Review: The Language of Liars

The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This little book, only 155 pages, packs quite a punch. It has more depth than you would think for a shorter story. To begin with, it's telling its story from the point of view of a nonhuman protagonist (description left vague for the reader's interpretation--I saw Ro as a furry mole with tentacles). Ro is an Orro Linguist, studying to possibly be the first in generations to "jump"--psychically transferring his consciousness to the mind of another alien species, the Star Eaters, space octopi who mine the element that faster-than-light travel and the very survival of the galactic civilization depends on.

This book delves deeply into language and linguistics, exploring nuances of words and different meanings for different species and cultures, but the point it makes above all is that "Language is unpaired. It will not match like a converted measurement. Only clouds of overlapping colored meaning that, in their shifting, might briefly end up combining to form almost the same hue as a word or phrase or gesture or semantic unit in the other language." Our protagonist Ro, now that he is inhabiting the body of another being, goes through a rough adjustment as he learns to live aboard the mining ship, discovers how to communicate and perceive the world in this new body, and begins to mine the element civilization depends on--all the while attempting to study the new species he finds himself in.

There is a lengthy backstory to all this, from the wars the systems of the conglomerate fought over the element meridian, and the Star Eaters who are the only species that can mine it. The conglomerate eventually settles its war, and asserts control over meridian and the Star Eaters by virtually imprisoning them on board the mining ships, all the while telling themselves the Star Eaters have agreed to their state. This isn't so, but we see how the Star Eaters are brainwashed into accepting their situation, repeating that "work is life" as they labor in the ships. This is dropped into the narrative in small nuggets that gradually unfold, giving us an ever fuller picture of what is happening here.

The final gut punch of the plot is perhaps one other readers may have guessed--is Ro the only linguist who can jump, after all?--but is none the less brutal when it lands (especially if you don't see it coming, as I didn't). (view spoiler)[The Star Eater population had been so small. How many times had each of their minds been overwritten, then overwritten again, by a spy for another people? So many times, so many eras, each parroting a culture none of them understood. Imitating their own invented expectations, until it all flattened to a single note. (hide spoiler)] By that point in the narrative, the reader (or at least this reader) cares about the characters and is absorbed in the story, and this sudden plot twist is devastating. In fact, this book is one of the bleakest I have read in a long time, but it is still compelling.

There's no happy ending here, needless to say. Ro and the Star Eater friends he has made have to carry on, even as the conglomerate and galactic civilization will end up collapsing around them and billions will die. But as Ro says, this is almost justice, as it is the conglomerate's greed and hubris that have led them to this. At the same time, you feel for the species who will not survive, which includes Ro's own people of Orro, as they are living on a world that cannot maintain itself without the shipments of vital supplies enabled by the meridian's FTL capabilities.

This book has many layers, of worldbuilding, characterization, language and ethics. It's short enough that you can read it in one sitting, but the questions it asks and the conundrums it explores will stay with the reader for a long time. It's one of the best I've read this year.

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Review: Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book falls squarely in the "cozy" subgenre of low stakes and a gentler narrative. In this case, there is a magician who threatens to end the world with his spells, but Havelock Renard is such a quirky, eccentric sort that you really can't take him seriously as the typical Evil Magician. Or at least I couldn't, and the protagonist, Agnes Aubert, can't either once she gets to know him. Which she does, quite reluctantly, as he is living in the basement of the new building she rents to house herself and her cats.

Yes, this protagonist runs a rescue cat shelter! This is rather an unusual occupation (or at least I haven't read one like it before, although I'm sure similar stories are out there). The cats play a large part in the story, both in terms of Agnes' devotion to them and the cats serving as plot points. This is set in an alternate-history version of Montreal plus magic and magicians, and the magicians get into various battles that wreck buildings--including Agnes' original shelter, which is why she ends up having to rent Havelock's shop.

In this kind of story, since there aren't world-altering stakes, the characters and their relationships become paramount, and the author succeeds here. Havelock, Agnes, Agnes' sister Elise, and Havelock's apprentice Yannick are well-drawn, interesting people with flaws, quirks and foibles. There is a bare hint of romance between Havelock and Agnes, with blushing and awkwardness on both sides. Havelock is someone who prefers to be left alone with his magic and his magical Artefacts, and really doesn't know what to do with Agnes at first. Agnes, on the other hand, is a widow, still recovering after the death of her husband two years previously, and is rather dismayed to find herself actually liking a magician. Especially one who's allergic to cats and can't follow a checklist (Agnes is the meticulous, extremely organized sort, and Havelock is very much not). But as she gets to know him, she discovers magicians, or at least this one, is not as bad as they are commonly portrayed.

