A review by siavahda
The Masters by Ricardo Pinto

4.0

So I think the reason the Chosen are white and all the 'slave races' are dark-skinned is because the Chosen are horrifically, disgustingly evil, and flipping the trope around - brown Chosen and white slaves - would be...pretty dodgy.

Although making everyone brown, in your Aztec-inspired world, might have negated the issue and also made more sense?

Other than that...the worldbuilding is phenomenal, and the writing is great. I despise the Chosen, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to. If you're not up to dealing with a *lot* of casual violence, murder, and slavery, this is definitely not for you, but this is a very unique take on not-exactly-grimdark.

I hope Carnelian sets his whole society on fire, but I guess we'll see how that goes in book two.