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onceuponabookcase's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I was sent this proof for free by Titan Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.
I've been in a massive high fantasy kick lately, and have been longing for something that reminds me of why I fell in love with this genre. I've had a few disappointments, until I picked up Scorpica by G. R. MacAllister. Finally, something that felt like home. It was bloody incredible.
Scorpica takes place in the matriarchal world of the Five Queendoms. Scorpica is the queendom of warrior women, a semi-nomadic people whose lives are training to be the best they can be. Fierce and strong, Scorpicae are only women; whenever a boy is born, he is sold to the other queendoms. In this world, men are not warriors. Paxim is the queendom of trade deals and negotiations; anything that needs negotiating in the Five Queendoms goes through Paxim. Bastion is a scholarly queendom, it's people devoted to recording everything of import for the sake of history. Sestians are farmers, raising sheep and growing crops that feed the whole of the Five Queendoms. They're also the most devout, and it is here where you'll find the priests of Sestia, and where the religious Sun Rites take place. And then there's Arca, a queendom of sand, whose people are blessed by the god Velja with magic. They have the power to control earth or air magic, fire or water, body or mind, or, for the rare few, all-magic. The Five Queendoms have been chugging along amicably for the past 500 years, ever since the Great Peace; all queendoms needs something from the others. But then one day, the last baby girl is born. It isn't noticed at first, it takes a while, and even longer to realise it's not just one's own queendom, but all of them. Only boys in a world that has no use for boys. And as each year passes, the Great Peace is threatened as tensions become strained. If there are no baby girls, there are no queendoms.
Scorpica is almost a difficult story to talk about, because ot follows different people over the course of 15 years, and because of the events that happen, sometimes narrators change. There are three major threads that we follow. The first is of the Scorpicae, and mainly through their queen, Tamura. What is a queendom of warriors to do when there are no new warriors to train? Putting aside that the entire population of the Five Queendoms would eventually die out if there are never any baby girls, as a queendom of only women, the uncertainty around the Drought of Girls hits them the hardest initially. Tamura is ruthless, young and untested, she's brash and hotheaded, but also uncertain. She finds joy in the battle, her skills lying in fighting, but not so much in politics and governing. Her people demand answers, or at least a plan of action, which she keeps putting off. She is a devoted, proud Scorpicae, ambitious for her people, determined and seemingly confident. Anger is her driving force, mainly. But inexperience generally and the unknown that is the Drought of Girls lead her to making decisions that could very well end the Great Peace.
Then we have Jehenit, an Arcan with healing magic from a very small village that is struggling to keep it's head above water. On the very last day girls were born, she gave birth to her daughter, Eminel. But Eminel is no ordinary Arcan baby girl; she has all-magic. In Arcan, royalty doesn't go down the matrilineal line; each new queen is the most powerful among those with all-magic. But far from this being a blessing, Jehenit knows that when Seekers take all-magic girls to the Dawn Palace, they never return. Wanting to save her daughter from potentially devastating fate, she runs. Arcan magic is tied to the sand of their land; without sand, there is no magic. A healer who is devoted to her village turns her back on her people, leaving Arcan to keep her daughter hidden and safe.
Finally, there's Marriam, Queen of Arca. Powerful and conniving, she revels in her own position and the magic that got her there. She is narcissistic, but cruel and despicable. She is over 100 years old, but she retains her youth be draining the life force of all-magic girls. Despite the struggles of Arcan villages, the nobility thrive on their privilege, think only of themselves, and use others for their own gain and jockeying their position in court. Marriam trusts no-one but one of her husbands and her daughter; the Arcan nobility will stab anyone in the back if it can elevate them.
I really loved Scorpica! The world building is incredible. I loved the matriarchal society of the Five Queendoms, women being front and center; the strongest, the most powerful. As a high fantasy fan, I've read a number with strong, powerful women, but they are always outnumbered by strong, powerful men. That is most definitely not the case here. Although they are not treated unfairly, men have no power - or, if they do, in regards to magical power, it's nothing compared to the women. I've read a few dystopian stories in the past that have matriarchal societies, whose overall message tends to be that a society with equality between the genders is really the only way forward, but that's not the case with Scorpica. MacAllisater isn't trying to say anything about our society with this society; this is just the way the Five Queendoms are, and I really enjoyed it. Saying that, all the women are multifaceted and human. These aren't women who are even-tempered, nurturing, wise, or any other stereotype of high fantasy women. These women are real. The protagonists are flawed and make mistakes, the antagonists are cruel beyond imagining and power hungry.
