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Maej
Hundred-day children are stolen from the Ilasghra every week. No one can stop it.
Madma and Tantli have grown up like sisters in the tentslum of the Ilas, where their people are starved and beaten. All their lives, they’ve powerlessly witnessed the regular abduction of hundred-day babies born with too much mæj. Just before an Ilasi boy is killed by djanizaries for daring to venture beyond the tentslum walls, his final words lead Madma to the Gaol where the boy’s stolen sister is locked away—a place from which Ilasi children never return. Burning to act, Madma vows to free the imprisoned girl, setting off events that will ignite a revolution and convulse the Sforre-Yomnic matriarchy from its squalid dungeons to the labyrinthine paths of its scheming elite’s hovering parliament. Delicately plotted, sumptuously set and vibrantly worded, MAEJ is a lavish standalone high-fantasy epic, perfect for fans of A Stranger in Olondria or The Spear Cuts Through Water.
Madma and Tantli have grown up like sisters in the tentslum of the Ilas, where their people are starved and beaten. All their lives, they’ve powerlessly witnessed the regular abduction of hundred-day babies born with too much mæj. Just before an Ilasi boy is killed by djanizaries for daring to venture beyond the tentslum walls, his final words lead Madma to the Gaol where the boy’s stolen sister is locked away—a place from which Ilasi children never return. Burning to act, Madma vows to free the imprisoned girl, setting off events that will ignite a revolution and convulse the Sforre-Yomnic matriarchy from its squalid dungeons to the labyrinthine paths of its scheming elite’s hovering parliament. Delicately plotted, sumptuously set and vibrantly worded, MAEJ is a lavish standalone high-fantasy epic, perfect for fans of A Stranger in Olondria or The Spear Cuts Through Water.
658 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2024
5 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Dale Stromberg
9 books23 followersDale Stromberg is the author of the high fantasy novel Mæj (tRaum Books, 2024), the curio fiction novel Gyre (2025), and the oddball collection Melancholic Parables (2022). He grew up not far from Sacramento before moving to Tokyo, where he had a brief music career. Now he lives near Kuala Lumpur and makes ends meet as an editor and translator.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 21, 2024
It is rare that I encounter a novel like MAEJ: a doorstopper I found difficult to put down and finished inside a week; a work of very unapologetic genre fiction that’s equally unapologetic in its intelligence and dedication to doing strange, creative things with language; a high fantasy story I actually liked. The setting is the city of Sforre-Yomn, in the country of Hwoama, whose culture combines elements from across the continents of Asia and Europe. But Hwoama is matriarchal: men are subordinate to women, who dominate politics, business, the military, and nearly all other professions. As a result of this fact, almost all the major characters in the novel are female. By turns this presents a fun, simple, mischievous inversion of maleness as the unmarked default state for fictional characters, and meaty commentary on the social construction of sex, sexuality, and gender. Stromberg has cited Le Guin as an influence on MAEJ and, in the most complimentary way possible, this influence is evident.
The plot of MAEJ is a delightful Rube Goldberg machine too elaborate and surprising to go into here, filled with political intrigue, action, twists, tragedy, and even a touch of romance. It involves the plight of the Ilas, a ghettoized minority ethnolinguistic group whose oppression at the hands of the dominant Sforrings and Yomnings brings to mind several contemporary and historical analogues. Once again, there’s pointed and poignant social commentary akin to Le Guin, or Octavia Butler, or China Mieville. There’s also what I consider a wonderful linguistic gimmick: the Hwoamish language is represented by a rollicking pastiche of Early Modern English in roughly Shakespearean style. (Other languages are represented by standard, albeit formal, contemporary English.) This would be insufferable if it were done badly, but Stromberg absolutely knows his stuff and carries it off with aplomb.
Other things you may find in this unique, complex fantasy: gryphons, berserker rages, fate-worship, anthropologists, hallucinogenic flower wine, poetry battles, flying contraptions, an underground city, a gaolbreak, and an awful politician getting assassinated while using the toilet.
* * *
I received an ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review. Please, read this book! I would love to see it become even a twelfth as popular as a lot of way worse fantasy novels I won't deign to actually name.
The plot of MAEJ is a delightful Rube Goldberg machine too elaborate and surprising to go into here, filled with political intrigue, action, twists, tragedy, and even a touch of romance. It involves the plight of the Ilas, a ghettoized minority ethnolinguistic group whose oppression at the hands of the dominant Sforrings and Yomnings brings to mind several contemporary and historical analogues. Once again, there’s pointed and poignant social commentary akin to Le Guin, or Octavia Butler, or China Mieville. There’s also what I consider a wonderful linguistic gimmick: the Hwoamish language is represented by a rollicking pastiche of Early Modern English in roughly Shakespearean style. (Other languages are represented by standard, albeit formal, contemporary English.) This would be insufferable if it were done badly, but Stromberg absolutely knows his stuff and carries it off with aplomb.
Other things you may find in this unique, complex fantasy: gryphons, berserker rages, fate-worship, anthropologists, hallucinogenic flower wine, poetry battles, flying contraptions, an underground city, a gaolbreak, and an awful politician getting assassinated while using the toilet.
* * *
I received an ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review. Please, read this book! I would love to see it become even a twelfth as popular as a lot of way worse fantasy novels I won't deign to actually name.
Read
June 22, 2024* I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Maej is an epic fantasy novel that follows a multitude of characters in a high fantasy world. The summary above barely scratches the surface of what you'll find within, as the omniscient point of view also tells the stories of many characters not mentioned. From the scholar Jad Jaret of Enn to the fjanding (highly trained warrior) Aunhma Cairnhand to Ænkenere Gaitmoth, who actually gets paid for caching pheggots through the luck of not being Ilas, all these characters and more have dedicated chapters and intertwining storylines. This is the type of story where the reader must patiently await the payoff of the characters crossing paths, although at a certain point it becomes obvious enough how they're eventually going to.
