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A review by jgnoelle
The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon
5.0
Aside from her always-beautiful prose, one of the things I love most about Amy Harmon's fantasy novels is her worldbuilding—how, despite it's deceptive simplicity, it is incredibly unique and interesting, suits the major challenge of the story (or rather the story challenge suits it), and it supports characters who read wholly as products of this particular place as opposed to somewhere else.
In The First Girl Child, Norse-inspired Saylock is a tribal, patriarchal land of warriors and raiding, and also magical runes that the monastic Keepers of Saylock protect from misuse by the general population. Typically, it is only the Keepers who know how to use the runes. But the story begins with a warrior woman, Desdemona, who proves to be the exception. Dying in childbirth and full of rage over being rejected by the child's father, Desdemona uses runes and her dying breath to place all of Saylock under a curse where no more baby girls will be born until such time that her son, named Bayr, becomes Saylock's salvation. Bayr ends up being raised in the Keepers' Temple by Desdemona's Keeper brother, Dagmar, and in demonstrating super-human strength from a young age, Bayr becomes both protector and friend to Princess Alba, the only girl child born amidst the ongoing curse.
Ultimately, The First Girl Child offers a highly credibly examination of the impacts a lack of baby girls for 20+ years would present within a patriarchal society—how some people would use the calamity to advance their own agendas and seize power while others would become heroes who look out for others and preserve culture and traditions amidst a long societal collapse. The story had great pacing for covering such a long time span. It didn't really follow any defined story beats that I could perceive—I never really knew where the story was going or what was going to happen next until the third act, such as it was—but this unpredictability really worked given the nature of the curse and the various (fruitless) efforts made by the Keepers, the tribal chieftains, and the king of Saylock to break the curse.
The story follows a number of POVs, including Bayr, Dagmar, Alba, Ghost (a mysterious woman from neighbouring land who becomes ensnared in the politics and fate of Saylock), and the villainous King Banruud, who uses the situation to advance his own interests at every stage. Every character, whether a good person or a bad person, is extremely well-written and fascinating to follow. I really enjoyed this story and loved it all the more for its excellent audiobook narrator, Rob Shapiro, who infused so much subtly and heart into so many different types of characters, and in general has a very pleasant-sounding voice. His performance truly brought Amy Harmon's lovely prose and fascinating plot to life.
In The First Girl Child, Norse-inspired Saylock is a tribal, patriarchal land of warriors and raiding, and also magical runes that the monastic Keepers of Saylock protect from misuse by the general population. Typically, it is only the Keepers who know how to use the runes. But the story begins with a warrior woman, Desdemona, who proves to be the exception. Dying in childbirth and full of rage over being rejected by the child's father, Desdemona uses runes and her dying breath to place all of Saylock under a curse where no more baby girls will be born until such time that her son, named Bayr, becomes Saylock's salvation. Bayr ends up being raised in the Keepers' Temple by Desdemona's Keeper brother, Dagmar, and in demonstrating super-human strength from a young age, Bayr becomes both protector and friend to Princess Alba, the only girl child born amidst the ongoing curse.
Ultimately, The First Girl Child offers a highly credibly examination of the impacts a lack of baby girls for 20+ years would present within a patriarchal society—how some people would use the calamity to advance their own agendas and seize power while others would become heroes who look out for others and preserve culture and traditions amidst a long societal collapse. The story had great pacing for covering such a long time span. It didn't really follow any defined story beats that I could perceive—I never really knew where the story was going or what was going to happen next until the third act, such as it was—but this unpredictability really worked given the nature of the curse and the various (fruitless) efforts made by the Keepers, the tribal chieftains, and the king of Saylock to break the curse.
The story follows a number of POVs, including Bayr, Dagmar, Alba, Ghost (a mysterious woman from neighbouring land who becomes ensnared in the politics and fate of Saylock), and the villainous King Banruud, who uses the situation to advance his own interests at every stage. Every character, whether a good person or a bad person, is extremely well-written and fascinating to follow. I really enjoyed this story and loved it all the more for its excellent audiobook narrator, Rob Shapiro, who infused so much subtly and heart into so many different types of characters, and in general has a very pleasant-sounding voice. His performance truly brought Amy Harmon's lovely prose and fascinating plot to life.