What do you think?
Rate this book
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver
MEET YOUR NEW EPIC FANTASY OBSESSION
No one remembers the calamity that killed the gods and stole the names of their people. Now Shipwright and Shroudweaver are known only by their professions.
She's a master of magical shipbuilding. He's a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails, stitched from the souls of dead sailors. When a chance to save their world sets the horizon alight, they decide they'll stop at nothing to vanquish the ultimate evil, embarking on a deadly race against time to beat the grief-wracked sorceress The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver introduces the most exciting new voice in Scottish fantasy with an epic adventure set in a post-apocalyptic landscape of god-fuelled ships, goth-as-hell villains, shadow-warping assassins, effortless queerness, and well-worn love - unmissable for fans of by Jay Kristoff, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
No one remembers the calamity that killed the gods and stole the names of their people. Now Shipwright and Shroudweaver are known only by their professions.
She's a master of magical shipbuilding. He's a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails, stitched from the souls of dead sailors. When a chance to save their world sets the horizon alight, they decide they'll stop at nothing to vanquish the ultimate evil, embarking on a deadly race against time to beat the grief-wracked sorceress The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver introduces the most exciting new voice in Scottish fantasy with an epic adventure set in a post-apocalyptic landscape of god-fuelled ships, goth-as-hell villains, shadow-warping assassins, effortless queerness, and well-worn love - unmissable for fans of by Jay Kristoff, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
784 pages, Hardcover
First published November 27, 2025
41 people are currently reading
1877 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 6, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is an epic fantasy novel written by Rafael Torrubia and published by Gollancz. A story of epic scope, similar to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, portraying a vast, magical world full of lore and a deliciously layered cast of characters that will engulf you into its pages, all with a prose that remembers epic poems, creating a debut that will be talked about years from.
No one remembers the calamity that stole the names of their people; now most are known by their professions, among them Shipwright, a master of magical shipbuilding, and Shroudweaver, a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails. They've been fighting for three years to keep Crowkisser confined in the South, assuming losses; but when a chance to save the world appears, they embark on a race against time to beat Crowkisser to reach the mountain near the Republic, a place of legends, infested of power, before she unleashes the evil they entombed twenty years ago, a threat that could destroy this world, revealing many secrets about their past in the process.
Torrubia gifts the reader with a marvelously complex cast of characters that become pivotal to this story, steering away from the classical black/white archetypes that are so common in classical fantasy. All of them are captured as people with their own story, a past, which is influencing their current actions.
As you might have imagined from the title, Shipwright and Shroudweaver are two of the most prominent characters; a pair with a strong bond, who are trying to restore the world after a calamity, trying to stop Crowkisser. A task that is especially important for Shroudweaver, especially as we get to know more about his past; a weight he's been holding for twenty years. Despite being really powerful, we also get to see their human side, their struggles and how they care about others.
At the other extreme, we have a Crowkisser who acts as the antagonist; a powerful sorceress whose actions are responsible for the calamity that changed this world. Grief moves her, and as readers, we will slowly learn more about her motivations; at the end, we have a well-fleshed character that lands on the greyer side of the spectrum.
The rest of the cast doesn't have as much narrative weight as our leading characters, but Torrubia still puts the effort in rounding them; their acts play a crucial role in the plot's development, and all of them have a backstory that we eventually learn about.
Outside of the cast, the worldbuilding is another of the aspects where this novel excels; not only there's a vast history behind most of the places, introduced to the reader in a really organic way, but also the post-cataclysm aspects that are shaping this world. Each location is alive; there are some details that are left undefined, especially regarding the scope of magic and gods, but it suits quite well with this book.
The scope of the plot resembles big epic stories, with a prose that is a bit on the lyrical side, with a certain rhythm that carries you through the pages. Being this novel a long one, it actually felt short, as you are drawn into the story from the start, with a good pacing, devoid of dull moments.
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is a candidate to be my favourite novel of the year: an excellent Epic fantasy novel that stays with you even after finishing, a delightful read that traps you in a magical, vast world and a compelling cast as part of the plot. What a debut!
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is an epic fantasy novel written by Rafael Torrubia and published by Gollancz. A story of epic scope, similar to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, portraying a vast, magical world full of lore and a deliciously layered cast of characters that will engulf you into its pages, all with a prose that remembers epic poems, creating a debut that will be talked about years from.