Personally, I love books with a large cast, and I especially love books that use their large cast to dispel the notion that the main character is the most special or the most capable or the most important. I recently renewed my Disney+ subscription (to watch the latest season of Doctor Who, of course), and decided to watch The Black Cauldron simply because I never had as a child. Initially, I was hopeful about the character of Princess Eilonwy, who makes her first appearance by rescuing the main character from a dungeon. She's also been taken prisoner by the evil king, but she's not sitting around waiting for him to rescue her. She has a magic bubble that lights their way. She's not afraid to tell him what to do as they team up for a quest. But then the main character finds (cough cough grave robs) a magic sword, and, although the sword does all the work all on its own, he gets the credit for it. And it's never even considered that she could use it or even have a turn with it. The magic bubble disappears from the story, never to be used again, and her usefulness diminishes for no clear reason apart from the fact that the main character "needs" to be the one who saves the day.
In this book, Madenhere and Tarӕntlere are main characters simply because the book chooses to focus on them. Every other character depicted has their own life, with a complete backstory and separate goals. Everyone is a complete person and every person shapes the course of events, just as in the real world. And this allows the book to tackle the sort of complex problems we see in the real world. The Ilas don't suffer because of one evil ruler. They suffer because of lawmakers at the top of society and also the individual decisions of those who enforce the laws and also the individual decisions of those who live under the laws and also the individual decisions of some within their own group. Some people hate them out of ignorance. Some spread hate for them because it's a way of maintaining power over them. Some are sympathetic while still housing certain prejudices. And on and on. The point is: with so many complex and capable characters, it's clear that the solution to racism and enslavement isn't as simple as the death of one evil person or a single jail break (if such things can even be accomplished by our protagonists!). And that, to me, makes a far more interesting story.
Of course, that kind of story by its very nature requires a lot of page space. I won't lie; it took me almost a month to read this one. But I don't mind making that kind of time commitment. If you're the sort of person who marathons the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movies, you'll probably understand.
If you're the type of person who loves Lord of the Rings, you'll probably also understand the appeal of a highly developed fantasy world, with a narrative structure that takes time to stop and show off everything from traditional children's games to mourning rituals, as well as geography and politics and etymology lessons on the words and expressions of fantasy languages. If you're the type of person who finds it odd that every fantasy world has a 365-day year despite the fact that it's highly unlikely every planet would be exactly like Earth in that way, you'll love this one.
The thing that may be make-or-break for many readers, though, is the way this extends to the dialogue. The characters in this book speak a variety of languages, which are translated into a variety of English dialects that I believe to be of the author's own making. For some people, this will be a highlight in terms of immersiveness and realism. Others may find it difficult to understand. Personally, I found it to present a mental workout on par with reading Shakespeare. For parts of it, I drew upon a large vocabulary and a knack for picking out words that share a root with others I know. For much of it, I was able to rely on context clues. Some surely went over my head, but it wasn't enough to leave me confused about what was happening. Still, part of the reason I read so slowly was that the mental challenge required me to pace myself. If these things don't come easily to you or you don't enjoy doing that sort of work while reading, this book is not the one for you. I recommend that anyone looking into this book read a few pages of it to get a feel for the language before committing to a purchase. I would quote a few lines of dialogue here, but they rely so much on surrounding context that I feel it wouldn't be fair. You'll just have to see for yourself.
Beyond the worldbuilding aspects already mentioned, I would be remiss to neglect the fact that the main setting is a female-dominated society in which men are considered to be inferior. Many characters are dismissive of men and their abilities, some openly spewing sexist rhetoric that mirrors the worst kind of sexism against women in our world. But mostly, this is shown by the way the narrative is completely dominated by female characters, who don't face any criticism internally or externally for taking charge or being capable, who don't live in fear of sexual violence, who don't feel any need to prove themselves as women simply because there's no one and nothing to argue with. Meanwhile, male characters with children are invariably shown as gentle caretakers who form the strongest familial bonds. And all of them experience and express a full spectrum of strong emotions. They don't just get angry. They dance and weep and freeze with fear.
As I read, I found myself wishing there was a powerful matriarchal society in our world that we could visit. I imagine that having stereotypes and implicit biases completely flipped would be refreshing for women and eye-opening for men. Failing the actual existence of such a place, we can at least allow our minds to explore Sforre Yomn for an extended period of time as we read this book. At first the differences are striking and even humorous. In time, I began to think about it on a deeper level, taking things more seriously as I saw that misandrist comments hit with the same impact that misogynistic ones do in our world. By the end of the book, the attitudes had become so normalized that I was surprised by the things I'd all but stopped noticing, like the absence of male characters (or at least significant ones) for extended periods of time. I think it's good that this fantasy world also includes the patriarchal Enn as a way of hinting that both societies have similar problems in their attitudes, but I'm also glad that the majority of the action takes place in Sforre Yomn because we readers don't need much to understand the workings of a patriarchy. It's far more interesting to see the way one's mind reacts to a problematic matriarchy.
But I haven't spent time mentioning the negatives of this book yet. This might not be everyone's experience, but I personally found the politics to be confusing and difficult to follow. There were a few scenes I felt to be unnecessarily long or to include details that slowed the pacing more than I cared for. I sometimes had to wait longer than I wanted for the continuation of certain plotlines.
On the other hand, there were parts of the ending that I wanted to be longer. In fact, I wanted the whole ending to be longer, although I'm sure that was due in part to my disappointment that the book was over. I want to find out what happens to all the characters after the final events shown on the page!
But this review has gone on long enough already. One last thing to note is that portions of the book are very dark, which should be unsurprising given the summary on top and the opening of the book itself, in which Tarӕntlere's sister is taken away directly after birth. Still, this is your confirmation if you needed one. Not all characters have storylines as dark as others, and the book does a good job of balancing them so the reader doesn't have to dwell on the darkest ones for too long at a stretch, but you shouldn't read this book if you're sensitive to child abuse or depictions of slavery or descriptions of brutal tortures. There's also some explicit sexual content and some dialogue about an attempted rape that happened off-page (although it's seemingly included to show just how easily and effectively this was dealt with). The sex actually shown is all consensual, and I only mention it because some readers prefer a closed door.
To wrap things up, I'd say that if you reached the end of this review and are still interested in the book that I've been talking about, you should probably go out and read a preview. Clearly you don't mind reading at length! Seriously, though, the book is available for preorder now, set to be published this October, and hopefully a preview will be available at some point. I'm here as an ARC reader, and I also critiqued a portion of an earlier draft, but hopefully you can trust me when I say the opening of the book is a good indicator as to how you'll find the rest. If you think this one is right for you, I hope that you enjoy it!
