The Leaning Pile of Books
Aug
18
2024

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

I missed covering a book last weekend, but two more ARCs came in the mail recently that can join the previous week’s book. (The news here in the US also distracted me one weekend so I didn’t end up covering some books I purchased, but I decided to just stick to the recent arrivals since those are all well known book titles: the three books in the first Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy and The Song of Achilles, which was just as good as I’d heard.)

There has been one new book review since the last one of these features: Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland. Although I did like one of the characters, the prose, pacing, and lack of in-depth characterization and worldbuilding didn’t really work for me.

On to the latest books!

Cover of The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow

The Scarlet Throne (False Goddess Trilogy #1) by Amy Leow

Amy Leow’s debut novel will be released on September 10 in the US and September 12 in the UK (paperback, ebook, audiobook).

The publisher’s website has an excerpt from The Scarlet Throne.

During Women in SF&F Month this past April, Amy Leow discussed her love of unhinged characters and her main character:

I wanted messy women. Batshit-crazy women. Women who don’t have to justify anything they do to others.

So I created Binsa, the main character of The Scarlet Throne. She is a vicious young girl who—while shaped by her circumstances and her mother’s questionable parenting choices—is very much ambitious of her own will, and will stop at nothing to get her way. I purposely wrote her as lacking a clear “motivation” for her villainy too: because just as some are altruistic in nature, some are wicked. In Binsa, I wanted to create a character who is utterly evil and irredeemable—and for her to thrive with those characteristics.

You can read her essay “Villains, Grey Areas, and What Women Can and Cannot Be” in its entirety here.

I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since I first saw its description, which mentions it is political epic fantasy with scheming, morally grey heroines, and talking cats—and I’m also intrigued by the peek I took at the beginning.

 

A dark, heart-thumping political epic fantasy by debut author Amy Leow—full of scheming demons, morally grey heroines, talking cats, and cut-throat priests, this delicious tale of power and corruption will captivate from beginning to end.

Binsa is a “living goddess,” chosen by the gods to dispense both mercy and punishment from her place on the Scarlet Throne. But her reign hides a deadly secret. Rather than channeling the wisdom of an immortal deity, she harbors a demon.

Though, one cannot remain a living goddess forever. When her temple’s priests decide that Binsa’s time in power has come to an end, a new girl, Medha, is selected to take over her position as goddess. But Binsa refuses to be discarded into a life of uncertainty as a young woman, and she strikes a deal with her demon: She will sacrifice her people’s lives in order to magnify his power, and in return, he will help her seize control from the priests once and for all.

But how much of her humanity is she willing to trade for the sake of ambition? Deals with demons are rarely so simple.

Cover of Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

New York Times bestselling author Naomi Novik’s short story collection will be published on September 17 (hardcover, large print paperback, ebook, audiobook). This includes some stories related to her novels, as well as one set in the same world as her next epic fantasy series: Abandon, described as “a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.”

I adored Naomi Novik’s standalone fairy-tale-like fantasy novel Uprooted, and I ended up really enjoying the Scholomance trilogy after I gave it a second chance so I’m excited about this one.

 

A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy, through the realms next door to Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories. Here, among many others, we encounter:

• A mushroom witch who learns that sometimes the worst thing in the Scholomance can be your roommate.

• The start of the Dragon Corps in ancient Rome, after Mark Antony hatches a dragon’s egg and bonds with the hatchling.

• A young bride in the Middle Ages who finds herself gambling with Death for the highest of stakes.

• A delightful reimagining of Pride & Prejudice, in which Elizabeth Bennet captains a Longwing dragon.

• The first glimpse of the world of Abandon, the setting of Novik’s upcoming epic fantasy series—a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.

Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: wrestling with destiny, and the lengths some will go to find their own and fulfill its promise.

Cover of The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart

The Gods Below (The Hollow Covenant #1) by Andrea Stewart

The first book in Andrea Stewart’s new series will be released on September 3 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

If you’re looking forward to this novel, you might want to check out the preorder campaign and see if there’s a participating bookstore near you (as of right now, they are in Elk Grove, CA; Washington, DC; Lake Forest Park, WA; and Brookline, MA). The character bookmarks are pretty (and one of them includes a cat!).

