Sable hated the gods. She hated what men did in their name.Magic is forbidden throughout the Five Provinces; those born with it are hunted and killed. Sable doesn’t know her music holds power over souls—not until, at age nine, she plays her flute before the desert court and accidentally stops her baby sister’s heart, killing her. Horrified by what she’s done and fearing for her life, she flees … life, she flees north, out of Provincial jurisdiction and into the frigid land of exiles and thieves, known as The Wilds. There, Sable lives in hiding, burdened by guilt, and survives as a healer. But now, fifteen years later, someone—or something—is hunting her.
On the run again, Sable’s best chance for survival is Jos, a lethal man from the Five Provinces, who claims to need her skills as a healer to save his dying father, and she needs the large sum of money he’s offered. There’s something about him Sable doesn’t trust, but she doesn’t have many options. A spirit of the dead is hunting her, summoned by a mysterious necromancer, and it’s getting closer.
Sable soon discovers she’s just the start of the necromancer’s plan to take over the Five Provinces, and she’s the only one with the power to stop it. But harnessing her forbidden power means revealing it to the world, and the dangerous Provincial, Jos, she’s beginning to fall for.
Fans of Brandon Sanderson, Sarah J. Maas, and Victoria Schwab will love this dark and epic fantasy adventure.
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action packed with just the right amount of romance between two flawed characters who are working to overcome complicated pasts. Highly recommend!
The second-best book I read in 2018 (and that’s saying something, considering the first was Sanderson’s Oathbringer). What I loved most were the realistic characters and the intriguing worldbuilding. I cannot recommend this highly enough!
Recommend: Sure. If someone is looking for a fast, fun read. My critiques are based more in the plot rather than pacing or style and while you are reading you can kind of put them aside for the most part.
Note: Spoilers ahead.
Pros:
The pacing is actually pretty good. A lot of action and one issue leads quickly into the next issue and after a lot of go, go, go you usually get a brief reprieve to get some character development. I also liked the magic in this book. I liked how she tapped into hers via music and they do give some structure to who is more powerful than who.
I will actually put Jeric’s redemption arc into the pro category. Jeric’s introduction is a violent one and it is made no secret that he considers ‘scabs,’ magic users and iteraans (race of people who have helped scabs – also what Sable is) as sub-human so he hunts and murders them with no grief or hesitation. So when it is quite obvious that they are going to push Sable/Jeric there is that dramatic tension of both of them lying about who they are to meet their own needs (which is great and causes interesting conflicts and power shifts between them). When she finds out who he is, she of course rejects him and he makes excuses that (and this is my critique of the redemption arc) I feel like she actually listens to a little. When he tries to tell her they aren’t that different, I read it and think “Cool motive. You still murdered over a thousand slaves and refugees,” while Sable thinks that “Perhaps there is another side to this” and just – no honey. However, Kloss does have Jeric spend time owning up to what he has done, change his behavior and admit to her that his actions were wrong and take steps to fix it. Ownership, admittance of wrongdoing and attempts at repair are what a lot of redemption arcs ultimately don’t cover fall flat due to ignoring these aspects. His redemption arc is still kind of based on Sable – so when he sees the refugees being hurt he sees her in their place, which isn’t quite the same as saving them because they are people in their own right, but there you go.
Cons:
Needs more women. Fantasy is a great place to explore the problems of reality, but it does get tiring when I read another book, that went through all the trouble of creating different cultures, religions, cities and more only to find that in this fantasy world women have no societal power or the king rapes every slave, who just so happens to be a character of color, within 10 feet of him. Basically every character introduced was a guy and there were essentially three women that had dimension. Of those three, one is the protagonist, one dies pretty early on and one doesn’t interact with another woman until the last chapter of the book. The powerful villain at the end is a woman, which is fun, but she is not a character who gets her own POV chapters. That isn’t essential and her reveal doesn’t come out of left field, hints are dropped in subtly (which is a point in the pro category), but as I write this I can’t really pin down what her motivation was other than the power of the gods or something. Oh and her brother the king raped her growing up because why not?
If the next book in the series gets good reviews I would be interested in reading it. As I stated, the problems I had with it were more based in the plot rather than any stylistic issue, and even then the bones of the world building are good. While reading the book it is easy to set aside the cons and enjoy the ride for the sake of the story.
This book grew on me and suddenly the end arrived too soon. One of the things Kloss handles really well is the relationship between the two main characters who would normally be sworn enemies. She tells a tale of love and hate without stumbling on the tropes that normally turn me off romance. The prose is accomplished with some beautifully written passages, the characters are interesting and full of imperfections and conflicts. There are a few odd turns of phrase and a little repetition, but in the end Kloss’s writing style shines. The story is resolved, but left open enough for the series to continue in interesting ways. A worthy finalist of SPFBO04.
One of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read. The writing is BEAUTIFUL, with a strong tone, cool world building, super creepy bad guys (and the imagery!!) PLUS the characters are fantastic. It’s not very often you get all of that in one book!
What a great book! Loved the world building and the main characters. I can’t wait for the second book!!!