Maej is an epic fantasy novel that follows a multitude of characters in a high fantasy world. The summary above barely scratches the surface of what you'll find within, as the omniscient point of view also tells the stories of many characters not mentioned. From the scholar Jad Jaret of Enn to the fjanding (highly trained warrior) Aunhma Cairnhand to Ænkenere Gaitmoth, who actually gets paid for caching pheggots through the luck of not being Ilas, all these characters and more have dedicated chapters and intertwining storylines. This is the type of story where the reader must patiently await the payoff of the characters crossing paths, although at a certain point it becomes obvious enough how they're eventually going to.
Personally, I love books with a large cast, and I especially love books that use their large cast to dispel the notion that the main character is the most special or the most capable or the most important. I recently renewed my Disney+ subscription (to watch the latest season of Doctor Who, of course), and decided to watch The Black Cauldron simply because I never had as a child. Initially, I was hopeful about the character of Princess Eilonwy, who makes her first appearance by rescuing the main character from a dungeon. She's also been taken prisoner by the evil king, but she's not sitting around waiting for him to rescue her. She has a magic bubble that lights their way. She's not afraid to tell him what to do as they team up for a quest. But then the main character finds (cough cough grave robs) a magic sword, and, although the sword does all the work all on its own, he gets the credit for it. And it's never even considered that she could use it or even have a turn with it. The magic bubble disappears from the story, never to be used again, and her usefulness diminishes for no clear reason apart from the fact that the main character "needs" to be the one who saves the day.
In this book, Madenhere and Tarӕntlere are main characters simply because the book chooses to focus on them. Every other character depicted has their own life, with a complete backstory and separate goals. Everyone is a complete person and every person shapes the course of events, just as in the real world. And this allows the book to tackle the sort of complex problems we see in the real world. The Ilas don't suffer because of one evil ruler. They suffer because of lawmakers at the top of society and also the individual decisions of those who enforce the laws and also the individual decisions of those who live under the laws and also the individual decisions of some within their own group. Some people hate them out of ignorance. Some spread hate for them because it's a way of maintaining power over them. Some are sympathetic while still housing certain prejudices. And on and on. The point is: with so many complex and capable characters, it's clear that the solution to racism and enslavement isn't as simple as the death of one evil person or a single jail break (if such things can even be accomplished by our protagonists!). And that, to me, makes a far more interesting story.
Of course, that kind of story by its very nature requires a lot of page space. I won't lie; it took me almost a month to read this one. But I don't mind making that kind of time commitment. If you're the sort of person who marathons the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movies, you'll probably understand.
If you're the type of person who loves Lord of the Rings, you'll probably also understand the appeal of a highly developed fantasy world, with a narrative structure that takes time to stop and show off everything from traditional children's games to mourning rituals, as well as geography and politics and etymology lessons on the words and expressions of fantasy languages. If you're the type of person who finds it odd that every fantasy world has a 365-day year despite the fact that it's highly unlikely every planet would be exactly like Earth in that way, you'll love this one.
The thing that may be make-or-break for many readers, though, is the way this extends to the dialogue. The characters in this book speak a variety of languages, which are translated into a variety of English dialects that I believe to be of the author's own making. For some people, this will be a highlight in terms of immersiveness and realism. Others may find it difficult to understand. Personally, I found it to present a mental workout on par with reading Shakespeare. For parts of it, I drew upon a large vocabulary and a knack for picking out words that share a root with others I know. For much of it, I was able to rely on context clues. Some surely went over my head, but it wasn't enough to leave me confused about what was happening. Still, part of the reason I read so slowly was that the mental challenge required me to pace myself. If these things don't come easily to you or you don't enjoy doing that sort of work while reading, this book is not the one for you. I recommend that anyone looking into this book read a few pages of it to get a feel for the language before committing to a purchase. I would quote a few lines of dialogue here, but they rely so much on surrounding context that I feel it wouldn't be fair. You'll just have to see for yourself.
Beyond the worldbuilding aspects already mentioned, I would be remiss to neglect the fact that the main setting is a female-dominated society in which men are considered to be inferior. Many characters are dismissive of men and their abilities, some openly spewing sexist rhetoric that mirrors the worst kind of sexism against women in our world. But mostly, this is shown by the way the narrative is completely dominated by female characters, who don't face any criticism internally or externally for taking charge or being capable, who don't live in fear of sexual violence, who don't feel any need to prove themselves as women simply because there's no one and nothing to argue with. Meanwhile, male characters with children are invariably shown as gentle caretakers who form the strongest familial bonds. And all of them experience and express a full spectrum of strong emotions. They don't just get angry. They dance and weep and freeze with fear.
As I read, I found myself wishing there was a powerful matriarchal society in our world that we could visit. I imagine that having stereotypes and implicit biases completely flipped would be refreshing for women and eye-opening for men. Failing the actual existence of such a place, we can at least allow our minds to explore Sforre Yomn for an extended period of time as we read this book. At first the differences are striking and even humorous. In time, I began to think about it on a deeper level, taking things more seriously as I saw that misandrist comments hit with the same impact that misogynistic ones do in our world. By the end of the book, the attitudes had become so normalized that I was surprised by the things I'd all but stopped noticing, like the absence of male characters (or at least significant ones) for extended periods of time. I think it's good that this fantasy world also includes the patriarchal Enn as a way of hinting that both societies have similar problems in their attitudes, but I'm also glad that the majority of the action takes place in Sforre Yomn because we readers don't need much to understand the workings of a patriarchy. It's far more interesting to see the way one's mind reacts to a problematic matriarchy.
But I haven't spent time mentioning the negatives of this book yet. This might not be everyone's experience, but I personally found the politics to be confusing and difficult to follow. There were a few scenes I felt to be unnecessarily long or to include details that slowed the pacing more than I cared for. I sometimes had to wait longer than I wanted for the continuation of certain plotlines.
On the other hand, there were parts of the ending that I wanted to be longer. In fact, I wanted the whole ending to be longer, although I'm sure that was due in part to my disappointment that the book was over. I want to find out what happens to all the characters after the final events shown on the page!