The Drowning Empire, Andrea Stewart’s first series, was set in a fascinating world with bone shard magic and mysteries (plus one of the cutest animal companions ever!). Of course I was curious about her next series, especially since it features clashes between sisters and gods.

 

In this sweeping epic fantasy comes a story of magic, betrayal, love, and loyalty, where two sisters will clash on opposite sides of a war against the gods. 

A divine war shattered the world leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And, as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms – if they survived at all.

Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself, and her sister Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighboring kingdom. But when tragedy separates them, Hakara is forced to abandon her beloved sister to an unknown fate.

Alone and desperate for answers on the wrong side of the world, Hakara discovers she can channel the magic from the mysterious gems they are forced to mine for Kluehnn. With that discovery comes another: her sister is alive, and only the rebels plotting to destroy the God Pact can help rescue her.

But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.

Review of Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland
Aug
07
2024
Five Broken Blades
by Mai Corland
512pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.79/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.86/5
 

As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Book Description:

It’s the season
for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

Five Broken Blades, the first book in The Broken Blades series, was one of my most anticipated 2024 book releases. It sounded rather promising as a fantasy novel inspired by Korean myths and legends featuring deceptive, morally gray characters who form an unstable alliance—and multiple romances involving these characters with their penchants for treachery and betrayal.

Unfortunately, I found Five Broken Blades underwhelming in the end, despite being intrigued by where it was going toward the beginning. It kept me just curious enough to finish it: it was a quick read with short chapters, I was at least somewhat interested in one main character, and I thought maybe the conclusion would make it worthwhile. (It didn’t. It dragged when leading up to the Big Heist/Assassination Scene that was promised, and then that was rushed and not nearly as exciting as I’d hoped.) Given its overall lack of in-depth worldbuilding and characterization and the fragmented prose style, this was not a book for me and I have no plans to read the sequel (Four Ruined Realms, scheduled for January 2025).

Despite the number in the title, Five Broken Blades actually follows six characters brought together by a plot to steal a MacGuffin and kill a supposedly immortal god king. They are neatly split into three pairs with some sort of romantic dynamic:

  • Instalove: The hardened hitman and the bubbly thief who hires the former as her bodyguard, who are immediately into each other.
  • Potential Second Chance: The exiled prince and his ex-boyfriend, the king’s spymaster, who still have feelings for each other.
  • Possible Enemies-to-Lovers (sort of, since it’s a bit one-sided and the milder, not-so-stabby version): The enslaved poison maiden and the son of the count who purchased and forged her, the latter of whom has been enchanted by the former for years while she sees him as a villain.

These all had potential to be interesting, but these first-person perspectives are all written in a choppy style that makes it easy to read but is bland since they’re similar. Furthermore, they lack nuance and the various characters’ traits become repetitive.

Sora, the poison maiden, was the only one of these characters I found at all compelling. She’s one of the few survivors of a group of girls who were created to literally kill with a kiss, able to wear lethal poisonous lipstick because of mithridatism, although the experience did leave her with hearing loss in one ear. An adult by the time the novel begins, she’s a courtesan/assassin who only remains obedient to the count who forced her into this role out of fear for her younger sister. Though Sora isn’t what I consider to be a terribly dimensional character, there is more to her than the others with her backstory, motivations, fierceness, and desire to create good where she can. (Plus I have a soft spot for characters who use being seen as harmless to their advantage.)

The other characters were a mix. Though he isn’t directly involved in the conspiracy and only gets chapters a bit later, I liked the count’s son well enough. His perspective meant more focus on Sora, and I’m also partial to characters like him: those who are under an authority figure’s control but try to find ways to keep things from being as bad as they could be under that person. The exiled prince and his ex-boyfriend were not all that memorable or compelling to me, even though they were interesting in theory between their past relationship and the added complications of one being the king’s brother and the other the king’s spymaster—and the secret one of them was hiding.

However, I much preferred them to the thief and her bodyguard, who started mentally drooling over each other about 10 seconds into their first encounter. Instalove is probably my least favorite romantic trope, and I also found the thief’s perspective irritating since it was not very graceful about the fact that she was leaving things out of her narrative. I love this sort of narration when it’s a bit tricky and less conspicuous, but I don’t like it when it draws attention to how mysterious it is that all these details are deliberately being omitted.

