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A review by spiringempress
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
3.0
"Here I am, she thought. This is me, in two weeks' time. Here I am, walking up to the Shrine. This is the end. This is how it will feel at the end. Thy name shall be forsaken and thou shalt be my bride."
Truly 3.5 stars. Since she was a child, Csorwe has been promised to the Unspoken One. On her fourteenth birthday, she is supposed to venture up to the Unspoken One's Shrine and disappear in the mysterious caverns to face whatever fate has in store for her. However, on that day, Csorwe is presented with an unexpected option. A powerful mag named Sethennai offers to take her away from the shrine and venture around the world with him.
Forsaking the Unspoken One, Csorwe accompanies Sethennai as he faces off with his opponent, Olthaaros, and becomes skilled with a blade and in skills of deception. However, as she grows older, Csorwe begins to question Sethennai's intentions as someone from her past reappears and reveals that Sethennai only wanted to prove the Unspoken One false. Swept up in a quest to find an ancient artifact for Sethennai, Csorwe strikes out on her one and discovers more herself and the Unspoken One, who has not forgotten about her.
There are elements of The Unspoken Name that captivated my attention immediately. The premise is intriguing and I loved reading about Csorwe's origin as the bride of the Unspoken One. I also really liked the unexpected twist of her refusing to be sacrificed and accepting Sethennai's offer. I was keenly invested in the first half of the book, where Csorwe travels around with Sethennai and learns some new skills. However, the book slowly lost me when it skipped forward in time and Csorwe was an adult. When I started reading the book, I thought it would move at a much slower pace and it would follow Csorwe as she grew into an adult. Instead, it skipped a lot of the progression and it felt like the author cheated us out of some essential character development.
As a result, it created a dissonance between the two. I understood Csorwe as a child/young adult and her motivations, but when the book moved forward in time, I no longer recognized the adult Csorwe, who seemed foreign to me. Instead of bridging the gap between the two, Larkwood moved forward with an action-filled plot as Csorwe looked for an ancient artifact and rescued Shuthmili and outwitted her master. However, I was no longer invested in the story or the characters because this section of the book felt like it could belong to a second volume. In this way, I can understand why some like the book and others do not. For those, who like action-filled plots, this book is perfect, but for those intrigued by the character and the world-building, the change in pace is hard to overlook.
Truly 3.5 stars. Since she was a child, Csorwe has been promised to the Unspoken One. On her fourteenth birthday, she is supposed to venture up to the Unspoken One's Shrine and disappear in the mysterious caverns to face whatever fate has in store for her. However, on that day, Csorwe is presented with an unexpected option. A powerful mag named Sethennai offers to take her away from the shrine and venture around the world with him.
Forsaking the Unspoken One, Csorwe accompanies Sethennai as he faces off with his opponent, Olthaaros, and becomes skilled with a blade and in skills of deception. However, as she grows older, Csorwe begins to question Sethennai's intentions as someone from her past reappears and reveals that Sethennai only wanted to prove the Unspoken One false. Swept up in a quest to find an ancient artifact for Sethennai, Csorwe strikes out on her one and discovers more herself and the Unspoken One, who has not forgotten about her.
There are elements of The Unspoken Name that captivated my attention immediately. The premise is intriguing and I loved reading about Csorwe's origin as the bride of the Unspoken One. I also really liked the unexpected twist of her refusing to be sacrificed and accepting Sethennai's offer. I was keenly invested in the first half of the book, where Csorwe travels around with Sethennai and learns some new skills. However, the book slowly lost me when it skipped forward in time and Csorwe was an adult. When I started reading the book, I thought it would move at a much slower pace and it would follow Csorwe as she grew into an adult. Instead, it skipped a lot of the progression and it felt like the author cheated us out of some essential character development.
As a result, it created a dissonance between the two. I understood Csorwe as a child/young adult and her motivations, but when the book moved forward in time, I no longer recognized the adult Csorwe, who seemed foreign to me. Instead of bridging the gap between the two, Larkwood moved forward with an action-filled plot as Csorwe looked for an ancient artifact and rescued Shuthmili and outwitted her master. However, I was no longer invested in the story or the characters because this section of the book felt like it could belong to a second volume. In this way, I can understand why some like the book and others do not. For those, who like action-filled plots, this book is perfect, but for those intrigued by the character and the world-building, the change in pace is hard to overlook.