But this review has gone on long enough already. One last thing to note is that portions of the book are very dark, which should be unsurprising given the summary on top and the opening of the book itself, in which Tarӕntlere's sister is taken away directly after birth. Still, this is your confirmation if you needed one. Not all characters have storylines as dark as others, and the book does a good job of balancing them so the reader doesn't have to dwell on the darkest ones for too long at a stretch, but you shouldn't read this book if you're sensitive to child abuse or depictions of slavery or descriptions of brutal tortures. There's also some explicit sexual content and some dialogue about an attempted rape that happened off-page (although it's seemingly included to show just how easily and effectively this was dealt with). The sex actually shown is all consensual, and I only mention it because some readers prefer a closed door.
To wrap things up, I'd say that if you reached the end of this review and are still interested in the book that I've been talking about, you should probably go out and read a preview. Clearly you don't mind reading at length! Seriously, though, the book is available for preorder now, set to be published this October, and hopefully a preview will be available at some point. I'm here as an ARC reader, and I also critiqued a portion of an earlier draft, but hopefully you can trust me when I say the opening of the book is a good indicator as to how you'll find the rest. If you think this one is right for you, I hope that you enjoy it!
November 5, 2024
Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher in exchange for a review.
This novel set in a matriarchal magical world explores the brutal realities of classism, sexism and war all while weaving a political, cultural and linguistic feast so dense it is a joy to fully immerse yourself in it. An epic fantasy novel that truly encapsulates the meaning of epic, the world building and the rotating (and relatively big) cast of characters play the most important role in this book.
I would consider myself a quite fast reader and yet this novel took me nearly a month to get through. But my, what a joy it was to immerse myself in the characters, their lives, their fears and joys, the social structures, the incredibly intriguing money system, the politics. I could have read more. At first (and probably because English is not my mother tongue, even though I have a high proficiency) I struggled a bit with the language used in this novel, but quite soon I got used to it and it certainly added to the appeal this book held for me. In fact, the author invented fictional languages that all are built on different linguistic constructions with different songs and sayings and poems for each culture that speaks those languages, Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish and the Underroad cant, elevating this novel from an intriguing look into a matriarchal society to something so much grander and more intriguing. The novel also explores how language and the ability to speak a certain language (and to speak it accent free) can be used to segregate and harm those oppressed in a society.
Besides the linguistics what I really enjoyed about this book was its commentary on oppression and the fact that most important characters are women and thus there were women that were great and women that were horrible and women that quite frankly disgust me. Women in this story can be anything, from warriors to political leaders to revolutionaries and criminals, including those that are sexist, creepy and abusive towards the men and women under their power and even simply average, just the way men are allowed to be in epic fantasies. I also adored the way trans identity was explored in this world, although I would have personally found it really interesting how this world would react to trans men. I did enjoy the exploration of how this world reacts to trans women, where they consider it important to affirm and honor a trans woman’s identity, while still seeing her (and probably any woman who cannot get pregnant, as that is a prerequisite for higher political office) as lower status due to their inability to birth a child.
The magic system is incredible, there’s intriguing religious systems, there’s a variety of societies outside of Sforre-Yomn, the main city this takes place in, there’s the colonialist English (well the fantasy version of them anyway), there’s an intriguing concept of sex work, there’s magical and mythical creatures and lore abound. I also enjoyed that the plot varied (depending on the character in question) between more action-focused scenes and more discussion-focused scenes and that this novel really explores what makes a main character, but giving each character a focused and detailed backstory and the only reason why the characters we followed were more important than other characters is because the story focused on them.
All in all, this novel deserves its page count because of the incredible and detailed world it weaves and it deserves a place beside other epic fantasy books. I can recommend it to fans of detailed epic fantasy, anybody who enjoys reveling in linguistics (and who has a high proficiency of English or is willing to look up A Lot of words) and anybody who wants a fascinating exploration of a fantasy matriarchy.
Trigger warnings include: child abduction, child abuse, ableism, murder, gore, violence, classism, sexism, slavery, mentions of past rape/threats of rape, transmisogynist/bioessentialist language (bootless as bollocks on a bride, womanhood proven by childbearing), self-harm, suicide, murder, torture, off-page murder of girls and boys for sexual pleasure (in which societally only the murder of girls is judged as truly bad) and probably some more that I missed. It’s a big book.
This novel set in a matriarchal magical world explores the brutal realities of classism, sexism and war all while weaving a political, cultural and linguistic feast so dense it is a joy to fully immerse yourself in it. An epic fantasy novel that truly encapsulates the meaning of epic, the world building and the rotating (and relatively big) cast of characters play the most important role in this book.
I would consider myself a quite fast reader and yet this novel took me nearly a month to get through. But my, what a joy it was to immerse myself in the characters, their lives, their fears and joys, the social structures, the incredibly intriguing money system, the politics. I could have read more. At first (and probably because English is not my mother tongue, even though I have a high proficiency) I struggled a bit with the language used in this novel, but quite soon I got used to it and it certainly added to the appeal this book held for me. In fact, the author invented fictional languages that all are built on different linguistic constructions with different songs and sayings and poems for each culture that speaks those languages, Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish and the Underroad cant, elevating this novel from an intriguing look into a matriarchal society to something so much grander and more intriguing. The novel also explores how language and the ability to speak a certain language (and to speak it accent free) can be used to segregate and harm those oppressed in a society.
Besides the linguistics what I really enjoyed about this book was its commentary on oppression and the fact that most important characters are women and thus there were women that were great and women that were horrible and women that quite frankly disgust me. Women in this story can be anything, from warriors to political leaders to revolutionaries and criminals, including those that are sexist, creepy and abusive towards the men and women under their power and even simply average, just the way men are allowed to be in epic fantasies. I also adored the way trans identity was explored in this world, although I would have personally found it really interesting how this world would react to trans men. I did enjoy the exploration of how this world reacts to trans women, where they consider it important to affirm and honor a trans woman’s identity, while still seeing her (and probably any woman who cannot get pregnant, as that is a prerequisite for higher political office) as lower status due to their inability to birth a child.
The magic system is incredible, there’s intriguing religious systems, there’s a variety of societies outside of Sforre-Yomn, the main city this takes place in, there’s the colonialist English (well the fantasy version of them anyway), there’s an intriguing concept of sex work, there’s magical and mythical creatures and lore abound. I also enjoyed that the plot varied (depending on the character in question) between more action-focused scenes and more discussion-focused scenes and that this novel really explores what makes a main character, but giving each character a focused and detailed backstory and the only reason why the characters we followed were more important than other characters is because the story focused on them.