No one remembers the calamity that stole the names of their people; now most are known by their professions, among them Shipwright, a master of magical shipbuilding, and Shroudweaver, a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails. They've been fighting for three years to keep Crowkisser confined in the South, assuming losses; but when a chance to save the world appears, they embark on a race against time to beat Crowkisser to reach the mountain near the Republic, a place of legends, infested of power, before she unleashes the evil they entombed twenty years ago, a threat that could destroy this world, revealing many secrets about their past in the process.
Torrubia gifts the reader with a marvelously complex cast of characters that become pivotal to this story, steering away from the classical black/white archetypes that are so common in classical fantasy. All of them are captured as people with their own story, a past, which is influencing their current actions.
As you might have imagined from the title, Shipwright and Shroudweaver are two of the most prominent characters; a pair with a strong bond, who are trying to restore the world after a calamity, trying to stop Crowkisser. A task that is especially important for Shroudweaver, especially as we get to know more about his past; a weight he's been holding for twenty years. Despite being really powerful, we also get to see their human side, their struggles and how they care about others.
At the other extreme, we have a Crowkisser who acts as the antagonist; a powerful sorceress whose actions are responsible for the calamity that changed this world. Grief moves her, and as readers, we will slowly learn more about her motivations; at the end, we have a well-fleshed character that lands on the greyer side of the spectrum.
The rest of the cast doesn't have as much narrative weight as our leading characters, but Torrubia still puts the effort in rounding them; their acts play a crucial role in the plot's development, and all of them have a backstory that we eventually learn about.
Outside of the cast, the worldbuilding is another of the aspects where this novel excels; not only there's a vast history behind most of the places, introduced to the reader in a really organic way, but also the post-cataclysm aspects that are shaping this world. Each location is alive; there are some details that are left undefined, especially regarding the scope of magic and gods, but it suits quite well with this book.
The scope of the plot resembles big epic stories, with a prose that is a bit on the lyrical side, with a certain rhythm that carries you through the pages. Being this novel a long one, it actually felt short, as you are drawn into the story from the start, with a good pacing, devoid of dull moments.
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is a candidate to be my favourite novel of the year: an excellent Epic fantasy novel that stays with you even after finishing, a delightful read that traps you in a magical, vast world and a compelling cast as part of the plot. What a debut!
November 6, 2025
This is a truly beautiful book. Knocked me off my feet from the very first page and kept punching until the very end. Rafael has a rare gift for prose and a delicate touch with character that make this book so visceral and compelling. I still think about this when my mind is idle. A delight on every page.
December 8, 2025
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is easily one of the most enchanting and gut-twisting books I read in 2025. Rafael Torrubia’s debut absolutely stunned me — not just with its world-building or its atmosphere, but with a villain so complex and compelling that I found myself switching allegiances more than once.
This story drifts between whimsy and darkness with a writing style that feels almost lyrical. Every sentence reads like it’s been carved perfectly. The prose is dreamy, gothic, and haunting in a way that lingers long after you put the book down.
But the heart of this novel — the thing that stole the breath from me — is its villain. Torrubia crafts an antagonist who is deeply human, devastatingly motivated, and impossible to pin down as simply “good” or “evil.” I kept turning pages just to understand them better… and every new layer made me more conflicted. It’s rare for a book to make me question whose side I’m truly on, but this one did — and did it brilliantly.
If you love morally grey characters, emotional depth, slow-burn tension, and fantasy that reads like an old myth told by candlelight, this debut is absolutely worth your time. I can’t wait to see what Torrubia writes next.
This overall wins the category of ‘favourite villain’ for 2025.
This story drifts between whimsy and darkness with a writing style that feels almost lyrical. Every sentence reads like it’s been carved perfectly. The prose is dreamy, gothic, and haunting in a way that lingers long after you put the book down.
But the heart of this novel — the thing that stole the breath from me — is its villain. Torrubia crafts an antagonist who is deeply human, devastatingly motivated, and impossible to pin down as simply “good” or “evil.” I kept turning pages just to understand them better… and every new layer made me more conflicted. It’s rare for a book to make me question whose side I’m truly on, but this one did — and did it brilliantly.
If you love morally grey characters, emotional depth, slow-burn tension, and fantasy that reads like an old myth told by candlelight, this debut is absolutely worth your time. I can’t wait to see what Torrubia writes next.
This overall wins the category of ‘favourite villain’ for 2025.
December 28, 2025
DNF’d at 35%.