This story is definitely on the lighter side, even with its clashing magicians and potentially world-ending spells. There are quite a few funny moments with the cats and Agnes and Havelock's bickering, and the author shows a talent for snappy dialogue. I don't know if this would qualify as a "beach read," but if you need something to take your mind off the heavier issues in our world today, this should fit the bill.

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Review: Butterfly Effects

Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the latest entry in the long-running InCryptid series, about a family who studies and protects "cryptids" (mythical animals/monsters and sapient beings, such as the Sasquatch, that exist in the hidden underbelly of human society). This is the 15th book in the series. This one focuses on Sarah Zellaby, a "cuckoo" or Johrlac: basically a giant telepathic ambush predator wasp in a human suit. This is the third book in the series to focus on Sarah, and while I missed her previous two books, the author does a pretty good job of bringing the reader up to speed. The backstory is fairly complicated, but the explanation is interwoven between this book's plot without too much infodumping, I thought.

This series has always leaned more towards the SF end of the urban fantasy spectrum, with the cryptids and the family that protects them, and this book expands that even further. I liked this book mainly because of its worldbuilding: Sarah, as a cuckoo "queen," a fully mature Johrlac with powerful psychic abilities, is hauled off to the species' home planet to answer for her sins from the previous books. There's not much time spent on Earth in this one--we see the Johrlac world and culture, and watch as Sarah fights not to be forced into the telepathic "collective" that rules the planet. (That ends up happening anyway, and Sarah's adoptive family rides to her rescue. The emphasis on found family bonds is strong in this book.)

The family featured in this series rotates among several different narrators and their stories, which serves as a nice contrast to the author's other long-running series, the October Daye novels. That series concentrates on one protagonist, October "Toby" Daye, knight of Faerie. Toby has gone through a lot of changes and upheavals over the course of the series, which doesn't happen so much in the InCryptid series with its rotating protagonists (although this one definitely deals with the consequences of the earlier books). For me, the worldbuilding is the main component of this series. There's not too many urban fantasy series around anymore, and Seanan McGuire (along with Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs) seem to be the main standard carriers nowadays. But I quite enjoy these books, and will read them as long as the author keeps putting them out.

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Review: The Last Contract of Isako

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I could not get into this author's Green Bone Saga, but I really liked this. It's a science fiction mystery with a protagonist over fifty: one Isthmus Isako, an "atier" (read: fixer and assassin) on the colony planet of Aquilo. Aquilo was colonized by Earth five hundred years previously, and twenty-five years after the colonists' arrival, contact with the mother world was severed. (This ends up playing a large part in the plot, as exactly what happened is gradually revealed.) The colonists, left to survive and terraform a hostile planet on their own, have developed a rather twisted culture that is capitalism on steroids. The "Company" runs the colony and extends its exploitative tendrils into everyone's life. This is borne out in the very first chapter, when Isako is delivering a dismissal message to two workers. Unfortunately, this doesn't just mean they are being laid off--with no employment, the Company is not going to waste any further resources on them, and they are expected to walk out of the dome-shielded city into the planet's uninhabitable atmosphere and lay down and die.

This goes about as well as you would expect, and Isako ends up killing one of the people she has come to dismiss. This is also part of her job, and why she carries and is trained to use a "longknife" (guns are heavily regulated on the planet, and almost no one is permitted to have one). This first chapter does a nice job of establishing the setting, atmosphere and stakes--namely, that Aquilo is not a good place to live, and I for one would never want to go there. But for Isako, this is all she has ever known, and the story is about her navigating this world and coming to terms with what she has done.

Isako's boss, who holds her exclusive atier contract, ends up being a victim of the excessive jockeying for power on Aquilo, and walks out into the airless waste (what they call the Vastness) himself. This puts Isako in a position of having only a month to either get a new contract, walk into the Vastness, or go "ronin"--basically becoming an assassin-for-hire outside of societal bounds, scratching to survive. But she is offered an unexpected lifeline by one of the higher-up Aquilo power brokers, one Director Savannah Minto. Director Minto is trying to prevent another power broker, one Sandbar Uchi, from ascending to the Board or Directors and altering the Board's balance of power. Isako is given an unlimited credit line and told to dig up any and all dirt on Uchi, stopping him by any means necessary.