All in all, this novel deserves its page count because of the incredible and detailed world it weaves and it deserves a place beside other epic fantasy books. I can recommend it to fans of detailed epic fantasy, anybody who enjoys reveling in linguistics (and who has a high proficiency of English or is willing to look up A Lot of words) and anybody who wants a fascinating exploration of a fantasy matriarchy.
Trigger warnings include: child abduction, child abuse, ableism, murder, gore, violence, classism, sexism, slavery, mentions of past rape/threats of rape, transmisogynist/bioessentialist language (bootless as bollocks on a bride, womanhood proven by childbearing), self-harm, suicide, murder, torture, off-page murder of girls and boys for sexual pleasure (in which societally only the murder of girls is judged as truly bad) and probably some more that I missed. It’s a big book.
December 19, 2024
This book is incredibly rich and complex, which makes it an ideal novel to be immersed in on these long winter nights, but makes it very difficult to sit down and try and summarise it in a goodreads review.
Like much of great fantasy it holds a mirror up to our society addressing the construction of sexuality and gender. Stromberg's novel also minutely examines language and the intricate role it plays in how identity and culture are created. The level of detail is awe-inspiring, every page is a journey pulling the reader further into the world.
This is an intelligent fantasy novel which rewards the readers with compelling characters and a world which will stay in the mind for ever.
Like much of great fantasy it holds a mirror up to our society addressing the construction of sexuality and gender. Stromberg's novel also minutely examines language and the intricate role it plays in how identity and culture are created. The level of detail is awe-inspiring, every page is a journey pulling the reader further into the world.
This is an intelligent fantasy novel which rewards the readers with compelling characters and a world which will stay in the mind for ever.
May 4, 2024
This book will blow your mind. It's a shining example of what high fantasy can be, and what it so rarely is—a stunning exploration of a radically different world that holds a funhouse mirror up to our own. At once an ambitious, densely plotted adventure, a commentary on gender and class, and a linguistic tour de force, this is a true work of art. Also I cried.
I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
December 2, 2024
This is a masterfully written high fantasy. The world building is astounding. Stromberg creates a world which blends the familiar and the bizare to create a fantastical and fully developed alternative world.
June 17, 2024
I wrote this book. Keeping it real with a four-star review.
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November 15, 2024This is the first book I've read where it's difficult to leave a star rating. On one hand, it's immensely detailed with a rich, sweeping backdrop and an ensemble cast of characters - each with their unique story, and set in vibrantly, well-established world, complete with its own language. On the other hand, it's overwhelming in its details, characters and world-building, making it difficult to retain everything. I'm certain there are readers out there who enjoy reading books like this, and those who don't. Maej is a huge book, with so much information to take it in, and while I did enjoy parts of it, I'll admit, I didn't enjoy it entirely. But if you like fantasy, immersive worlds and languages, and multiple sub-plots, then this book is for you.
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September 24, 2024Maej is an ambitious character exploration that will especially appeal to anyone interested in the ways that language interacts with and juxtaposes against society. For full disclosure, I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
June 5, 2024
Warning: This review is a lil ravey and boy does it get long, but IT COMES FROM THE HEART.
Okay. So. I preemptively apologize for the behavior of my passion. :D
MAEJ is a book where the author absolutely dares to go for it, and that playfulness and wit permeates each page. But the writing also has the depth to probe meaningful questions about fate and personal (and cultural) destiny; of ethical consumption and of complicity (on an individual and also cultural/ethnic level, in ways we see reverberating in real life daily)—
While on top of that still, boasting some of the hinterfotzigste characters you will EVER read. Yes, I needed to tap into German to communicate this and a sterile translation would be the most devious or sneaky, but the official translation should be the most sneakc*ntiest characters you will ever encounter. Put simply:
This is peak sneak-c*nt.
I would have needed and loved this book as a younger person (though it is maybe not for children). I needed and loved it now, and the reasons are multi-faceted, but one aspect I absolutely must mention is that this book portrays women the way I always (without knowing it consciously as a child/young person) wanted to see them portrayed. It’s not that MAEJ has ‘’strong’’ female leads and characters, or that it ‘’empowers’’ femininity or women (‘strong female lead’ and ‘empower’ being two phrases that have, for as long as I can remember, made me puke a little bit inside of my mouth). Quite the opposite—it eliminates the need to have those concepts at all, much as the idea of emphasizing a ‘’strong male lead’’ seems laughably unnecessary.
I highlight this aspect of the book with the knowledge that this may give the unfortunate suggestion of some agenda, or (oh my god, am I going to use the monstrously stupid phrase ‘gender ideology’ unironically?? By George, I think I’m going to use it!) “””””gender ideology””””” to sell, but the utter beauty of MAEJ is that, by setting up a matriarchical world with a history, politick, religion, language and culture just as rich as what we know, but beyond our world—Stromberg cuts any need for proselytizing or contextualizing (or for that matter, decontextualizing) and can simply allow each character to exist in our vast, terrible and beautiful soup of universally human characteristics. Challenging our need to gender many characteristics that are, ultimately, traits of all humans.
This epic story takes place in a matriarchical society where women are superior and (so far as can be seen) always have been. The end. Thus, they are the default (no matter how brave or forgettable) for this entire glorious cast of warriors, politicians, rebels, courtesans, guild leaders, shit-stirrers, maejworkers, murderers, mothers. Daughters. Wives. [[[My woman-loving heart sings!!]]]] Beyond this, Stromberg plays with linguistics and language, weaving the spoken and written words of the characters (and their songs, sayings, dirges, and poems) in a way that the fictional languages of Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish, and the cant of the Underroad people, become powerful characters in their own right.
In an unskilled writer’s hand, you can imagine all of this quickly melting into a gimmicky disasterpiece, but Stromberg wields the pen of poet and the mind of a craftsman, creating an intricate puzzle-box of a chonk book. MAEJ evokes Neil Stephenson’s clockwork-complicated epics, but also the dreamy, atmospheric genderflux of Storm Constantine’s Wreaththu trilogy. This book vibrates in another dimension and deserves to be spoken in the same sentence with works of Octavia Butler (my personal Final Boss of Imaginative Writing Prowess).