I never really knew whose side I was on. There are so many characters in this story I despised, and yet MacAllister makes them compelling enough that even though I hated them, I was enthralled by their story, and how the changes in the world were affecting them. I don't normally enjoy books with more than three narrators; I tend to find there are too many, some I'm not keen on, and it always takes so long to cycle through them. But that's not the case with Scorpica. Besides Tamura, Jehenit, and Marriam, there are a range of other narrators, always people close to those three, all focused on one of the three threads. But it's all so evenly balanced between them all; the chapters are fairly short, and for the longer ones, there will be a few narrators - no more than three - that split it up and keep that balance. It doesn't take all that long to cycle through, and as I've said, there were characters I didn't like, but I was still interested in their narration/thread. Scorpica is somewhat of a slow burner, but it's also a quick read, and there was enough going on with each thread that kept my interest. I loved that the plot centers around something that is unknown, even to the characters. This isn't a story you can predict the outcome of, you don't know what decisions people are going to make, or what those decisions will lead to. I was completely captivated and enamoured by this story.
Scorpica is also a queer story! There is a sapphic relationship between two characters, and there's a semi-vague f/f sex scene between two others. Arcans are polyamorous, with women having two husbands (what's interesting is that children have mothers, but not fathers; they are referred to as their mother's huband/s). Although no labels are used, the Five Queendoms is a world where trans people are acknowledged and accepted, with the mention of non-binary, bigender, and agenda people; there is a pansexual character in Fasiq, a secondary character without a POV narration, who mentions her lovers have been men and women, neither or both. And there's a non-POV Priest of no gender, using they/them pronouns. Given the matriarchal society, I'd be interested to know where non-binary people fit in the hierarchy of things, but it's never mentioned. What if an assigned-female-at-birth Scorpicae identifies non-binary/bigender/agenda? Scorpicae are women only, and this is shown quite clearly when a man born of a Scorpicae woman wants to join them and train as a warrior. So would a trans person have a place in Scorpicae? Where would trans women sit in this society? How would a trans man, strong in magic, be seen or treated in Arca? I think it's mainly just incidental inclusion, a reflection of our world, but when there is a hierarchy based on gender, I do think these things need to be considered. I suppose a question has been answered with the agender Priest, as priests are generally women in the Five Queendoms. I'd be interested to see if any of the other questions are answered in future books.
Scorpica was absolutely gripping, and an incredible debut high fantasy. I was completely engrossed in this story, and only one book in, I have most definitely found my new favourite high fantasy series! I cannot wait for the sequel, to see where the story takes the characters next. G. R. MacAllister is going to be one to watch.
I've been in a massive high fantasy kick lately, and have been longing for something that reminds me of why I fell in love with this genre. I've had a few disappointments, until I picked up Scorpica by G. R. MacAllister. Finally, something that felt like home. It was bloody incredible.
Scorpica takes place in the matriarchal world of the Five Queendoms. Scorpica is the queendom of warrior women, a semi-nomadic people whose lives are training to be the best they can be. Fierce and strong, Scorpicae are only women; whenever a boy is born, he is sold to the other queendoms. In this world, men are not warriors. Paxim is the queendom of trade deals and negotiations; anything that needs negotiating in the Five Queendoms goes through Paxim. Bastion is a scholarly queendom, it's people devoted to recording everything of import for the sake of history. Sestians are farmers, raising sheep and growing crops that feed the whole of the Five Queendoms. They're also the most devout, and it is here where you'll find the priests of Sestia, and where the religious Sun Rites take place. And then there's Arca, a queendom of sand, whose people are blessed by the god Velja with magic. They have the power to control earth or air magic, fire or water, body or mind, or, for the rare few, all-magic. The Five Queendoms have been chugging along amicably for the past 500 years, ever since the Great Peace; all queendoms needs something from the others. But then one day, the last baby girl is born. It isn't noticed at first, it takes a while, and even longer to realise it's not just one's own queendom, but all of them. Only boys in a world that has no use for boys. And as each year passes, the Great Peace is threatened as tensions become strained. If there are no baby girls, there are no queendoms.