This author is a beautiful writer. The choices he makes and the style and atmosphere he invokes in those choices are like poetry. This book is best read aloud, slowly, and with all your attention. It is bold in prose and character work in ways that fantasy has steered away from recently, and I’m glad to see this novel as an example of literary style beginning to return to the genre.
However, it suffers significantly in several areas, including in the aforementioned literary style.
The first is pacing. I read 270 pages and what I viewed as the primary plot—Shipwright and Shroudweaver travelling to Thell to try to stop Crowkisser—had not yet really begun. A great deal of time is spent on scenes that, at best, build character but lack a meaningful impact on the primary plot. While I understand such scenes might have served a purpose later, in that the reader will eventually appreciate this character depth when questioning who is truly the villain of this story, it brings the story to a grinding halt. Epic fantasy can be slow, that is acknowledged. However, to my mind, slow does not have to mean shapeless. Authors can employ sub structures and subplots on the chapter level as narrative engines that keep the reader engaged and the pacing up. Some examples might be training sequences that imply growth, contained chapters of intrigue whose relevance only becomes apparent later, social or political side conflicts that carry their own stakes. Too often in the pages I read did scenes end exactly where they began: beautifully written, atmospherically rich, and maybe revealing something of a character, yet structurally unimportant.
The second is the style. The prose relies heavily on long, flowing sentences packed with compound adjectives, metaphors, and imagery. Many of these passages are genuinely beautiful on their own and show a strong command of rhythm and tone. This style both elevates and (for me) condemns the book. The difficulty comes from how consistently this style is used. With little variation, the language begins to feel overwhelming, and I felt like I had to work at a high level of attention on nearly every page. The key here, for me, would be to reduce the frequency of this usage. If bundled amongst plainer, clearer language, these turns of phrases would not only stand out but feel special, elevating the plainness around it but allowing the reader to actually follow the story simply.
This style is made harder to follow by frequent syntactic looseness—the author frequently employed sentence fragments, being participle phrases without clear subjects (or an assumed reliance on the prior sentence’s subject), and unusual constructions. While this appears to be an intentional stylistic choice, and is mostly used in a technically correct sense, it often muddies meaning rather than deepening it. I found myself re-reading passages to confirm whether a sentence belonged to the subject character or a different subject.
An example, from when the main character’s ship approaches a port:
The first phrase: fragments that individually work but lose hierarchy. Some have verbs (‘tossed’), some are pure noun phrases (‘clods of shit’), some imply action without the grammar to support it (‘arcs of piss’). The effect is implying chaos, but it’s heavy work to correlate down into its outcome (‘a mixed welcome’). It does the job in a vivid manner, but a simpler construction would be more effective.
The second phrase: uses a dangling participle. Who is nudging? The context assumes the main character’s ship, but doesn’t clarify. The author then personifies either the ship or the city (‘her toes’), but also doesn’t clarify—the bottom of the cliffs implies it is the city’s toes touching the sea, but the rest of the sentence is presumably about the ship, so is ‘her’ referring to the ship?
The third phrase: This is another sentence fragment functioning as description, but it has multiple prepositional phrases, no verb, and no clear subject beyond ‘the switchbacks and twists’ which never do anything grammatically. It would take minimal change to give the sentence a clear subject, verb, and object: ‘Above, the switchbacks and twists brought the smaller ships into the belly of the port, through the canals and straight to where the money was.’ This makes the switchbacks the clear subject, and assigns the verb (‘brought’) to that subject, imposing it clearly upon the object (‘the smaller ships’). The original is understandable but heavy by comparison.
This sort of approach is frequently employed and the book would have benefited from a cleaner approach with moments of poetry or unusual construction.
Finally, a similar issue arises from the novel’s panoramic approach to point of view and dialogue attribution. The story moves among a wide cast of characters and sometimes slides, without scene break or indication, between perspectives within a single scene or paragraph. This creates a sense of continuity and shared experience, but it also weakens the reader’s footing, especially when paired with the above style choices and sentence structures. It can be difficult to tell whose thoughts or perceptions are being presented when these switches occur. The same lack of grounding also affects the dialogue. Dialogue is often broken up into paragraphs without the speaker having changed. It is demonstrably a part of the book’s flowing style, but because those breaks are so frequent and don’t align with regular convention, it is not always clear when the speaker has changed.