The plot?? I know it’s in the description, but I kinda have fun describing it :D So off I go: the fictional country of Ennhøvn, (perhaps the only part of the story more easily transposed to a place of our world, imagine something like a 19th century colonial power?) is ultra-keen to get its hands on a neighboring countries’ maej (magic) technology, but there is a major hitch. Hwoama’s Sforrings and Yomnings are notorious ‘patrophobes’ who refuse to have any dealings with ‘wifehating’ races. So the Ennish ambassadors must disguise their normally second-class female scholars as delegates of great importance, as they try to infiltrate the highest echelons of Sforre-Yomn’s political circles and swing the deal of a millenia. Meanwhile, in a tentslum outside the main city, a murder radicalizes two young Ilasi women—the Ilas are social pariahs, third-rate citizens below Sforrings and Yomnings who are allowed no social autonomy whatsoever. Speaking a highly distinctive language called Ilasi (spoken with maejish lilts that immediately betray the speaker—I personally kept imagining this as sounding like overtones in singing, AKA auditory gold thread weaving and flitting in a whistle register over the lower spoken tones, which made it sound DEVASTATINGLY COOL in my head, anyway), so, Ilas are forced to live and die confined to a designated slum on the outskirts of the greater city, while regularly subjected to degradation and state-sanctioned kidnappings of their maej-embued children.
The ultimate connection between these stolen Ilasi children and the political machinations created by the hunger for more maej, bringing even foreigners to Sforre-Yomn—and the spanner the two Ilas best friends throw into it all once they decide to confront the Hydra takes them (and us) on one of the most epic, off-the-wall Miyazaki-esque rides you can conceive of (and plenty of things us normies don’t have the imagination to conceive!). We whisk through secret-knock taverns, spirit-infested gaols, tilted floating islands, and politico banquets where exquisite cups of poison are ceremoniously served. The book is also full of fictional sayings (another aspect I personally really enjoyed, having grown up in a culture where there’s a weird fuckin little saying for literally everything). Which got me to one of ours’ (ironically, four words too, like all of the Hwoamish sayings, which I took to be a nod to Yojijyukugo). So our saying is: Aki mer, az nyer.
She who dares, wins.
In MAEJ, Stromberg certainly dares, and while the writing has intelligence and worldliness in spades, what I enjoyed perhaps most of all was that vital dash of creative guts the author brought, to simply shoot for the moon and GO FOR IT. This is no-holds-barred fantasy of the likes that comes around once in a generation and it is infectious and inspiring! Whatever you want—be it plot, or heart, or brains, or guts, imagination, femme-supremacy or Shakespeareanish peen jokes—MAEJ has got it so I really need everyone to go out and read this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Disclaimer: Yes, I am involved in helping this book come to be and that does not affect my ability to recognize gold when I read it, NOT ONE BIT!!!]
Okay. So. I preemptively apologize for the behavior of my passion. :D
MAEJ is a book where the author absolutely dares to go for it, and that playfulness and wit permeates each page. But the writing also has the depth to probe meaningful questions about fate and personal (and cultural) destiny; of ethical consumption and of complicity (on an individual and also cultural/ethnic level, in ways we see reverberating in real life daily)—
While on top of that still, boasting some of the hinterfotzigste characters you will EVER read. Yes, I needed to tap into German to communicate this and a sterile translation would be the most devious or sneaky, but the official translation should be the most sneakc*ntiest characters you will ever encounter. Put simply:
This is peak sneak-c*nt.
I would have needed and loved this book as a younger person (though it is maybe not for children). I needed and loved it now, and the reasons are multi-faceted, but one aspect I absolutely must mention is that this book portrays women the way I always (without knowing it consciously as a child/young person) wanted to see them portrayed. It’s not that MAEJ has ‘’strong’’ female leads and characters, or that it ‘’empowers’’ femininity or women (‘strong female lead’ and ‘empower’ being two phrases that have, for as long as I can remember, made me puke a little bit inside of my mouth). Quite the opposite—it eliminates the need to have those concepts at all, much as the idea of emphasizing a ‘’strong male lead’’ seems laughably unnecessary.
I highlight this aspect of the book with the knowledge that this may give the unfortunate suggestion of some agenda, or (oh my god, am I going to use the monstrously stupid phrase ‘gender ideology’ unironically?? By George, I think I’m going to use it!) “””””gender ideology””””” to sell, but the utter beauty of MAEJ is that, by setting up a matriarchical world with a history, politick, religion, language and culture just as rich as what we know, but beyond our world—Stromberg cuts any need for proselytizing or contextualizing (or for that matter, decontextualizing) and can simply allow each character to exist in our vast, terrible and beautiful soup of universally human characteristics. Challenging our need to gender many characteristics that are, ultimately, traits of all humans.
This epic story takes place in a matriarchical society where women are superior and (so far as can be seen) always have been. The end. Thus, they are the default (no matter how brave or forgettable) for this entire glorious cast of warriors, politicians, rebels, courtesans, guild leaders, shit-stirrers, maejworkers, murderers, mothers. Daughters. Wives. [[[My woman-loving heart sings!!]]]] Beyond this, Stromberg plays with linguistics and language, weaving the spoken and written words of the characters (and their songs, sayings, dirges, and poems) in a way that the fictional languages of Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish, and the cant of the Underroad people, become powerful characters in their own right.
In an unskilled writer’s hand, you can imagine all of this quickly melting into a gimmicky disasterpiece, but Stromberg wields the pen of poet and the mind of a craftsman, creating an intricate puzzle-box of a chonk book. MAEJ evokes Neil Stephenson’s clockwork-complicated epics, but also the dreamy, atmospheric genderflux of Storm Constantine’s Wreaththu trilogy. This book vibrates in another dimension and deserves to be spoken in the same sentence with works of Octavia Butler (my personal Final Boss of Imaginative Writing Prowess).