Scorpica is almost a difficult story to talk about, because ot follows different people over the course of 15 years, and because of the events that happen, sometimes narrators change. There are three major threads that we follow. The first is of the Scorpicae, and mainly through their queen, Tamura. What is a queendom of warriors to do when there are no new warriors to train? Putting aside that the entire population of the Five Queendoms would eventually die out if there are never any baby girls, as a queendom of only women, the uncertainty around the Drought of Girls hits them the hardest initially. Tamura is ruthless, young and untested, she's brash and hotheaded, but also uncertain. She finds joy in the battle, her skills lying in fighting, but not so much in politics and governing. Her people demand answers, or at least a plan of action, which she keeps putting off. She is a devoted, proud Scorpicae, ambitious for her people, determined and seemingly confident. Anger is her driving force, mainly. But inexperience generally and the unknown that is the Drought of Girls lead her to making decisions that could very well end the Great Peace.
Then we have Jehenit, an Arcan with healing magic from a very small village that is struggling to keep it's head above water. On the very last day girls were born, she gave birth to her daughter, Eminel. But Eminel is no ordinary Arcan baby girl; she has all-magic. In Arcan, royalty doesn't go down the matrilineal line; each new queen is the most powerful among those with all-magic. But far from this being a blessing, Jehenit knows that when Seekers take all-magic girls to the Dawn Palace, they never return. Wanting to save her daughter from potentially devastating fate, she runs. Arcan magic is tied to the sand of their land; without sand, there is no magic. A healer who is devoted to her village turns her back on her people, leaving Arcan to keep her daughter hidden and safe.
Finally, there's Marriam, Queen of Arca. Powerful and conniving, she revels in her own position and the magic that got her there. She is narcissistic, but cruel and despicable. She is over 100 years old, but she retains her youth be draining the life force of all-magic girls. Despite the struggles of Arcan villages, the nobility thrive on their privilege, think only of themselves, and use others for their own gain and jockeying their position in court. Marriam trusts no-one but one of her husbands and her daughter; the Arcan nobility will stab anyone in the back if it can elevate them.
I really loved Scorpica! The world building is incredible. I loved the matriarchal society of the Five Queendoms, women being front and center; the strongest, the most powerful. As a high fantasy fan, I've read a number with strong, powerful women, but they are always outnumbered by strong, powerful men. That is most definitely not the case here. Although they are not treated unfairly, men have no power - or, if they do, in regards to magical power, it's nothing compared to the women. I've read a few dystopian stories in the past that have matriarchal societies, whose overall message tends to be that a society with equality between the genders is really the only way forward, but that's not the case with Scorpica. MacAllisater isn't trying to say anything about our society with this society; this is just the way the Five Queendoms are, and I really enjoyed it. Saying that, all the women are multifaceted and human. These aren't women who are even-tempered, nurturing, wise, or any other stereotype of high fantasy women. These women are real. The protagonists are flawed and make mistakes, the antagonists are cruel beyond imagining and power hungry.
I never really knew whose side I was on. There are so many characters in this story I despised, and yet MacAllister makes them compelling enough that even though I hated them, I was enthralled by their story, and how the changes in the world were affecting them. I don't normally enjoy books with more than three narrators; I tend to find there are too many, some I'm not keen on, and it always takes so long to cycle through them. But that's not the case with Scorpica. Besides Tamura, Jehenit, and Marriam, there are a range of other narrators, always people close to those three, all focused on one of the three threads. But it's all so evenly balanced between them all; the chapters are fairly short, and for the longer ones, there will be a few narrators - no more than three - that split it up and keep that balance. It doesn't take all that long to cycle through, and as I've said, there were characters I didn't like, but I was still interested in their narration/thread. Scorpica is somewhat of a slow burner, but it's also a quick read, and there was enough going on with each thread that kept my interest. I loved that the plot centers around something that is unknown, even to the characters. This isn't a story you can predict the outcome of, you don't know what decisions people are going to make, or what those decisions will lead to. I was completely captivated and enamoured by this story.