Ultimately, while it’s fun or literary to break with convention for style, these things are there to support your reader. I found the above choices not worth the challenge to my comprehension and enjoyment of the book. While I am comfortable with complex narratives and stylistic prose, the combination of these factors became overwhelming. Reading felt more like study than enjoyment, requiring constant attention to parse meaning. Perhaps readers with more robust reading stamina would fare better, but for me, the book became a chore rather than a pleasure.
This author is a beautiful writer. The choices he makes and the style and atmosphere he invokes in those choices are like poetry. This book is best read aloud, slowly, and with all your attention. It is bold in prose and character work in ways that fantasy has steered away from recently, and I’m glad to see this novel as an example of literary style beginning to return to the genre.
However, it suffers significantly in several areas, including in the aforementioned literary style.
The first is pacing. I read 270 pages and what I viewed as the primary plot—Shipwright and Shroudweaver travelling to Thell to try to stop Crowkisser—had not yet really begun. A great deal of time is spent on scenes that, at best, build character but lack a meaningful impact on the primary plot. While I understand such scenes might have served a purpose later, in that the reader will eventually appreciate this character depth when questioning who is truly the villain of this story, it brings the story to a grinding halt. Epic fantasy can be slow, that is acknowledged. However, to my mind, slow does not have to mean shapeless. Authors can employ sub structures and subplots on the chapter level as narrative engines that keep the reader engaged and the pacing up. Some examples might be training sequences that imply growth, contained chapters of intrigue whose relevance only becomes apparent later, social or political side conflicts that carry their own stakes. Too often in the pages I read did scenes end exactly where they began: beautifully written, atmospherically rich, and maybe revealing something of a character, yet structurally unimportant.
The second is the style. The prose relies heavily on long, flowing sentences packed with compound adjectives, metaphors, and imagery. Many of these passages are genuinely beautiful on their own and show a strong command of rhythm and tone. This style both elevates and (for me) condemns the book. The difficulty comes from how consistently this style is used. With little variation, the language begins to feel overwhelming, and I felt like I had to work at a high level of attention on nearly every page. The key here, for me, would be to reduce the frequency of this usage. If bundled amongst plainer, clearer language, these turns of phrases would not only stand out but feel special, elevating the plainness around it but allowing the reader to actually follow the story simply.
This style is made harder to follow by frequent syntactic looseness—the author frequently employed sentence fragments, being participle phrases without clear subjects (or an assumed reliance on the prior sentence’s subject), and unusual constructions. While this appears to be an intentional stylistic choice, and is mostly used in a technically correct sense, it often muddies meaning rather than deepening it. I found myself re-reading passages to confirm whether a sentence belonged to the subject character or a different subject.
An example, from when the main character’s ship approaches a port:
Requests for boarding hollered and signalled. Ratlines helpfully tossed. Clods of shit. Bottles of rum. Arcs of piss. A mixed welcome.
Nudging into the lowest loop at the bottom of the cliffs, where the city finally dared to let her toes touch the sea.
Above, the switchbacks and twists that brought up the smaller ships into the belly of the port, through the canals and straight to where the money was.
The first phrase: fragments that individually work but lose hierarchy. Some have verbs (‘tossed’), some are pure noun phrases (‘clods of shit’), some imply action without the grammar to support it (‘arcs of piss’). The effect is implying chaos, but it’s heavy work to correlate down into its outcome (‘a mixed welcome’). It does the job in a vivid manner, but a simpler construction would be more effective.
The second phrase: uses a dangling participle. Who is nudging? The context assumes the main character’s ship, but doesn’t clarify. The author then personifies either the ship or the city (‘her toes’), but also doesn’t clarify—the bottom of the cliffs implies it is the city’s toes touching the sea, but the rest of the sentence is presumably about the ship, so is ‘her’ referring to the ship?
The third phrase: This is another sentence fragment functioning as description, but it has multiple prepositional phrases, no verb, and no clear subject beyond ‘the switchbacks and twists’ which never do anything grammatically. It would take minimal change to give the sentence a clear subject, verb, and object: ‘Above, the switchbacks and twists brought the smaller ships into the belly of the port, through the canals and straight to where the money was.’ This makes the switchbacks the clear subject, and assigns the verb (‘brought’) to that subject, imposing it clearly upon the object (‘the smaller ships’). The original is understandable but heavy by comparison.
This sort of approach is frequently employed and the book would have benefited from a cleaner approach with moments of poetry or unusual construction.