The plot?? I know it’s in the description, but I kinda have fun describing it :D So off I go: the fictional country of Ennhøvn, (perhaps the only part of the story more easily transposed to a place of our world, imagine something like a 19th century colonial power?) is ultra-keen to get its hands on a neighboring countries’ maej (magic) technology, but there is a major hitch. Hwoama’s Sforrings and Yomnings are notorious ‘patrophobes’ who refuse to have any dealings with ‘wifehating’ races. So the Ennish ambassadors must disguise their normally second-class female scholars as delegates of great importance, as they try to infiltrate the highest echelons of Sforre-Yomn’s political circles and swing the deal of a millenia. Meanwhile, in a tentslum outside the main city, a murder radicalizes two young Ilasi women—the Ilas are social pariahs, third-rate citizens below Sforrings and Yomnings who are allowed no social autonomy whatsoever. Speaking a highly distinctive language called Ilasi (spoken with maejish lilts that immediately betray the speaker—I personally kept imagining this as sounding like overtones in singing, AKA auditory gold thread weaving and flitting in a whistle register over the lower spoken tones, which made it sound DEVASTATINGLY COOL in my head, anyway), so, Ilas are forced to live and die confined to a designated slum on the outskirts of the greater city, while regularly subjected to degradation and state-sanctioned kidnappings of their maej-embued children.
The ultimate connection between these stolen Ilasi children and the political machinations created by the hunger for more maej, bringing even foreigners to Sforre-Yomn—and the spanner the two Ilas best friends throw into it all once they decide to confront the Hydra takes them (and us) on one of the most epic, off-the-wall Miyazaki-esque rides you can conceive of (and plenty of things us normies don’t have the imagination to conceive!). We whisk through secret-knock taverns, spirit-infested gaols, tilted floating islands, and politico banquets where exquisite cups of poison are ceremoniously served. The book is also full of fictional sayings (another aspect I personally really enjoyed, having grown up in a culture where there’s a weird fuckin little saying for literally everything). Which got me to one of ours’ (ironically, four words too, like all of the Hwoamish sayings, which I took to be a nod to Yojijyukugo). So our saying is: Aki mer, az nyer.
She who dares, wins.
In MAEJ, Stromberg certainly dares, and while the writing has intelligence and worldliness in spades, what I enjoyed perhaps most of all was that vital dash of creative guts the author brought, to simply shoot for the moon and GO FOR IT. This is no-holds-barred fantasy of the likes that comes around once in a generation and it is infectious and inspiring! Whatever you want—be it plot, or heart, or brains, or guts, imagination, femme-supremacy or Shakespeareanish peen jokes—MAEJ has got it so I really need everyone to go out and read this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Disclaimer: Yes, I am involved in helping this book come to be and that does not affect my ability to recognize gold when I read it, NOT ONE BIT!!!]
August 25, 2024
In a world evocative of Le Guin's Earthsea, join Madenhere and her best friend Taraentlere on their high-stakes adventures as they seek to free themselves and save others from horrifying fates.
Madenhere's society is matriarchal, but this alone gives her very little advantage in life, as she belongs to a viciously oppressed and exploited minority. She must instead rely on her wits and self-taught, rudimentary magical skills to survive.
Though Madenhere may be considered the main character simply because the story starts (and ends) with her, the entire cast of characters is exceptionally well fleshed out. The omniscient narrative follows several women in turn as their fates intersect, each with their own unique backgrounds and motives. Madenhere disappears for chapters at a time, as the author gives just as much attention to a team of foreign scholars with clandestine intent, a once-great warrior cursed with visions of those she has slain, and a political prisoner harboring a dark secret, to name just a few. Ultimately, Madenhere's story is but one of many.
While the transition from character to character is often a simple matter of reaching a new chapter, at times it is enjoyably subtle. Frequently, we see members of the main cast chance upon the same scene while remaining blissfully unaware of each other's presence. It is only in the latter half of the book that many of these characters actually meet as their hitherto independent plots meld to build a volatile and compelling climax.
Meanwhile, the world these characters inhabit is unsparingly detailed, rich in history, culture, exotic customs and languages, and every other seasoning possible for the highest of high-fantasy writing. The author invents multiple languages, each with their own unique dialects and cultural roots. The Shakespearean-esque dialogue can take some time to get used to, as much like the Bard himself, the author invents many words as well as alternate spellings of existing words. But readers needn't worry about not understanding the conversations, for whatever is not directly translated within the narrative is presented phonetically, in context, or both.
Even so, Maej may not be a suitable book for young readers or first-time readers of high-fantasy. This story is more geared to those who are already familiar with the genre and want something with an extra bite to it. To that end, the author certainly delivers, as Maej is a beautifully crafted tale of bravery, compassion, oppression, injustice and liberation. Interwoven into this tale of political strife is a fair bit of social commentary, which the author skillfully injects without allowing the narrative to become preachy. But readers should be warned that the author doesn't pull his punches. This book is, in the very best sense of the word, distressing. It is as mature a tale as possible, with some scenes that faint-hearted readers may find themselves squirming through while still being unable to avert their eyes for fear of missing out on something spectacular.
Without giving away the ending, I can attest that it is complete enough for Maej to exist as a stand-alone novel while at the same time leaving enough room for a continuation.
All in all, an exceptionally enjoyable read that leaves one craving more.
Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Review Copy of Maej from the author in exchange for leaving an unbiased review.
Madenhere's society is matriarchal, but this alone gives her very little advantage in life, as she belongs to a viciously oppressed and exploited minority. She must instead rely on her wits and self-taught, rudimentary magical skills to survive.
Though Madenhere may be considered the main character simply because the story starts (and ends) with her, the entire cast of characters is exceptionally well fleshed out. The omniscient narrative follows several women in turn as their fates intersect, each with their own unique backgrounds and motives. Madenhere disappears for chapters at a time, as the author gives just as much attention to a team of foreign scholars with clandestine intent, a once-great warrior cursed with visions of those she has slain, and a political prisoner harboring a dark secret, to name just a few. Ultimately, Madenhere's story is but one of many.
While the transition from character to character is often a simple matter of reaching a new chapter, at times it is enjoyably subtle. Frequently, we see members of the main cast chance upon the same scene while remaining blissfully unaware of each other's presence. It is only in the latter half of the book that many of these characters actually meet as their hitherto independent plots meld to build a volatile and compelling climax.
