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shilpa_chheda 's review for:
Red Winter: The Complete Trilogy
by Annette Marie
Wow - I’m glad I read the entire trilogy all together, because I would never be able to stop thinking about the next installment if I stopped. This is an epic fantasy that reminded me of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There’s a quest, multiple side quests, and good-Saruman-gone-bad character, a dragon, and spiders!
But this epic fantasy is based on Japanese Shinto folklore. The author takes a lot of fictional liberty and this world is highly pantheistic and animistic. It reminded me of Native American mythology. The hero is a trickster fox! Needless to say, most of the characters are shifter animals and heavenly spirits.
So Emi is a young kamikagari - a human chosen to embody the heavenly goddess, Amaterasu, in the physical realm. She prepares to embody the goddess by living like a nun in a Shinto shrine from age 8 to 18 and completely avoids a modern upbringing. Her life is controlled by high ranking Shinto priests who fear for her safety. Five years ago, she was attacked by a yokai, a demon spirit, and her “superiors” hide her away to keep her safe.
She slowly learns that everything she’s been told is a lie - about yokai, about her own fate, about having to live a “nun” life. She has to figure out who she is, and what her own magic is about, and realize her sexuality is powerful. I loved this aspect of her growth.
Her transformation throughout the series is incredible. The world building is beautiful. The magic flows off the page. The romance is sweet. The battle scenes are epic.
But this epic fantasy is based on Japanese Shinto folklore. The author takes a lot of fictional liberty and this world is highly pantheistic and animistic. It reminded me of Native American mythology. The hero is a trickster fox! Needless to say, most of the characters are shifter animals and heavenly spirits.
So Emi is a young kamikagari - a human chosen to embody the heavenly goddess, Amaterasu, in the physical realm. She prepares to embody the goddess by living like a nun in a Shinto shrine from age 8 to 18 and completely avoids a modern upbringing. Her life is controlled by high ranking Shinto priests who fear for her safety. Five years ago, she was attacked by a yokai, a demon spirit, and her “superiors” hide her away to keep her safe.
She slowly learns that everything she’s been told is a lie - about yokai, about her own fate, about having to live a “nun” life. She has to figure out who she is, and what her own magic is about, and realize her sexuality is powerful. I loved this aspect of her growth.
Her transformation throughout the series is incredible. The world building is beautiful. The magic flows off the page. The romance is sweet. The battle scenes are epic.