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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This is the most recent iteration of the "read out loud together before bed" tradition that my partner and I began a few years ago and have been surprisingly consistent with. This is the first time we have read something totally new to us both that also doesn't have another related fandom/media with it. So kind of a new experience. We chose it like this: I listed the "owned" fantasy/scifi I haven't read yet and he picked the one that sounded the best to him. I have the four-novellas-in-one publication of the series, so we'll be reading all of them. But since I haven't read these yet before, I wanted to do my normal review-per-book situation.
Akeha and Mokoya are twins, born to The Protector, the mother who rules the Protectorate with a heavy hand, and traded to the Grand Monastery to pay back a favor. As they grow, Mokoya realizes she has the gift of prophecy, while Akeha pulls into the background, watching the pieces of their world move around them. The twins choose different paths moving into adulthood, they reach, from their individual perspectives, the same conclusions about the poison that is their mother's reign. Mokoya from within and Akeha from the outskirts, they each support the rebel Machinist movement, while simultaneously trying to maintain their close connection to the other.
This got off to a very intriguing start. I always appreciate when a new magic system and world can be introduced in a way that is not too much explanation/exposition (dropped right in), yet still has enough paced unfolding that you don’t feel completely lost/overwhelmed. The relationship between Mokoya and Akeha was really well developed, considering the length. There was a lot of nuance to the way they grew so intertwined and yet so separate (in everything from their personalities to their genders to the role(s) they play in the larger world). I felt like the rest of the characters were fairly flat, the affairs of the world very background, while Moko and Keha did hold the central role through all their years and growth and separation and individual/parental trauma and rebellion. Although they ended very much back where it started, a potential commentary on the cyclical patterns of life (though perhaps not clear enough to be fully successful), I wonder if the next books will cover their "second chance" to choose their paths forwards and if different choices will be made or the same circular paths followed.
A side note on gender/sexuality, I did love the use of neutral pronouns until a person is old enough (as defined by themselves) to choose gender for themselves, but a little disappointed when it was mostly presented as a binary choice (unless I missed something...but I can’t find any indication remaining outside the binary in some way was an option.) Related, I liked the "complication" of the twins choosing different gender paths but having feelings for the same person (who clearly feels connected to them both in return, though it's never specified how exactly). It introduced a lot of wonderful nebulous sexuality complexity and representation.
I was otherwise super invested as the story unfolded, as I am used to these short novellas having a real "punch" in the end (like Binti and The Empress of Salt and Fortune), but this one didn't deliver in quite the same way. I mean, there was a nuclear turn, and a tragic death, but in both cases, I wasn't really fully sold by the plot point or, for whatever reason, not invested enough the care the way I think I was supposed to. Plus, the ending felt a bit hanging, like, unfinished. I can get behind a well done open-ended ending, but this one felt less complete, more unfulfilling, as opposed to purposefully open to interpretation. I'm here to give the series the benefit of the doubt, because the world and magic systems feel well fleshed out, and there's still a promise for the greater story. But I think in part that's because I have the rest of the series already at hand - if I didn't already have it, or if I was waiting for the rest to be published, I don't think I'd be invested enough to continue.
I do have to say, to end on a big positive note, that the writing was really special. The short descriptions and turns of phrase are lyrical and gorgeously evocative, and really smart in vocabulary. I pulled a couple examples, but honestly the whole thing really brought you along with its flow. Here are some highlights though: “…an ocean of missed opportunities and wasted futures roiling between them.” and “…their lips issuing a commandment of desire, playing a symphony of desperation.” and “So great was the appetite of empire that it would not even spit out the bones.” I mean, what poeticism.
Overall, not as stunning as I had hoped. Though the language and world-building and magic, as well as the twins primary relationship with each other, met expectations, I was left wanting something more from the story itself. Here's to hoping the next novellas add enough plot and depth to redeem this opening.
“In the monastery, [...] they taught us that fortune is both intractable and impartial. That when bad things happen, it's the result of an incomprehensible and inhuman universe working as it does. The mountain shrugs, but thinks nothing of the houses crushed in the avalanche. That was not it’s purpose.”
“Legends form around grains of truth.”
"The saying goes, 'The black tides of heaven direct the courses of human lives.' To which a wise teacher said, 'But as with all waters, one can swim against the tide.'"
“Because he had always known, even as a child, that he was the lightning, while she was the fire in the core of planets. And the world needed both. Revolutions needed both. Someone had to wield the knives, but someone also had to write the treaties.”
“With all the horrors in the world, it was easy to forget there were wonders too.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gun violence
Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Death, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Racism, and Animal cruelty
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