What Isako discovers while carrying our her last contract will reach clear to the colony's beginnings and shake loose the secrets the Board has been hiding for centuries. It will also test Isako's loyalties to her own atier caste, giving her a crisis of conscience that sends her on another path. Her last apprectice, Dragonfly Martim, is dragged into this mess as well, and in fact takes over point-of-view and narration about halfway through the book. This shift is a bit abrupt but necessary, as Martim's storyline lays bare the corruption of the Board and exposes exactly what Sandbar Uchi does to join its ranks--which is horrifying.

This book is a layered, absorbing examination of power and its costs, and the extremes of unchecked capitalism. Even though this takes place on another world, it has a lot to say about the terrible path we may be going down here on Earth as billionaires and corporations acquire even more wealth and power. The uniqueness of the protagonist--an older woman--also sets this book apart. It's not a comfortable read in places, but it's worth it.

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Review: Testament of Leaves

Testament of Leaves by Carolyn Ives Gilman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In contrast to some books I've read that I wished could be chopped right in half, this slender novella (97 pages) could have easily gone half again its length, with its dense worldbuilding and characterization. It's certainly a testament to the author's mastery of her craft that she managed to pack so much into a shorter story without making it feel too top-heavy or hard to follow. The ending, while finishing up this particular situation, also leaves open the possibility of further stories with these characters, and I for one would certainly read more.

This is a murder mystery set on a human-colonized planet with a very intriguing backstory. This is revealed bit by bit as the story progresses, just enough to whet the reader's appetite without becoming overwhelming, while leaving the impression that there's much more to be discovered should the author wish. It's also, as we discover, a tale of colonialism and exploitation, and the terrible cringing condescension of those who think that just because they have technology they are superior to the people who have learned to live on an alien planet.

Said alien planet and its ecosystems are also revealed to be possibly genetically engineered, by the ancestors of those who now inhabit it:

"They knew how to make and change living things. They created the creatures of the thicket for their gardens. When the cities were destroyed the garden creatures escaped and multiplied. Eventually they crowded out all the trees, except the ones in the Refuge. Those were the trees the ancients created to be their memory, in case everything else was destroyed." She looked around at the massive archive of leaves. "The trees remember, even though we have forgotten. Every year they write on their leaves in the language and ancients taught them. All of history, all the knowledge of the world is here. We can't read it, but we keep it anyway. Some day we may learn to remember."

I don't know about you, but this idea of a forgotten, fallen, enlightened past, with ancestors who accomplished great and near-godlike things, and their descendants living in the remains and trying to understand them, is catnip for a lot of readers, including me. Andre Norton did that sort of thing with her Forerunners. Gilman's version is different, but just as fascinating. This is also a story of language and assumptions, and misunderstandings, and how a simple inability to talk and be understood can spin into a profound tragedy.

This story doesn't have galaxy-spanning stakes; it's quieter but just as significant, to the characters and world. This is, I think, a story to be read slowly and savored. It takes a little while to sink in, but give yourself time to digest it. It's worth it.

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Review: The Sixth Nik

The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the weirdest book I have read in quite a while. It's also rather unsettling for several different reasons (including one icky plot point I will get to), and the sheer amount of ooey gooey oozing wriggling body horror will put a lot of people off. (I thought I was fairly used to that sort of thing--being a T. Kingfisher fan--but there was more than one point in this book where I almost yucked out.) Having said all that, this is a book of sweeping ambition that aims high. I don't know if it's a complete success, but at the least it could be termed an "interesting failure."

Our protagonist is nine-year-old Sisilla, a "Niffakoq" raised in Greenland Inuit culture (though she herself is not Inuit) and implanted as a baby with the titular "Niks," possible alien tech designed to jumpstart her brain's growth. (The first indication that this book is going to be riddled with body horror is in the very first chapter; one of the niks migrates from its implanted spot and she digs it out of her eye socket with a freaking spoon.) Due to this artificially accelerated growth, Niffakoqs are assigned "Chores"--duties important to Earth society that they carry out--and then die; no Niffakoq lives past the age of 12. (They are also all female--an early indication of the misogyny weaving through the Nuna Naavoq group, which we find out is pretty much equivalent to a cult. There's also the nasty little detail that many parents want their daughters to become Niffakoq due to their prestige and importance--and despite the horribly limited lifespan--with the result that those parents hire people to take their infant daughters to the Nuna Naavoq territory in Greenland, where many babies are left abandoned to die.) Shortly after her ninth birthday, Sisilla's Chore is assigned. She will travel with a small handpicked group to a far distant exoplanet, Fem, which has gone radio silent, to reestablish contact and find out what is happening with the colony.