Finally, a similar issue arises from the novel’s panoramic approach to point of view and dialogue attribution. The story moves among a wide cast of characters and sometimes slides, without scene break or indication, between perspectives within a single scene or paragraph. This creates a sense of continuity and shared experience, but it also weakens the reader’s footing, especially when paired with the above style choices and sentence structures. It can be difficult to tell whose thoughts or perceptions are being presented when these switches occur. The same lack of grounding also affects the dialogue. Dialogue is often broken up into paragraphs without the speaker having changed. It is demonstrably a part of the book’s flowing style, but because those breaks are so frequent and don’t align with regular convention, it is not always clear when the speaker has changed.
Ultimately, while it’s fun or literary to break with convention for style, these things are there to support your reader. I found the above choices not worth the challenge to my comprehension and enjoyment of the book. While I am comfortable with complex narratives and stylistic prose, the combination of these factors became overwhelming. Reading felt more like study than enjoyment, requiring constant attention to parse meaning. Perhaps readers with more robust reading stamina would fare better, but for me, the book became a chore rather than a pleasure.
Read
December 31, 2025DNF @ 19%
This is a great-looking book (I have the gorgeous hardcover) with some interesting concepts and some nice imagery in the writing. However, I also found that imagery to be one of the main downfalls. I thought it was a bit (actually, a lot) overdone and it went from being something that helped me picture the scene to something that really started to grate on me, and distract me from the actual story. It really felt like every description had to be qualified with some flowery metaphor, and it was just too much for me.
As far as the story goes, I did think there was an interesting idea here, but it took too long to get into the details. We are dropped in at the deep end and there are a lot of things happening without the reader knowing the reasons, the circumstances, the background details. It takes a while before some of the character backgrounds start to be drip-fed into the story and some of the history of this world along with it. I'm fine with being kept in the dark if I can figure things out for myself, but there was just a bit too much of it here, with worldbuilding that was just "there" without explanation, so I had to read on in blind faith that later on I would find out what a "spinner" was, for instance.
Just on a personal point, this book is written in the third-person present tense, which is probably my least favourite of the more common styles I see in fiction. While this didn't help my enjoyment, I note it here just for reference, rather than criticism.
This is a great-looking book (I have the gorgeous hardcover) with some interesting concepts and some nice imagery in the writing. However, I also found that imagery to be one of the main downfalls. I thought it was a bit (actually, a lot) overdone and it went from being something that helped me picture the scene to something that really started to grate on me, and distract me from the actual story. It really felt like every description had to be qualified with some flowery metaphor, and it was just too much for me.
As far as the story goes, I did think there was an interesting idea here, but it took too long to get into the details. We are dropped in at the deep end and there are a lot of things happening without the reader knowing the reasons, the circumstances, the background details. It takes a while before some of the character backgrounds start to be drip-fed into the story and some of the history of this world along with it. I'm fine with being kept in the dark if I can figure things out for myself, but there was just a bit too much of it here, with worldbuilding that was just "there" without explanation, so I had to read on in blind faith that later on I would find out what a "spinner" was, for instance.
Just on a personal point, this book is written in the third-person present tense, which is probably my least favourite of the more common styles I see in fiction. While this didn't help my enjoyment, I note it here just for reference, rather than criticism.
December 15, 2025
Thank you to Gollancz for an ARC of this book
The Shipwright and The Shroudweaver, an epic fantasy novel by Rafael Torrubia, took me a while to adjust to the writing but once I did it was a beautifully written layered story that engulfs us in magic and takes us on a poetic journey that will leave you wanting for more.
Straight to the characters here. There is such complexity in these characters and I'm a thorough enjoyer of people who aren't your typical good or evil. Torrubia really excels in creating humane characters and providing so much depth to their actions and the way they work. They'll really have you thinking about what is right and wrong and if it really matters. I love that instead of having names we have professions - Shipwright and Shroudweaver, Crowkisser - because this adds to the mystery. What happened that names are lost? The way that Torrubia has added this subtle yet heavy point is outstanding.
I think we all know that I love a story with worldbuilding and this was exceptional here. We have lore that is easy to understand but runs so deep. We have the cataclysm, post-cataclysm, the shaping of the world and we are dropped this information so elegantly that you have to take a breath to read it.
The story itself is an tightly wound web and one that just needs to be experienced. It's a journey to vanquish the ultimate evil but what Torrubia inserts into your mind has you morally questioning everything.
This was a great debut and once it got started it never let up. A beautifully written novel with fantastic output.