Five Broken Blades laid the foundation for a great novel given that it’s basically a heist story with a group of untrustworthy people who are supposed to work together to make it happen, and the characters and their dynamics are intriguing on the surface. However, it didn’t have enough in-depth characterization or worldbuilding for me as a reader, and I had problems with its pacing, narrative style, and lack of subtlety. Although I’d hoped the ending might make the rest worthwhile, it just convinced me I didn’t care to read the sequel when I was not even interested in most of the characters.

My Rating: 5/10 (only because of Sora)

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from a publicist.

Read an Excerpt from Five Broken Blades

The Leaning Pile of Books
Jul
14
2024

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Last week brought a finished copy of a rather pretty recently released novel, one that was included in my anticipated 2024 speculative fiction book releases.

In case you missed the last post since one of these features, I wrote an overview of my 2024 reading so far after seeing this post on Lady Business. This survey covers my favorite books read this year, my favorite debut, books I want to read, and more.

On to the latest book added to the TBR!

Cover of The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song

The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song

An Echo in the City author K. X. Song’s first fantasy novel, a reimagining of the legend of Mulan, was released on July 2 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

The Penguin Random House website has a text excerpt from the beginning of the novel and an audio sample, a reading guide, and K. X. Song’s tour schedule (currently an event at Books Inc. in Palo Alto, CA).

I was curious about this one from the first time I heard about it since I love retellings of myths and legends, but I was even more interested in it after seeing the author’s statements about it with an excerpt on Today, including the following:

‘The Night Ends with Fire’ takes my love for the Chinese wuxia drama – with its epic scale, star-crossed romance, and emotionally charged plot full of hairpin turns – and melds it with my interest in questions of female ambition and power, and what it costs.

This article also mentions some questions about Mulan that the author explored, such as: “What if, upon experiencing freedom disguised as a man, she no longer wished to confine herself to the restrictive gender boundaries of her society?”

 

Infused with magic and romance, this sweeping fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny—even if that means going against everyone she loves.

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.

The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.

In the army, Meilin’s relentless hard work brings her recognition, friendship—and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her kingdom barrels toward destruction, Meilin begins to have visions of a sea dragon spirit that offers her true power and freedom, but with a deadly price.

With the future of the Three Kingdoms hanging in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust—Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, who has his own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew—about her kingdom and about her own heart.

2024 Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag
Jul
01
2024

With the year halfway over, I thought it would be fun to reflect on books read this year so I’m considering myself tagged and doing this survey I saw on Lady Business. If you see this here and also want to do this overview of your own 2024 reading so far, you can consider yourself tagged too!

I wasn’t sure how much I’d have to discuss at first since I’ve basically read only 3 new-to-me standout books this year, but there was enough variety here that I managed to cover more than just the books I thought were excellent (even if some of those did come up more than once). It hasn’t even been an especially bad reading year; it’s just that the majority of the books I’ve read so far this year fall into the 7/10 category, meaning they’re good, solid books but not ones I found especially memorable. But then, I have also left several books that I didn’t find compelling unfinished, including a couple I had been really excited about, so it certainly hasn’t been the best reading year either!

Cover of Warchild by Karin Lowachee Cover of The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman Cover of Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

Best book you’ve read so far in 2024

This is a tough one because I reread one of my favorite books ever and also discovered a new book I absolutely loved.

The book I reread is Warchild by Karin Lowachee, the first book in my favorite science fiction series. I wanted to read it again before writing about the series here, and I was once again amazed by Karin Lowachee’s skill at writing characters with such depth and the way she digs into dark subjects and trauma.

The best new-to-me book I read this year is The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, a historical fiction book about the War of the Roses and Richard III. I read this after adoring the author’s Welsh Princes trilogy, and I loved this one because it was sprawling and epic and also has many characters who are very flawed but also have good qualities. Sharon Kay Penman’s books were recommended for A Song of Ice and Fire fans, and though there are no fantastical elements, they’re an excellent fit if you’re looking for something with a wide cast of characters with different motivations and court intrigue/politics.

