Magic is women’s work; war is men’s. But in the coming battle, none of that will matter.
Men do not become mystics. They become warriors. But eighteen-year-old Salo has never been good at conforming to his tribe’s expectations. For as long as he can remember, he has loved books and magic in a culture where such things are considered unmanly. Despite it being sacrilege, Salo has worked on a … worked on a magical device in secret that will awaken his latent magical powers. And when his village is attacked by a cruel enchantress, Salo knows that it is time to take action.
Salo’s queen is surprisingly accepting of his desire to be a mystic, but she will not allow him to stay in the tribe. Instead, she sends Salo on a quest. The quest will take him thousands of miles north to the Jungle City, the political heart of the continent. There he must gather information on a growing threat to his tribe.
On the way to the city, he is joined by three fellow outcasts: a shunned female warrior, a mysterious nomad, and a deadly assassin. But they’re being hunted by the same enchantress who attacked Salo’s village. She may hold the key to Salo’s awakening—and his redemption.
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C.T. Rwizi’s debut novel is truly exceptional, a sprawling epic of afrofuturism (or is that afrofantasy?) that takes us on a journey to a darkly beautiful post-apocalyptic world. The characters are fully realized and the cultures they come from and move among are detailed and lovely…and this includes the villains. I did not want to put this book down; the only issue was that it ended too quickly (despite its length). Here’s hoping the inevitable sequel will be just as good. (I’m actually getting the feeling that this is one manuscript that had to be split).
The book leaves me with more questions than answers, but that’s absolutely fine; it was hard to walk away from Rwizi’s world.
I would specifically recommend this book to fans of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive; the peculiar blending of science and magic ends up with a similar feel to Sanderson’s precise, pseudo-scientific magic systems.
The one caveat: If you are a genre purist who doesn’t like high technology in your fantasy or magic in your SF, you might find this book is not to your taste; even after reading it I’m not *entirely* sure where on the side of the genre line it falls and I’m not sure it matters.
Very much worth the read.
An astounding debut. The mixture of legend, fantasy, magic and technology that makes up the world building is brilliant. Some people might be put off by the full story not concluding with this book, especially when the description doesn’t allude to the fact it will be a continuation. This a pet peeve of mine as well and often results in my never reading anything by the author again (honestly, why are so many books ending incomplete or with cliffhangers these days?), but in this case, I’m more than willing to eagerly await the second installment. Few authors can pull that off for me, but C. T. Rwizi delivers.
I was sent a copy of this book from Megan Beatie Communications and 47North for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This is a character-driven fantasy novel which is my favorite to read, and it’s inspired by another culture so when I was asked if I was interested in reading it I jumped at the chance and I was not disappointed. It is really hard to believe that this is a debut novel.
This book has multiple perspectives however this story keeps moving in one direction. I love it when I can follow a story and not have to jump around and keep track of everyone.
From the first chapter, I was pulled into this world. This story takes place in an African inspired fantasy world. You follow multiple perspectives throughout the story but the heart of the story focuses on Salo. In Salo’s world, Men become warriors and Women become Mystics. But Salo doesn’t quite fit into that framework. Through events, Salo becomes a Mystic and in consequence, is sent on a journey for his Queen.
In this journey, Salo picks up two companions that also do not fit into where society wants to place them, which added to my enjoyment of the story.
I can’t wait to see all of these perspectives come together in the next book.
If you enjoy character-driven fantasy novels you really should pick this one up.
Also, If you have read this book and want to talk about it please let me know. There was so much I wanted to say but I didn’t want to spoil anyone.
Salo is an outsider in his tribe despite being the firstborn son to the chief. This is because he is more interested in magic (women’s domain) than becoming a warrior (men’s domain). But, when his people are attacked by a witch, he has no choice but to convince his queen to let him awaken as a mystic. She allows it, but only because she plans on using him and sending him as an emissary to the Jungle City. Along his journey, he befriends a fellow outcast, a female warrior who grew up not too far from Salo’s people; a mysterious wanderer who isn’t entirely human; and a ruthless killer sent to protect Salo. But the witch and others are after him, trying to keep him from reaching the Jungle City. In the Jungle City itself, a princess loses almost everything as unrest in the kingdom spreads and suggests massive changes to their society.
I was drawn to this book because it has magic and a journey. After reading this on the heels of three mysteries, I was ready to settle back in for a nice, long fantasy read. I thought this might be a fast-moving book because of the journey along with a great deal of excitement because of the magic. I was expecting this to be a bit on the intense side. It turned out to be something of a different animal, but what a beautiful animal it was.
The Characters: Gender Role Defying
The characters were probably my least favorite part of this book, but that isn’t saying too much since I still found them interesting and loved getting their backstories so I could better understand them. I did love that each major character was given the chance to tell the story from their perspective with their own lens of the world coloring their storytelling.