(The people on Fem are former prisoners exiled to the planet because of a bizarre viral disease, Wolosis, which causes ingrown hairs to spread through the flesh and into the body cavity, filling the inside of the body with hair that never stops growing and kills the patient. Said hair reaches a point before the patient dies where it sprouts out of every orifice. See, I told you a lot of this book is gross. You have to be prepared.)

Sisilla and her group, which consists of four other people--Feng Chaon, biologist and medic; Jayne Mae Marilyn Bardot, engineer and mechanic; Murder 005, Sisilla's bodyguard and head of security/tactical; and Captain Creg Arzan, a NonModded human who hates Sisilla and has a complicated history with her, as we will find out. They all meet aboard the organic ship The Sickness, which is spun up from "moltvats" using stem cells, and which, according to Sisilla, resembles a giant tumor. (It also spontaneously generates rooms with organ tissue and instead of having hallways, sports "throatways.") All these weird-ass and damaged people set out on their journey to Fem, which includes a year and a half in a sort of organic suspended animation, as the ship creates its own wormholes and pulls itself through. This, however, is interrupted by the crew's being awakened by (and this is one of the places where I almost gave it up) a giant placenta that breaks open their chambers and tries to kill them.

Nevertheless, despite all this, the ship reaches Fem and Sisilla sets out to solve the mystery of the planet and its inhabitants. The planet Fem is one of the better parts of the entire book; the setting drips with alien atmosphere, and its metal seas are fascinating. Of course, there are secrets here, which eventually come to light in an explosive climax that reveals that the Wolosis virus has returned and just what is keeping it at bay (just beware of the "superfruits." Gah). This latter section also concentrates on Sisilla's character growth, as she realizes the tribe in which she was raised never cared about her as much as they claimed to, and in fact, exploited her and the other Niffakoq. The ending is a bit abrupt and ambiguous: I personally think Sisilla is dying, but at the last she breaks through the nik-inspired emotional constraints that have been with her all her life and manages one simple but very important thing: she smiles.

This is a challenging read that I for one will likely never return to, and be warned: you have to have a strong stomach to even attempt it. Still, I don't think it's like any other SF book out there. The author takes some very big swings at the fences with this, and your mileage may vary about whether or not he succeeds, but I for one had to admire the effort.

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Review: Daggerbound

Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read (and own) many of T. Kingfisher's books, but this one is delightful. It's not quite what could be called a "cosy," since it has some fairly high stakes and tense moments, but it has some terrific characters. This is set in the author's previously established "World of the White Rat," with dead warriors bound into magical swords, talking animals (including a giant pillbug, who just about steals the show), and, typical for the author, a wonderful slow-burn romance.

Learned Edmund, a brilliant young scholar associated with the Temple of the Many-Armed God (there are many different gods and pantheons in this world) is delivering some books and artifacts--including the aforementioned magical sword, though he has no idea what it is--when he is attacked by brigands on the road and accidentally releases the warrior in the sword, the Dervish. The Dervish is several hundred years old (being bound to the sword, he doesn't age) and is, as we find out, a walking bundle of PTSD and trauma. This is explored over the course of the book. Learned Edmund is leaving behind his temple because he is tired of beating his head against the hidebound elders there--they think women are inferior, among other things--and does not know what he will do now. But this meeting with the Dervish, where Edmund becomes the immortal warrior's wielder, and is bound to him--will change his life.

This is an adventure story, and a tender romance, but the characters are where it really shines. In particular, the aforementioned talking intelligent pillbug (!), Large Francis, is a freaking delight. (I hope she gets her own book someday.) There is a lot of laugh-out-loud humor in this story, humor based on the characters, not slapstick. It's plain to me that the author had a ton of fun writing this book (particularly Chapter 14), and therefore I had a ton of fun reading it.

