deadnamed and having his identity rejected.
I am very excited to read more of Lemberg's work in the Birdverse. There are many pieces available on their website and I hope that we will see longer works in this world published in the future. I will definitely be following along for more of their work.

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perpetualpages's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

5.0

CWs: transphobia, misgendering, and deadnaming; death; blood, graphic violence and description of injury; some scenes containing beating and physical assault

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reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is a book that just plops you into the world with very little explanation. I did read a novelette set in the Birdverse first and that seemed to acquaint me a little more. Beautiful writing.

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verdigristle's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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unicornsbookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Disclaimer: I have voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy from the publisher via Netgalley; thank you!

The Four Profound Weaves is a story about two older trans people and their journey through the desert to find a woman banished from the tribe they were traveling with. It touches upon some very needed topics and it does so masterfully but it also for some reason didn’t click with me.

Reading The Four Profound Weaves feels like reading a fairytale. You’re submerged in a mystical world with a rich atmosphere and magic but you never actually learn much about it. It makes you feel the story more than understand it. Not that I didn’t. There is plenty of contexts provided to understand how Weaves work. Plenty to understand why the characters are in the situations they are in. But there’s not so much for anything else. That to be said, I still enjoyed the heavy, desert atmosphere and the beautiful writing style.

Another thing the books does well is talking about trans experiences. An own voices reviewer will have more to say about it and it will be on point but I did like how the book presented perspectives of both people who transitioned early in their life as well as people who transitioned late into adulthood. People who had to live in a conservative environment with strict gender roles, as well as people between whom transitioning, wasn’t seen as a big deal. It was very interesting to read and since both of the characters are in their sixties the reader gets to see how their whole lives were affected by their situation. It wasn’t something I usually see discussed in books.

Sadly I couldn’t connect to the characters. They felt more like means to tell the story than actual people who you could like. They were good devices to show what the writer wanted the audience to understand but other than that I found them rather unmemorable. I feel that was mostly why the story fell flat to me. It was short and didn’t give time to flash out the characters fully. I still found their story very meaningful and beautifully written, though.

All in all, I feel like this book wasn’t something up my alley. It’s often a fault I find in adult fantasy when the plot and atmosphere are more prominent than character development and relationships between them. I’d still recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a queer fantasy story with a rich atmosphere and meaningful discussion.

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