However, compared to the world building and the story, they felt a bit lackluster. They tended to fall into set gender roles and it isn’t until later in the book, when there are characters defying those, that they started to be interesting. They didn’t feel quite as bright as every other element of this book, but they did help move the story along.
I did feel like there might have been too many characters. This is a long book. There’s quite a bit of meat to it. Which means I felt like some characters were shoved aside for the sake of the story. It seemed every part of this book was introducing one or more characters. Not all of them were a major character, but the ones the chapter was about were. There were several of them and I couldn’t always tell if the story “forgot” about them for several chapters because they weren’t doing anything interesting or if there just wasn’t enough space for them. The good thing, though, was that they were different from each other and served different masters. It was fascinating to see the webs and designs they created to help drive the story forward.
The Setting: Beautifully African-Inspired
The world building is what really made me fall in love with this book. I adored the world. It was vivid and made complete sense, and had an insanely perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy that couldn’t have made better sense. It was extraordinarily well-crafted with distinct societies and regions that still shared many similarities. Clearly, it was an entire continent divided into individual regions or countries.
I had no expectations of what the world would have to offer when I started reading. I did expect the typical Eurocentric world, so I was insanely pleased to realize this is African-inspired. In a sense, I felt like I was transported to Africa, felt like it could have been Africa, but it was clearly a fantasy version of Africa. I have no idea if some of the terms, especially for the animals and clothing, were accurate or completely made up, but it really gave me an African feeling.
This world swept me away. It was gorgeous. It had details and was sweeping. It felt like a fully contained world. I couldn’t help but want to be immersed in it. It is, though, a very brutal world full of bloodshed, but it was so unapologetic and still full of beauty. I think the world building was my absolute favorite part of this book and I couldn’t wait to find time to continue reading it. I’m anxious for the next book just so I can immerse myself in this gorgeous world again.
The Plot: Surprisingly Slow
I went into this book expecting something fast-moving and exciting. Instead, I found myself so caught up in the world building that I was about 40% of the way through when I realized it was really almost molasses slow. Seriously, this book is long and moves at a crawl despite all the movement in it. But it unfolded so organically and the world was so compelling that it was so easy to forgive. Until I hit somewhere around 60% and finally found out what on earth was actually going on in this book. Still, I didn’t care because it really was that gorgeous.
There are so many webs, so many machinations. It’s a giant game with tons of moving pieces. Actually, it felt like there might have been too many pieces, too many puppet masters. I thought they were all interesting and I wanted to read more about them, but the story was so slow and massive that there didn’t seem to be any time for them to really be seen much. It was a little disappointing and made this book feel almost too big and too close to collapsing on itself, but it was still a delightful read.
I loved that it unfolded naturally. Events happened because of what the characters did and who they were. It made the entire story make sense, almost was though I were reading the adventures of actual people. It all flowed nicely and the pace was actually decent despite how slow it moved. Every scene felt necessary, every pain, every battle. It all played an important role and really opened up the story so it could hold, barely, everything. Still, I did sometimes feel it was a little too ambitious, a little too much, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy every second of it.
The one thing that bothered me was how brutal and bloody this book is. It is unapologetic and relentless. There was so much violence, so much pain, so much brutality and disregard for human life, but it all made sense. It all had its place. Usually, my eyes tend to skip over scenes like those the closer I get to the end, but there was something compelling about them that made me read almost every bloody word. Still, I could have done with less violence. On the other hand, it would have taken away from both the story and the world building and would have kept much of the characters and their development hidden. In this case, I would say the bloody violence was necessary.
Overall: The World Building is the Best Part
The world building is the high point of this book. It was amazing and unique without being too outlandish. It really drew me in, which helped me really get into the story. I wanted to explore this world along with the characters and watch how the story unfolded. It was a little too violent for my tastes and the characters weren’t quite as glittering as I would have liked, but this was still a fascinating and beautiful read, definitely not something to be missed if you love world building.
Thank you to Netgalley and 47North for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Salo wants to become a mystic. This is unheard of. All the mystics in the tribe have been women. He sticks to it and passes the test. He is their first male mystic. Not everyone is happy about that.
When his village is attacked and everyone there dies, he has no choice but to set out on the quest his queen had given him. This is a long tale and it’s full of magic and warfare. It’s not boring, you get involved in the characters, and you’ll find yourself turning pages until the end. Salo sets off on a journey and finds three companions to come with him. It’s good he has them, there are men after him who don’t want him to finish his quest. He has a shunned female warrior, a mysterious nomad, and a deadly assassin. They are good at fighting those against him. The mysterious nomad is not all human…
The story flows well and kept my interest. The author introduces other characters and you follow more than one developing story. This story has a lot of death in it. These characters are warriors and enemies are eliminated. I didn’t feel bad for them. War is war and it might have gone the other way. Salo keeps on with his quest as I read about the other characters. I couldn’t wait to see what happens. This author throws some surprises in his story.
As long as the story is, you still close the book with the thought: It’s over already? The good news? This is book one in a series.