January 1, 2026
I really wanted to love this book. On paper it was everything I want in a fantasy; beautiful, lyrical writing, expansive world-building, an interesting magic system, complex characters. However all of these things just didn’t come together for me.
The writing really is beautiful, some of perhaps the most lush and beautiful writing I’ve read in ages. However, it does meander a lot and I often found myself halfway through an incredibly descriptive paragraph and wondering what the author was actually trying to convey.
The structure was frustrating as well. I am all for a non-linear narrative but I found the weaving in and out of different time frames to be quite confusing, especially when it mostly dealt with the same characters. Without any real, clear indication that we were in a flashback, it would take sometimes a whole page before I could reorient myself in the story. It was frustrating as this happened so often and when you are dealing with a 700+ page novel it makes it quite hard work to get through it.
I really did like the characters, and I thought the antagonists were excellent. I would have liked more from the magic system, how it worked etc. I am guessing there will be a next book and I may read it as this one ended on quite the cliffhanger so hopefully there’s more information in that one!
The writing really is beautiful, some of perhaps the most lush and beautiful writing I’ve read in ages. However, it does meander a lot and I often found myself halfway through an incredibly descriptive paragraph and wondering what the author was actually trying to convey.
The structure was frustrating as well. I am all for a non-linear narrative but I found the weaving in and out of different time frames to be quite confusing, especially when it mostly dealt with the same characters. Without any real, clear indication that we were in a flashback, it would take sometimes a whole page before I could reorient myself in the story. It was frustrating as this happened so often and when you are dealing with a 700+ page novel it makes it quite hard work to get through it.
I really did like the characters, and I thought the antagonists were excellent. I would have liked more from the magic system, how it worked etc. I am guessing there will be a next book and I may read it as this one ended on quite the cliffhanger so hopefully there’s more information in that one!
December 11, 2025
This is sold as a dark fairytale of epic proportions. Unfortunately that is where the troubles start for me and this book.
Let us begin with the framing for this story. The plot has, as its starting point, events that took place three years prior, but there is never any real explanation for what happened until near the end of the book, leaving you to guess how the characters have ended up in the predicament they find themselves in.
Then there are the characters themselves. Depending on how you want to count there are 5 groups of main characters, with at least two more groups of minor characters. It ends up being difficult to keep track of everyone.
As I was reading I kept being struck by the thought that this book could do with being broken up, which might have helped its readability for me.
And all of that is a shame because this book started off strongly for me, but ended up getting bogged down in its sheer scale and complexity.
I think if I were to give this book another go I would need a whiteboard to keep track of everyone and what's happening, but before that I would want a prequel to help my understanding.
Happy Reading.
Let us begin with the framing for this story. The plot has, as its starting point, events that took place three years prior, but there is never any real explanation for what happened until near the end of the book, leaving you to guess how the characters have ended up in the predicament they find themselves in.
Then there are the characters themselves. Depending on how you want to count there are 5 groups of main characters, with at least two more groups of minor characters. It ends up being difficult to keep track of everyone.
As I was reading I kept being struck by the thought that this book could do with being broken up, which might have helped its readability for me.
And all of that is a shame because this book started off strongly for me, but ended up getting bogged down in its sheer scale and complexity.
I think if I were to give this book another go I would need a whiteboard to keep track of everyone and what's happening, but before that I would want a prequel to help my understanding.
Happy Reading.
September 22, 2025
A dark fairytale of epic proportions. Torrubia casts a spell with his poetic prose and portrays a strange, magical world full of complex and compelling characters. This is quite unlike most fantasy novels being published today. It reminds me, almost, of an epic prose poem. Half the pleasure of reading it is the rhythm of the words and the timbre of the language. Torrubia has a real gift, and it's on full display.
December 25, 2025
Spectacular! Favourite read of the year! The characters are complex and nuanced; the world feels rich and lived-in - there is tradition and history I'd be so curious to learn more about. The prose is quite lyrical and gives the text and story a beautiful cadence and rhythm (took me a bit to get into, but thoroughly enjoyed it then). This combo of prose, worldbuilding, and characters makes the noves feel ancient, golden-age fantasy, and very contemporaty at the same time.
December 14, 2025
Picked this up based on a recommendation and haven’t been disappointed. One of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in years, filled with imagery that has stayed with me long after I’ve (finally) put the book down for the night.
December 24, 2025
complex world building and lyrical writing - but this was to its detriment at times too.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews