To read A Sword of Gold and Ruin by Anna Smith Spark and its predecessor A Sword of Bronze and Ashes is to be transported in time. To go back to before phones and computers and mass print, to when books were prized possessions of churches and the lords and lairds of the land. To a time when we as people sat around a fire and listened to the aged as they told mystical stories of gods and warriors as a way of passing history and social mores to the next generation.

In A Sword of Gold and Ruin Kanda is trying to piece her family back together again. The sense of loss of control over her children and her helplessness to retain her connection with her daughters grows as she leads their family in search of Roven in the hopes of rebuilding the once shining beacon of hope. We experience the story in two timelines, with the contemporary timeline heavily favoured featuring Kanda and her family’s adventures in their search of the fabled city, and our insights into the Six of Roven (six gold-like warriors Kanda leads in battling monsters across the lands, set long in the past) showcasing why the city is no longer there.

Kanda’s three children and her relationship with them is the core–and most heart wrenching–part of this book. Children grow and push boundaries in rebellion and change and fail and want to have things from their parents, while a parent grows old and more frail and less energised, and their wants and needs change—sometimes at odds with their children’s. I don’t have children, but watching my own parents and my brother’s and friends’ children and interacting with them all as I age … for some reason this aspect of A Sword of Gold and Ruin just really landed with me at this stage of my life. I can’t imagine how heavily this will land with mothers watching their daughters sate their appetites for autonomy.

A Sword of Gold and Ruin retains the aetheric, dreamlike state of its predecessor, with myth and reality blending into the story’s delivery. I love the way this storytelling style delivers such a different reading experience to much of the modern dark fantasy market, and as I alluded to earlier, it takes you back to what feels like a bygone age. It’s heavy, dense at times, relies on a mature reader to flow with it at others, but when Smith Spark chooses to land a punch, it floors you. There are few authors out there who land emotional punches like Smith Spark does.

I say it every time I read one of Smith Spark’s books: this was an experience. I feel like I’ve read my way through a fever-dream. I am exhausted and fulfilled and happy and in need of a popcorn read after finishing A Sword of Gold and Ruin. This book will challenge you like few others, and I think it’d be a rare reader who wouldn’t enjoy the experience.

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