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A review by horrorbutch
Maej by Dale Stromberg
5.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher in exchange for a review.
This novel set in a matriarchal magical world explores the brutal realities of classism, sexism and war all while weaving a political, cultural and linguistic feast so dense it is a joy to fully immerse yourself in it. An epic fantasy novel that truly encapsulates the meaning of epic, the world building and the rotating (and relatively big) cast of characters play the most important role in this book.
I would consider myself a quite fast reader and yet this novel took me nearly a month to get through. But my, what a joy it was to immerse myself in the characters, their lives, their fears and joys, the social structures, the incredibly intriguing money system, the politics. I could have read more. At first (and probably because English is not my mother tongue, even though I have a high proficiency) I struggled a bit with the language used in this novel, but quite soon I got used to it and it certainly added to the appeal this book held for me. In fact, the author invented fictional languages that all are built on different linguistic constructions with different songs and sayings and poems for each culture that speaks those languages, Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish and the Underroad cant, elevating this novel from an intriguing look into a matriarchal society to something so much grander and more intriguing. The novel also explores how language and the ability to speak a certain language (and to speak it accent free) can be used to segregate and harm those oppressed in a society.
Besides the linguistics what I really enjoyed about this book was its commentary on oppression and the fact that most important characters are women and thus there were women that were great and women that were horrible and women that quite frankly disgust me. Women in this story can be anything, from warriors to political leaders to revolutionaries and criminals, including those that are sexist, creepy and abusive towards the men and women under their power and even simply average, just the way men are allowed to be in epic fantasies. I also adored the way trans identity was explored in this world, although I would have personally found it really interesting how this world would react to trans men. I did enjoy the exploration of how this world reacts to trans women, where they consider it important to affirm and honor a trans woman’s identity, while still seeing her (and probably any woman who cannot get pregnant, as that is a prerequisite for higher political office) as lower status due to their inability to birth a child.
The magic system is incredible, there’s intriguing religious systems, there’s a variety of societies outside of Sforre-Yomn, the main city this takes place in, there’s the colonialist English (well the fantasy version of them anyway), there’s an intriguing concept of sex work, there’s magical and mythical creatures and lore abound. I also enjoyed that the plot varied (depending on the character in question) between more action-focused scenes and more discussion-focused scenes and that this novel really explores what makes a main character, but giving each character a focused and detailed backstory and the only reason why the characters we followed were more important than other characters is because the story focused on them.
All in all, this novel deserves its page count because of the incredible and detailed world it weaves and it deserves a place beside other epic fantasy books. I can recommend it to fans of detailed epic fantasy, anybody who enjoys reveling in linguistics (and who has a high proficiency of English or is willing to look up A Lot of words) and anybody who wants a fascinating exploration of a fantasy matriarchy.
Trigger warnings include: child abduction, child abuse, ableism, murder, gore, violence, classism, sexism, slavery, mentions of past rape/threats of rape, transmisogynist/bioessentialist language (bootless as bollocks on a bride, womanhood proven by childbearing), self-harm, suicide, murder, torture, off-page murder of girls and boys for sexual pleasure (in which societally only the murder of girls is judged as truly bad) and probably some more that I missed. It’s a big book.
This novel set in a matriarchal magical world explores the brutal realities of classism, sexism and war all while weaving a political, cultural and linguistic feast so dense it is a joy to fully immerse yourself in it. An epic fantasy novel that truly encapsulates the meaning of epic, the world building and the rotating (and relatively big) cast of characters play the most important role in this book.
I would consider myself a quite fast reader and yet this novel took me nearly a month to get through. But my, what a joy it was to immerse myself in the characters, their lives, their fears and joys, the social structures, the incredibly intriguing money system, the politics. I could have read more. At first (and probably because English is not my mother tongue, even though I have a high proficiency) I struggled a bit with the language used in this novel, but quite soon I got used to it and it certainly added to the appeal this book held for me. In fact, the author invented fictional languages that all are built on different linguistic constructions with different songs and sayings and poems for each culture that speaks those languages, Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish and the Underroad cant, elevating this novel from an intriguing look into a matriarchal society to something so much grander and more intriguing. The novel also explores how language and the ability to speak a certain language (and to speak it accent free) can be used to segregate and harm those oppressed in a society.
Besides the linguistics what I really enjoyed about this book was its commentary on oppression and the fact that most important characters are women and thus there were women that were great and women that were horrible and women that quite frankly disgust me. Women in this story can be anything, from warriors to political leaders to revolutionaries and criminals, including those that are sexist, creepy and abusive towards the men and women under their power and even simply average, just the way men are allowed to be in epic fantasies. I also adored the way trans identity was explored in this world, although I would have personally found it really interesting how this world would react to trans men. I did enjoy the exploration of how this world reacts to trans women, where they consider it important to affirm and honor a trans woman’s identity, while still seeing her (and probably any woman who cannot get pregnant, as that is a prerequisite for higher political office) as lower status due to their inability to birth a child.
The magic system is incredible, there’s intriguing religious systems, there’s a variety of societies outside of Sforre-Yomn, the main city this takes place in, there’s the colonialist English (well the fantasy version of them anyway), there’s an intriguing concept of sex work, there’s magical and mythical creatures and lore abound. I also enjoyed that the plot varied (depending on the character in question) between more action-focused scenes and more discussion-focused scenes and that this novel really explores what makes a main character, but giving each character a focused and detailed backstory and the only reason why the characters we followed were more important than other characters is because the story focused on them.
All in all, this novel deserves its page count because of the incredible and detailed world it weaves and it deserves a place beside other epic fantasy books. I can recommend it to fans of detailed epic fantasy, anybody who enjoys reveling in linguistics (and who has a high proficiency of English or is willing to look up A Lot of words) and anybody who wants a fascinating exploration of a fantasy matriarchy.
Trigger warnings include: child abduction, child abuse, ableism, murder, gore, violence, classism, sexism, slavery, mentions of past rape/threats of rape, transmisogynist/bioessentialist language (bootless as bollocks on a bride, womanhood proven by childbearing), self-harm, suicide, murder, torture, off-page murder of girls and boys for sexual pleasure (in which societally only the murder of girls is judged as truly bad) and probably some more that I missed. It’s a big book.