The best 2024 release I’ve read this year is Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel, a reimagining of the Mahabharata that focuses on the goddess Ganga and her son. It’s beautifully written, and I loved how Vaishnavi Patel captured the perspective of a goddess and the emotions she had about humanity, as well as the exploration of questions related to duty and responsibility.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2024

In an unusual turn of events, I’ve only read one sequel so far this year: Under the Silence by Karin Lowachee, a novella that is set after the second book in The Warchild Mosaic, Burndive. I didn’t love it quite the same way as the novels, but as a fan of the series, I’m glad I read it. It’s a lovely, character-driven story about a changing relationship that’s delicate because of scars that make it impossible for someone to just be close to someone else, no matter how much they want to be.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

There are a couple of these that come to mind, both of which were on my anticipated 2024 releases list.

Medea by Eilish Quin is a reimagining of the story of the titular Greek sorceress, and I was especially interested in reading it after seeing an interview with the author discussing retellings, questioning narrator reliability, and wanting this novel to make people think more critically about storytelling.

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar is a science fiction novella about power and academia set on a generation space ship, and editor Emily Goldman described it as “‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ taken to whole new level.”

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

If I had to pick just one, I think I’d choose A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang, an epic historical fantasy novel inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi. I love mythic/epic/historical fantasy, and it has a protagonist infiltrating a palace for the good of her kingdom, which is something else I love: characters spying and pretending to be someone else.

There are others I’m excited for as well, though:

  • The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi, the final book in the trilogy that began with my 2022 Book of the Year, The Final Strife
  • Mistress of Lies by K. M. Enright, which features a villainous, bloodthirsty heroine and court intrigue
  • The Mountain Crown, the first novella in a new fantasy trilogy by Karin Lowachee that features dragons
  • The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow, a debut novel with a power-hungry protagonist and talking cats

These were all also on my anticipated 2024 releases list.

Biggest disappointment

Of the books I actually finished reading, The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent was my biggest disappointment. I loved the beginning and the non-romantic relationships introduced there, and then I found the tournament and romance to be dull and rushed. (Since I was busy with holidays and then sick shortly after starting it, I thought it might be those and not the book, but I went through it again later and found those had nothing to do with my experience and opinions.)

If going by books I was very excited to read but didn’t finish, it would be To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang.

Biggest surprise

This probably isn’t the way this was intended to be answered, but I don’t have a book that took me by surprise by how much I ended up loving it so I’m going with a book I was surprised I didn’t love more: The Hidden City by Michelle West. From all I’d heard about this book and The House War series, I expected to love it, but instead I thought it was decent enough with a nice found family dynamic without being something I found especially notable.

I’m on the fence about continuing the series since it also didn’t actually get to any of the house wars of the series title yet. If you’ve read the series, does the next book have more intrigue or is this a case where the first book is a pretty good indicator of how much I’d enjoy the other books? Should I try another one of the series set in this same world?

Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Samantha Mills is my pick for favorite new author after reading her debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back. This science fantasy has a unique setting and some pretty writing, and it also explores fascism, extremism, complicity, disillusionment, and well, a lot. (It’s my favorite 2024 release after Goddess of the River.)

Newest favorite character

That would have to be Richard from The Sunne in Splendour, who was portrayed as someone who tried hard but still had flaws and made mistakes. In particular, the depiction of his complicated relationship with his brother Edward was wonderfully done.

Book that made you cry

There haven’t been any books that made me cry so far this year, but The Sunne in Splendour came closest since it had its share of tragedy.

Book that made you happy

I haven’t read anything new that qualifies, but I recently reread the first book in The Dark Elf Trilogy, Homeland by R. A. Salvatore. It was fun to revisit the start of Drizzt’s story, seeing him doing his best while surrounded by followers of Lolth and their political machinations, and his friendship with the panther Guenhwyvar made me happy.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I am horrible at sticking to any sort of plan since I’m a mood reader and easily distracted so I won’t say there’s anything I need to read by the end of the year, but there are books I’d like to read by then. Those books include all the 2024 releases I mentioned earlier. As for books I haven’t mentioned here yet, I’d like to reread Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart and then read Kushiel’s Chosen and Kushiel’s Avatar for the first time. I’d also like to reread She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan before finally reading He Who Drowned the World.

