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A review by looseleafellie
A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert
5.0
I’m always on the lookout for reads similar to my favorite book ever, This Is How You Lose the Time war. When I came across A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert, I instantly got Time War vibes — it’s a science fantasy novella about lovers on opposite sides of a war, after all. But A Necessary Chaos puts a different spin on the concept, with a really cool magic system that had me riveted.
This book follows Vade, an agent of empire, and Althus, an agent of the resistance, who secretly meet for trysts while gathering information for their respective sides. The world feels much broader than the scope of the story, which is a feeling I love in fantasy novellas. The story sweeps from an opulent beach resort to grand high-tech cities to vast forests.
In a longer story, there might be a heavy focus on Vade deconstructing his allegiance to empire and slowly changing his mind, but in a novella, there isn’t space for that. Instead, the story paints a pointed picture of how empires manipulate people into fighting for them, and the rage those people feel when they realize they’ve been tricked.
The crowning jewel of the story is its language-based magic system. Both the empires and the resistance use language to draw magical power, but Althus especially uses it in creative ways to take down the empires. It allows for an interesting layer about the power of words and narrative in either maintaining an empire or dismantling it.
If you’re looking for an inventive science fantasy story that you can devour in an afternoon, you should definitely check this out!
Spice level: Moderately graphic.
CWs: Death, blood, violence, body horror, loss of autonomy, imperialism, mentions of past child abuse and human experimentation.
This book follows Vade, an agent of empire, and Althus, an agent of the resistance, who secretly meet for trysts while gathering information for their respective sides. The world feels much broader than the scope of the story, which is a feeling I love in fantasy novellas. The story sweeps from an opulent beach resort to grand high-tech cities to vast forests.
In a longer story, there might be a heavy focus on Vade deconstructing his allegiance to empire and slowly changing his mind, but in a novella, there isn’t space for that. Instead, the story paints a pointed picture of how empires manipulate people into fighting for them, and the rage those people feel when they realize they’ve been tricked.
The crowning jewel of the story is its language-based magic system. Both the empires and the resistance use language to draw magical power, but Althus especially uses it in creative ways to take down the empires. It allows for an interesting layer about the power of words and narrative in either maintaining an empire or dismantling it.
If you’re looking for an inventive science fantasy story that you can devour in an afternoon, you should definitely check this out!
Spice level: Moderately graphic.
CWs: Death, blood, violence, body horror, loss of autonomy, imperialism, mentions of past child abuse and human experimentation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse
CWs: Death, blood, violence, body horror, loss of autonomy, imperialism, mentions of past child abuse and human experimentation.