Author: Jen Williams
Publisher: Headline
Published Date: February 23, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★★
Awards: British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award) - 2018
REVIEW
I'm not going to lie, but I was a bit skeptical of this book because of how hyped it was. I don't think I've seen one bad review for it on YouTube, and it is one of the highest rated books I've seen in a while on Goodreads. However, I am so happy to say that I absolutely loved every second of this!
SUMMARY:
It follows three main characters; Vintage, Tor, and Noon. Lady Vincenza (Vintage) is somewhat of a upper class human who has money to travel and research creatures known as Behemoth's. They appeared during the Eighth Rain and not much is known about them other than spirits surround them that can kill with a single touch. Tormalin the Oathless is an Eboran, who are a race that have the ability to live up to a thousand years. Or at least they did until the Eighth Rain ended and the tree Ygseril died. Previously, Eborans could drink the sap and gain their extended life as well as the ability to heal. Now they can drink human blood, but it doesn't heal them nearly as well and also curses them with the Flux, which kills them. Fell-Noon, is a Fell witch. This means that she has been imprisoned for ten years (since she was eleven) because of her powers to summon Winnowfire and steal life force from living things with skin-to-skin contact. The book follows their journey to a Behemoth as well as the aftermath of what happens when they get there.
MY THOUGHTS:
Oh man this book was great! I love a complicated plot that makes sense. So many times I feel like fantasy authors make their worlds complicated but it just leads to confusion. Here, Williams has created a fantastic world where the politics and communities just make me more intrigued. I really enjoyed how the beginnings of most of the chapters had parts of Vintage's private letters and research notes. It helped me gain more of an understanding about the world and societal structure as a whole.
Another thing I liked were the characters themselves. Their motives were clear and their actions didn't leave me wondering why they would do certain things. Sometimes, I get the sense that characters wouldn't actually make the decisions that the author wrote, but here Williams' characters were so well written that they felt real. I love good banter among characters and this book definitely had that. Even though Tor was technically under Vintages employ, their relationship felt more like friends. The relationship between him and Noon also progressed really well. I feel like this book had a perfect balance of romance, which was not much.
The action sequences were very compelling as well. They weren't constant as to hit you in the face with scene after scene of fighting, but when they were, the descriptions really let me visualize each characters individual actions. And it wasn't only the fighting sequences that were well described, the characters themselves and their surroundings were as well. A lot of the time an author excels in one, or maybe two aspects of worldbuilding, magic system explanation, and character arcs. Williams did all three and that is what makes me get attached to the story, rate a book 5 stars, and continue a series.
There is a theme in the first two titles as well, with them both being named after weapons within the story. I'm not sure about the 3rd, but it may be as well. Overall, I highly recommend this book and cannot wait to continue the series with Bitter Twins.
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