Just a sample:

"It-would-be-wise. We-know-that-our-appearance-is-often-startling-to-humans." Large Francis flexed her antennae worriedly. "We-had-encountered-several-in-our-journey-and-they-often-ran-away. I-have-made-a-sign-to-help-but-I-do-not-think-it-worked."

"A sign?" asked Edmund.

"Yes-friend-Edmund." Large Francis reached into her pack and pulled out a length of tightly folded cloth. She shook it out and held it up between two legs, forming a banner.

In clear block letters, it read: I DO NOT EAT HUMAN MEAT.

"Oh no," said the Dervish.

I like stories with layered themes and important observations on our real world as much as anyone else, but sometimes you just need a rollicking good adventure. That's what this is.

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Review: The Tapestry of Fate

The Tapestry of Fate by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the Amina al-Sirafi series, featuring a swashbuckling ex-pirate captain who is over forty with an eleven-year-old daughter. That alone would be enough to set this series apart, but this particular book deals with the ramifications of said ex-pirate captain, who has tried to leave her previous profession behind for a decade, being dragged back for one more job. Which, of course, is a familiar trope in itself, bordering on wrinkled and gray-haired, but when it's done this entertainingly, the reader doesn't mind (or at least this reader didn't).

If you think this book likely to be funny or rollicking, however, you are dead wrong. It's pretty dark, and harrowing in places. Amina is tasked with retrieving a so-called Transgression, a magical spindle which, as we come to find out, collects souls and forcibly inhabits bodies. It pairs up with a dying woman and grants her a rather ghastly immortality, and the two of them go on a rampage across the centuries, doling out revenge. Eventually they offend one of the powerful elementals of this world, and are imprisoned on a magical, isolated island. But humans have a habit of washing ashore on this island, and Queen Lab, as she comes to be called, builds a city and society...both based on illusions and lies, and imprisoning people in a never-ending torture in a world that is literally too good to be true, under the guise of "doing what is best for them."

Amina and her crew aboard her ship, the Marawati, sail to said island, and also wash up on the shore. At first, they are taken in by the queen's illusions. One member of the crew, the Mistress of Poisons, Dalila, goes so far as to join up with the queen and express a desire to stay. Dalila is an experienced con artist and seems to be playing both ends against the middle here, with a hidden agenda that eventually comes out (Amina has been poisoned when she rescued Dalila from captivity, and the latter is trying everything, even pretending to suck up to the queen, in her quest for a cure). Amina and Dalila's friendship goes through quite the upheaval in this book, with some nice character development for both.

Amina's estranged husband, Raksh (spirit of chaos, demon, elemental, djinn? Amina still doesn't know for sure) plays a prominent role in this book, with Amina finally agreeing to "let you make me a legend" in exchange for his help in destroying the queen. Raksh seems a right bastard most of the time, but he comes through in his own twisted way when the chips are down. The queen is defeated, the city's survivors brought on board the Marawati, and Amina sails across the ocean to reunite with the family she left behind...only to discover, in the last scene and page of the book, that...and I'm not going to reveal this here. Go to Goodreads to find out. 

Oh my god. When I got to that last page, I let out a shriek. I need the next book, like, yesterday.

There's some relevant themes of hubris and power in this story, and a ruler actually thinking they have the right to impose their will on their subjects, all with the idea of making things better for them. The hatred of those subjects who were never asked, and their desperate need to escape even if such escape ends in death, makes a pretty indelible impression, both on Amina and the reader. This book is definitely not for those who want their pirates light and frothy and repeatedly exclaiming "arrr, me hearties." There's quite a bit of grimness to it, so be prepared.

Nevertheless, this is a worthy follow-up to the first book, if you can stand that cliffhanger and all of its implications. It certainly turns the series upside down, and I hope the follow-up lives up to it.

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Review: A Trade of Blood

A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the series formerly titled "Shadow of the Leviathan," but now known simply as "Ana & Din Mysteries." That is indeed what the books are, but I much prefer the previous series title. These mysteries are set in a fascinating fantasy world, with giant kaiju monsters that come ashore every year, and an empire that kills them to fuel an economy based on genetic engineering, made possible by substances extracted from the creatures' bone and blood. The Empire of Khanum has a centuries-old history, and the books are slowly pulling back the curtain on that history, most of which seems to be dark indeed.