Scorpica is also a queer story! There is a sapphic relationship between two characters, and there's a semi-vague f/f sex scene between two others. Arcans are polyamorous, with women having two husbands (what's interesting is that children have mothers, but not fathers; they are referred to as their mother's huband/s). Although no labels are used, the Five Queendoms is a world where trans people are acknowledged and accepted, with the mention of non-binary, bigender, and agenda people; there is a pansexual character in Fasiq, a secondary character without a POV narration, who mentions her lovers have been men and women, neither or both. And there's a non-POV Priest of no gender, using they/them pronouns. Given the matriarchal society, I'd be interested to know where non-binary people fit in the hierarchy of things, but it's never mentioned. What if an assigned-female-at-birth Scorpicae identifies non-binary/bigender/agenda? Scorpicae are women only, and this is shown quite clearly when a man born of a Scorpicae woman wants to join them and train as a warrior. So would a trans person have a place in Scorpicae? Where would trans women sit in this society? How would a trans man, strong in magic, be seen or treated in Arca? I think it's mainly just incidental inclusion, a reflection of our world, but when there is a hierarchy based on gender, I do think these things need to be considered. I suppose a question has been answered with the agender Priest, as priests are generally women in the Five Queendoms. I'd be interested to see if any of the other questions are answered in future books.
Scorpica was absolutely gripping, and an incredible debut high fantasy. I was completely engrossed in this story, and only one book in, I have most definitely found my new favourite high fantasy series! I cannot wait for the sequel, to see where the story takes the characters next. G. R. MacAllister is going to be one to watch.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Death
Minor: Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcoholism
This book features an on-page sex scene (semi-vague); birth/labour; visceral, gorey descriptions of violence; human sacrifice; infanticide; and execution (magical).maggieslibrarycard's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
2.0
Scorpica by G. R. McAllister
2 stars
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers): Death/Death of a Parent/Death of Children, Violence, Gore, Body Horror, Sexual Content/Sexual Violence towards a Minor
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!
While there were some parts of this book that I had a fun time reading, I think all of its elements were unfortunately at best just okay.
The book takes place in five matriarchal queendoms, and follows the lives of a primarily female cast, as well as the reactions of the rulers of these realms, when AFAB children stop being born.
While there was a large cast of characters, including many different POV characters, I really never found myself growing attached to any of them, connecting to them, or even rooting for them to succeed in their chapters. All of the characters felt very flat, and underdeveloped to me, and all of the POVs had the same voice, which resulted in all the different characters feeling inauthentic and indistinct. As well, after finishing the book, it felt to me like a lot of the POV characters did not have satisfying conclusions to their arcs, and that the purpose of their chapters was mostly just to introduce other elements of the book, which in my opinion is indicative of poor narrative planning.
I think a lot of my issues with the characters come down to the author primarily telling the readers things in the prose, and not showing them. While I didn’t have any issues with the prose style of the book, we as readers were told a lot of things about the personalities and motivations of various characters in the novel, but it was less common for these characteristics to be displayed through their actions.
The pacing choices for this book were interesting, and the end result of the plot made me feel like this was almost more of a prequel to the series than the first book. (Which is completely okay! Just something to expect before you start reading so you don’t feel dissatisfied with the ending.) To that end, while the book was, in my opinion, fairly fast paced, it was very episodic, in that we would follow a particular character for a chapter and then not jump back to them for several years in the world’s timeline. There were a lot of time skips, and, as I mentioned before, a lot of POV characters introduced who were only included in a few chapters, which contributed to the prequel-esque and episodic feeling I got while reading. Again, not a bad thing! Just something to be aware of before starting to read.
Another big critique of the book was the limited world-building. While there are multiple queendoms, they all seem to operate in essentially the same way and we don’t learn a lot about the culture, magic system, and history of the entire realm beyond what is required for the plot, or the distinct natures of each of the queendoms, besides their focus on different industries. This is always one of my favourite aspects of fantasy books, so I was really disappointed that it wasn’t included very much here. I was also really hoping the book’s focus on women would result in it displaying different sorts of matriarchal societies in the different queendoms, which wasn’t really the case. As well, I was hoping there would be a more nuanced examination of gender and gender roles in the book. The difference between a person’s sex and gender is never really brought up, and children are determined to be male or female at birth. There is one non-binary character in this book - albeit a priest who exists mainly outside of the queendoms’ society - so I hope that in future books the author will critique the gender binary which seems to dictate a lot of the society’s operations. However, I should add that I am cisgender, so I would suggest referring to a non-cis reader for a more nuanced examination of these themes within the novel, as I don’t want to speak for or over the trans and non-binary community with regards to this topic!
