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A review by bingsoojung
Stone and Steel by Eboni Dunbar
5.0
Stone and Steel is a novella about Aaliyah, the champion of the Queen Odessa, killer of the old king, and hero of the people, and how she comes to terms with the fallacies of her adopted sister and lover Odessa and reasserts her title as hero of the people. It explores themes of corrupt monarchs, loyal knights, and, of course, tragic lover stories.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest