A review by himalaya
Lord of the Empty Isles by Jules Arbeaux

3.75

 I enjoyed this quite a bit! But I think it could have gone a bit further in places. It has some interesting concepts and a great cast of characters, and the plot doesn’t drag. Of course I love that it focuses on platonic relationships and has no romance! 

I think most of my thoughts come down to it’s pretty clear that the book had some specific goals that it stuck to but the details opened up a lot of questions I can’t stop thinking about….. 

I feel like it could have done a little more work in the beginning to convince me of Remy thinking he’s in the right - basically from the second he meets the pirate crew it’s very obvious they’re in the right and where the plot is going to go and I was never convinced otherwise. 

There’s clearly a lot gone into developing this bond system but to be honest I still don’t entirely get it? It seems to emphasise that the bonds just reflect connections between people rather than predetermine anything (which I’m glad for - I don’t like soulmate stuff), but also the plot kind of hinges on Remy and Idrian having a predetermined bond? There are a lot of explanations of intricacies but a lot of it didn’t sink in because it’s just sort of explained rather than deeply embedded in every interaction. I also felt like the bond stuff felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the worldbuilding. 

It’s promoted as queerplatonic, but to me it reads as (the beginning of) a general platonic relationship? I generally expect a depiction of a QPR to have some form of acknowledgement or depiction of the form of their relationship being a particular (undefinable?) kind, with some specific level of commitment? I’m being picky, maybe they mean queerplatonic themes/vibes rather than saying it’s a queerplatonic relationship specifically. The development of their relationship generally speaking is done well, I love books that centre platonic relationships! It just didn’t super read as a QPR to me. maybe the potential for it in the future. 

I do wish Remy and Tirani’s relationship was more prevalent also- I feel like she kinda disappeared in the second half. 

I feel like things are solved quite quickly and easily in the end - both the curse, and the downfall of the chancellor. I feared it would go down the route of blaming things on the person in charge rather than emphasising systemic issues, which it kinda does…. It’s impossible to ignore right now just how deeply people are willing to believe dehumanising propaganda - and how ‘telling the truth’ and exposing the person in power as bad doesn’t actually do anything; so that happening here made me go…… oh okay. well. 

I felt like all the people upholding the system that we meet are portrayed as too nice for what the effects of the system are, too. However I think there is room for a sequel, which would maybe explore this? I get that it was probably just an easy way to end the story, and maybe exploring that stuff in too much depth would shift the intended tone. 

My little complaints aside - I do recommend this! It was fun and pretty unique. 

Thanks netgalley and the publisher for the arc