The Leaning Pile of Books
Jun
09
2024

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Last week brought an ebook I’m rather excited about—after all, it was featured as one of my anticipated 2024 speculative fiction book releases.

In case you missed it last week, I posted a review of The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent. This was a bit of a frustrating book for me because I loved the beginning, thought the ending was intriguing, and enjoyed the father/daughter relationship, but was underwhelmed by everything else (especially the dull trials and the central relationship in this fantasy romance, which were rather rushed).

On to the latest book, which sounds amazing!

Cover of The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee

The Mountain Crown (The Crowns of Ishia #1) by Karin Lowachee

The Mountain Crown, the first book in a trilogy of fantasy novellas with dragons, will be published on October 8 (trade paperback, ebook).

In an interview about her upcoming novella on Transfer Orbit, Karin Lowachee discussed colonialism, dragons, her growth as a writer, and more. I love so much of what she said here, especially about why she writes and what hasn’t changed for her as a writer, and here’s a bit about what she wanted to do with this particular novella:

Specifically with The Mountain Crown, I wanted to write a woman who is grounded in her spirituality, who is contained, who is purposeful in her movements, who outsiders might consider stoic, who is capable without being flashy, who (Western) readers might consider passive as if it’s a fault (it isn’t). I wanted to write about her culture that seeks other avenues besides war, that is connected to nature on an atomic level in a conscious way. I wanted this story to unfold in its own way, with a character who wasn’t pushing to be pigeonholed as a specific type of personality. I think my focus on these aspects of both character and story are because I’ve become interested in narratives that explore people and ways of living that aren’t the commonly considered Western narratives of “active” protagonists and constant “action” to drive a plot.

I’m particularly excited about this book because Karin Lowachee’s Warchild Mosaic is my favorite science fiction series. As I wrote in a post highlighting it during this year’s Women in SF&F Month, “Karin Lowachee has the gift of creating characters that are more complex, flawed, compelling, and real than most fictional people.”

 

An epic dragon-rider quest where Empress of Salt and Fortune meets Temeraire

Méka must capture a king dragon, or die trying.

War between the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor has left no one unscathed. Méka’s nomadic people, the Ba’Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Those who remained were forced to live under the Kattakan yoke, to serve their greed for gold alongside the dragons with whom the Ba’Suon share an empathic connection.

A decade later and under a fragile truce, Méka returns home from her exile for an ancient, necessary rite: gathering a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country. But Méka’s act of compassion toward an imprisoned dragon and Lilley, a Kattakan veteran of the war, soon draws the ire of the imperialistic authorities. They order the unwelcome addition of an enigmatic Ba’Suon traitor named Raka to accompany Méka and Lilley to the mountains.

The journey is filled with dangers both within and without. As conflict threatens to reignite, the survival of the Ba’Suon people, their dragons, and the land itself will depend on the decisions – defiant or compliant – that Méka and her companions choose to make. But not even Méka, kin to the great dragons of the North, can anticipate the depth of the consequences to her world.

Review of The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Jun
06
2024
The Serpent & the Wings of Night
by Carissa Broadbent
480pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.31/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.33/5
 

As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Serpent & the Wings of Night is the first book in The Nightborn Duet, the first of three related fantasy romance duologies in The Crowns of Nyaxia series. After seeing a lot of praise for this novel and reading a bit of the beginning, I was looking forward to it. (I may have also been a bit more intrigued by vampire books than usual due to my favorite character from Baldur’s Gate 3.)

Yet, as much as I loved its beginning, I was underwhelmed by almost everything between its earliest chapters and its intriguing conclusion. There wasn’t much depth to the worldbuilding and characterization, and the overall story seemed rushed, especially the early stages of the romance and the tournament. (Seriously, I never realized trials to the death could be so dull.)

Set in a secondary fantasy world, The Serpent & the Wings of Night follows Oraya, the human daughter of a vampire king, as she competes in a four-month-long tournament honoring the goddess who created vampires. Held only once per century, the competition contains five trials that each represent a key part of the goddess’ life and ascension to divinity. Though only one contestant survives, there is no shortage of volunteers since the winner receives a favor from the goddess herself—and Oraya intends to become powerful enough that she’ll never need to fear being a human with tasty blood living among vampires ever again.