There was a huge focus on sex and sexual content, which is fine, but I did find it strange that in a novel where this was such a key focus that there was only one minor f/f relationship, and other non-heteronormative sexualities were basically ignored.
The following section contains minor spoilers for the book, but I found it very concerning, so I felt the need to include it in my review.
During one passage in the book, a character, who is at this point a minor, is mourning the loss of one of her very close friends. To “help” her “cope” with this lose, another (adult) character who is in a position of authority over her by demonstrating the use of a sex toy on the minor’s body, which is described in fairly heavy detail and, most concerningly of all, was described in a positive light and the problematic nature of this encounter was never addressed. While I wasn’t in love with this book before this scene, it to me was a moderately fun and fast-paced read that I wasn’t expecting to think too much about after the ending. However, this section completely soured the reading experience for me and made me very uncomfortable. I was probably going to give this book a solid 2.5-3 stars before reading this scene, but I really couldn’t do that in good conscience after this part of the book.
2 stars
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers): Death/Death of a Parent/Death of Children, Violence, Gore, Body Horror, Sexual Content/Sexual Violence towards a Minor
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!
While there were some parts of this book that I had a fun time reading, I think all of its elements were unfortunately at best just okay.
The book takes place in five matriarchal queendoms, and follows the lives of a primarily female cast, as well as the reactions of the rulers of these realms, when AFAB children stop being born.
While there was a large cast of characters, including many different POV characters, I really never found myself growing attached to any of them, connecting to them, or even rooting for them to succeed in their chapters. All of the characters felt very flat, and underdeveloped to me, and all of the POVs had the same voice, which resulted in all the different characters feeling inauthentic and indistinct. As well, after finishing the book, it felt to me like a lot of the POV characters did not have satisfying conclusions to their arcs, and that the purpose of their chapters was mostly just to introduce other elements of the book, which in my opinion is indicative of poor narrative planning.
I think a lot of my issues with the characters come down to the author primarily telling the readers things in the prose, and not showing them. While I didn’t have any issues with the prose style of the book, we as readers were told a lot of things about the personalities and motivations of various characters in the novel, but it was less common for these characteristics to be displayed through their actions.
The pacing choices for this book were interesting, and the end result of the plot made me feel like this was almost more of a prequel to the series than the first book. (Which is completely okay! Just something to expect before you start reading so you don’t feel dissatisfied with the ending.) To that end, while the book was, in my opinion, fairly fast paced, it was very episodic, in that we would follow a particular character for a chapter and then not jump back to them for several years in the world’s timeline. There were a lot of time skips, and, as I mentioned before, a lot of POV characters introduced who were only included in a few chapters, which contributed to the prequel-esque and episodic feeling I got while reading. Again, not a bad thing! Just something to be aware of before starting to read.
Another big critique of the book was the limited world-building. While there are multiple queendoms, they all seem to operate in essentially the same way and we don’t learn a lot about the culture, magic system, and history of the entire realm beyond what is required for the plot, or the distinct natures of each of the queendoms, besides their focus on different industries. This is always one of my favourite aspects of fantasy books, so I was really disappointed that it wasn’t included very much here. I was also really hoping the book’s focus on women would result in it displaying different sorts of matriarchal societies in the different queendoms, which wasn’t really the case. As well, I was hoping there would be a more nuanced examination of gender and gender roles in the book. The difference between a person’s sex and gender is never really brought up, and children are determined to be male or female at birth. There is one non-binary character in this book - albeit a priest who exists mainly outside of the queendoms’ society - so I hope that in future books the author will critique the gender binary which seems to dictate a lot of the society’s operations. However, I should add that I am cisgender, so I would suggest referring to a non-cis reader for a more nuanced examination of these themes within the novel, as I don’t want to speak for or over the trans and non-binary community with regards to this topic!
There was a huge focus on sex and sexual content, which is fine, but I did find it strange that in a novel where this was such a key focus that there was only one minor f/f relationship, and other non-heteronormative sexualities were basically ignored.
The following section contains minor spoilers for the book, but I found it very concerning, so I felt the need to include it in my review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and War
Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism
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