This book, for example, tackles Khanum's meat industry, and the giant cattle they engineer to meet the demand for beef. Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol are again our protagonists, the former a genius who tries to hide away from the world, the latter with an altered brain that forgets nothing. Din gathers information and reports, and Ana analyzes, evaluates and finds the hidden truths in everything Din witnesses. They work for the Imperial institution tasked with bringing justice, the Iudex. But there are also secrets both held by Ana and Din, and in particular this time around we are given more hints as to who--and what--Ana really is. (The author has been hinting and dancing around this revelation for the past two books, and I hope in the next one he blasts Ana's true identity wide open.)

There is a lot of body horror in this book, of the fungal Last of Us kind, so if you're sensitive to that, be warned. But the central conflict is far more familiar: family. A younger generation that wants to throw off what it views as the shackles of the elder, and an older generation that does terrible things for the younger--a father preparing for his son to inherit via manipulation, murder and mayhem, all the things his son never asked for.

"He will not come," I said to him.

"N-no," he whispered. "He must. He must come."

"He will not. He was clear."

He swallowed,eyes swirling in his head as he thought. "Will you carry a message for him, then, Iudex? Tell him..." Again he swallowed, face wrinkling with pain. "Tell him it was...it was all for him. I did it for him. And it did work, yes? She has...she made him heir."

I said nothing.

"I knew it would be so," whispered Trikao. "And I knew my...my sister would not live long. I fade, yes. But I fade victorious at least."

"Your son will not come, sir," I said. "But he has a message for you."

"Oh? Please, t-tell me."

"He says he intends to sell all the Armenta spread when he inherits."

His eyes opened wide. A low, creaking cough came from deep within him.

"Wh-what?" spat Trikao.

"Ippeas will sell it all. He intends to sell it and leave this place. He will not sell it to one buyer, either. He intends to sell it to many different holders. Many families, many drovers, many operations. He shall split it all up into dozens if not hundreds of little farms and put an end to the house of Armenta."

A weak, unhappy wheezing came creaking out of Trikao's mouth. "But...no. No, I...did it for him. Doesn't he see that? I,I did it for him..."

"So you say," I said. "But he wished me to tell you--I never asked for it."

This theme of the tangled web of families is also bleeding over into our main characters, with what is revealed about Din and especially Ana. But the main draw for me is the worldbuilding: this horrifying, fascinating world, with its dark history and darker secrets, including an apparent genocide. This third entry in the series is leaner and meaner than the second, and every bit as good as the first book, The Tainted Cup (and that book won both the Hugo for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award), if not better. There's not a lot of authors I auto-buy in hardback, but Robert Jackson Bennett is one of them.

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Review: The Killing Spell

The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a pretty interesting fantasy debut, dealing with language and magic, assimilation and colonization. The author is a native Hawaiian. I think this book illustrates the value of so-called "Own Voices," or people other than generic white authors publishing stories reflecting their ethnic groups and cultures. I doubt a white person could have written anything like this.

In this future, the Hawaiian Islands have been destroyed by an apocalyptic Flood, and the native survivors are living in and around Los Angeles. The Flood also released magic into the world, a magic that depends on languages and linguistics. The future federal government cannot cope with this at all, and a governing Board and Guild is established in LA to police and ultimately control magic users. There are eight recognized magical languages: Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese. Magical practitioners speaking these languages are highly regulated, and Casters or Smiths (the two designated levels of magical users) must be licensed within city limits to be able to practice their magic.

Our protagonist is Kealaokaleo Petrova, a young unlicensed Smith living on Homestead, a coastal region where the last remnants of the Hawaiian people settled after they were displaced. Homestead is rife with magic (called "mana" in this world) and magic-spawned monsters, and Kea is the struggling leader of her clan, trying to work and help her family survive. She is abruptly dragged in to see the Board (by the other protagonist, the Chinese Caster Sora Kaiser) because a murder has been committed: murder by magic, by someone spellcasting in an unregulated language. They have no proof it was done by Kea, but suspicion is falling her way, and she agrees to hunt down the murderer to spare her people from the Board's wrath.

There's some interesting worldbuilding here, built on languages and particularly the Hawaiian language, which does not have a written form. The author herself being Hawaiian gives the story an extra authority, as the reader can trust she knows what she's talking about. The impacts of colonization are also explored, along with the greed and hubris of those who have power and think they can dictate to others they view as "lesser."

This is a first novel, so it does have some hiccups, but overall it's a promising debut. It will be interesting to see what the author comes up with next.

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