But when she makes a temporary alliance with one of her rivals, she ends up falling for him and starts to question her father’s ways, complicating everything.

The Serpent & the Wings of Night was a strange, frustrating book for me. It had such potential and there were a couple of things I loved about it, but other than the beginning and ending, I found it uninteresting. I thought this may have been due to reading it while I had a really bad cold and that I might have enjoyed it more if I’d felt better when I read it. However, I went through it again in order to write this review and was able to confirm that illness had nothing to do with my prior experience.

As I mentioned previously, the opening did hook me. One of my biggest disappointments with this book is that it introduces a couple of really compelling relationships in the prologue and first couple of chapters—that between Oraya and her father as well as her friendship with an older human woman—and the romantic relationship pales in comparison to these. I loved the prologue, which shows the vampire king Vincent finding Oraya, a lone orphaned child so fierce and determined to survive that he saw some of himself in her and wanted to protect her.

The father/daughter bond was by far the best part of this novel, and though neither of these characters were even close to the most complicated characters I’ve encountered, they had an interesting dynamic with at least some complexity. Even though the ruthless vampire king wasn’t a good person or a good father, he did truly care about his daughter and wanted what he thought was best for her, and his fears for her were valid. I appreciated that this wasn’t a simple, easy-to-define relationship, especially as Oraya had to reckon with the parts of her father she didn’t know about after having spent her entire life seeing him as the only one she could trust. (Unfortunately, the aforementioned friendship with the human woman isn’t as prominent and only comes up occasionally in memories after the opening.)

Much of the novel covers the span of the four-month-long tournament that has five trials spread throughout that period, and I thought the lack of worldbuilding and rushed pacing made everything related to the competition rather dull. Most of the individual trials only get a short couple of chapters or so, and they’re accompanied by brief infodumps about how they tie into the goddess’ life without making the mythology and her backstory feel like a big part of it.

That may be due to this being in the fantasy romance category rather than fantasy with romance, but even the central relationship seemed hastily developed. After Oraya and her love interest forge an alliance, it just glosses over all the training they do together, skipping over a lot of their getting to know each other. These two had a promising dynamic as a human raised as a vampire who didn’t really understand humanity and a vampire who used to be human and still tries to retain that side of himself, but though sweet, it wasn’t fleshed out enough to be interesting. (And I agree with those who think “There she is” was used far too much.)

Another reason I was underwhelmed by this was the lack of subtlety and depth given to Oraya’s competitors, making it quite clear who is trustworthy and who is not. Maybe my expectations were just all wrong, but given that this novel featured a tournament to the death, I was anticipating glittering danger, betrayals, and questions about different characters’ motivations. But it’s not about who Oraya can trust or whether or not she should trust some people—that’s far too obvious—but whether or not she can learn to trust after spending her entire life mistrusting and fearing everyone but her father. Maybe this would have worked for me if I liked Oraya more, but even though I admired her fierceness and determination at first, she didn’t have much dimension. Her characterization was limited to a small number of traits that kept coming up throughout the story, and these weren’t fleshed out enough to make up for these limits.

The writing was a bit odd for me, and I had such mixed feelings about it. It drew me in during the short prologue showing Vincent finding Oraya, which set up the melodrama of his greatest love being his downfall and how he should have known to protect his heart above all as a vampire. (What can I say, I love a good tragedy.) However, the fragmented prose that worked for me as part of an interlude did not work as well for me throughout a novel, and though there were some lovely parts on occasion, the prose felt rushed to me like everything else. It had a quality I don’t quite know how to describe since it was an unusual reading experience: it made me want to move ahead and not spend time focusing on it. This might sound like a positive aspect, but it just seemed to immediately slip away from me, and I prefer prose that makes me pause and reflect.

Although Oraya needed to stop and think about what she was doing more in the end, the conclusion did intrigue me since it seemed to be setting up more of the dangerous court politics I’d been hoping for. However, I doubt I’ll read the sequel since there’s still no real ambiguity or mystery surrounding character motivations by the end, and this didn’t have enough characterization or worldbuilding for my personal taste.

My Rating: 5/10

Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.