Take a photo of a barcode or cover
cupiscent 's review for:
The Tethered Mage
by Melissa Caruso
I enjoyed this a lot. It's fun adventure fantasy, of the political rather than questy nature, with a whole lotta great lady characters. The stand-out strength, for me, was the depth of consideration. The world and plot really dig into the inequalities and prejudices and othering of magic-powered characters. The characters really dig into hard choices and compromises forced by the various weights upon them. And the political shenanigans engage well with the questions of appearance and trust that matter so much. (Being innocent isn't enough, if you don't look it.)
I particularly enjoyed the main character duo. I loved Amalia, our narrator heroine, with her intimidating (but loving) mother and her weight of expectations and her coming to terms with what she could and couldn't do. Her arc was all sorts of satisfying: never too easy, but holding firmly to hope. And Zaira, the understandably brittle-and-brutal street-tough fire warlock, was an uncompromising delight, never letting the privileged get off easy, and heaps of fun in her unflinching honesty and raucous bisexuality.
Really, my only sadness about this book is while it feeds nicely into a series, this is quite stand-alone-ish, which means the politics isn't quite as twisty and convoluted as it could be. Still great fun, and I'm looking forward to reading onwards!
I particularly enjoyed the main character duo. I loved Amalia, our narrator heroine, with her intimidating (but loving) mother and her weight of expectations and her coming to terms with what she could and couldn't do. Her arc was all sorts of satisfying: never too easy, but holding firmly to hope. And Zaira, the understandably brittle-and-brutal street-tough fire warlock, was an uncompromising delight, never letting the privileged get off easy, and heaps of fun in her unflinching honesty and raucous bisexuality.
Really, my only sadness about this book is while it feeds nicely into a series, this is quite stand-alone-ish, which means the politics isn't quite as twisty and convoluted as it could be. Still great fun, and I'm looking forward to reading onwards!