Meanwhile, the world these characters inhabit is unsparingly detailed, rich in history, culture, exotic customs and languages, and every other seasoning possible for the highest of high-fantasy writing. The author invents multiple languages, each with their own unique dialects and cultural roots. The Shakespearean-esque dialogue can take some time to get used to, as much like the Bard himself, the author invents many words as well as alternate spellings of existing words. But readers needn't worry about not understanding the conversations, for whatever is not directly translated within the narrative is presented phonetically, in context, or both.
Even so, Maej may not be a suitable book for young readers or first-time readers of high-fantasy. This story is more geared to those who are already familiar with the genre and want something with an extra bite to it. To that end, the author certainly delivers, as Maej is a beautifully crafted tale of bravery, compassion, oppression, injustice and liberation. Interwoven into this tale of political strife is a fair bit of social commentary, which the author skillfully injects without allowing the narrative to become preachy. But readers should be warned that the author doesn't pull his punches. This book is, in the very best sense of the word, distressing. It is as mature a tale as possible, with some scenes that faint-hearted readers may find themselves squirming through while still being unable to avert their eyes for fear of missing out on something spectacular.
Without giving away the ending, I can attest that it is complete enough for Maej to exist as a stand-alone novel while at the same time leaving enough room for a continuation.
All in all, an exceptionally enjoyable read that leaves one craving more.
Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Review Copy of Maej from the author in exchange for leaving an unbiased review.
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November 2, 2024 Thank you to the publisher for sending me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always all thoughts and opinions written in this review are my own.
So DNFing at 10% & therefore no rating - and im super dissapointed that I am since the premise of this book sounded so much like something I'd love but I'm just not enjoying it at all at this point. I think im the only one so take this whole review with a grain of salt & the knoweldge that its probably just me since most other reviews seem to be pretty positive.
It just felt pretentious and some choices were made that made it really difficult to read at parts. The author made the choice to use archaic english for one of the spoken languages but then doesn't use this when describing the characters thoughts etc which just made it a bit jarring to read and honestly I wouldn't reccomend this to anyone unless they are a native speaker and are reading this on an ereader becuase I (as a native speaker) had to continuoulsy look up words to figure out if they were just old-english or just a magic word the author made up. I do think the world building is interesting but anything that intruiged me at the start was just mostly ignored afterwards so I just decided to cut my losses.
So DNFing at 10% & therefore no rating - and im super dissapointed that I am since the premise of this book sounded so much like something I'd love but I'm just not enjoying it at all at this point. I think im the only one so take this whole review with a grain of salt & the knoweldge that its probably just me since most other reviews seem to be pretty positive.
It just felt pretentious and some choices were made that made it really difficult to read at parts. The author made the choice to use archaic english for one of the spoken languages but then doesn't use this when describing the characters thoughts etc which just made it a bit jarring to read and honestly I wouldn't reccomend this to anyone unless they are a native speaker and are reading this on an ereader becuase I (as a native speaker) had to continuoulsy look up words to figure out if they were just old-english or just a magic word the author made up. I do think the world building is interesting but anything that intruiged me at the start was just mostly ignored afterwards so I just decided to cut my losses.
September 7, 2024
DNF at 15%. Wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The world building is incredibly rich and intricate, and the writing on a sentence level is lovely - enough so that it took me awhile to notice that, for all the exciting Events occurring, there wasn't a lot of plot. At least, not plot that's driven by characters having specific desires. Too much for me to plug though 900 pages for.
If you enjoy beautiful world building* and very long books, and don't mind characters doing things for no particular reason (or at least not one that's articulated to, or even hinted at, the reader), you might enjoy this. But if you enjoy character-driven plots, give it a miss.
*And are a highly fluent English speaker with a wealth of archaic grammer in your wheelhouse - I loved what Stromberg does with language with the dialects here, but I suspect it'd be nigh impenetrable for anyone who speaks English as a second language, or who reals primarily contemporary works.
If you enjoy beautiful world building* and very long books, and don't mind characters doing things for no particular reason (or at least not one that's articulated to, or even hinted at, the reader), you might enjoy this. But if you enjoy character-driven plots, give it a miss.
*And are a highly fluent English speaker with a wealth of archaic grammer in your wheelhouse - I loved what Stromberg does with language with the dialects here, but I suspect it'd be nigh impenetrable for anyone who speaks English as a second language, or who reals primarily contemporary works.
September 3, 2024
this was a really well done fantasy novel, it worked with what I was hoping for from the description. I enjoyed the way Dale Stromberg wrote this and thought the overall plot worked well. I enjoyed the political element that I was hoping for. It was a great debut and left me wanting more, with amazing characters and was engaged with what was happening.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 1, 2025
This one will take you engaging a lot with the text, as it's essentially written in cant that relies on you knowing vaguely what the original word may have meant in this world's context. I do almost wish some of the glossary on this had been available in a more interactive way, as it would've helped while reading at times. This is still a great story that focuses on a woman trying to free her child from a nightmare life of being a power battery, and the political reality that ends up unfolding around all of this. This is a matriarchy, which is always fun to see, and it's a queer/trans inclusive reality, and the worldbuilding is intense. It's a door stopper, and will come at you like a brick to the head. Glad I finished this at the end of the year.
October 23, 2024
i am STRUGGLING because this book is so good and i want to write a review that does it justice but it's EXQUISITE and i am but a humble review farmer tending my crops
like
as a young nerd who loved Robert Jordan for high fantasy with gender politics and political scheming I would have KILLED to read this book which is starting with that but also let's have LINGUISTICS ADVENTURES and EVERYONE IS QUEER and one of those plots that has a million threads but you're weaving a delicate, intricate, watertight tapastry (tapastries aren't watertight but you know what i mean, i can't use words like dale can)
the thing is i never trust authors with a book like this, i don't believe anyone can set up a story this ambitious and actually deliver on every character arc, every world building snap of a twig, that so much build up can lead to satisfaction
we've grown into old and cynical nerds with Lost and BSG offering us only set up and no payoff, Robert Jordan died young, it's always winter and never Christmas
this is Christmas guys
this is the real deal
open your gifts
what could go wrong when you start to wonder whose magic burns to fuel your world?
what could go wrong
like
as a young nerd who loved Robert Jordan for high fantasy with gender politics and political scheming I would have KILLED to read this book which is starting with that but also let's have LINGUISTICS ADVENTURES and EVERYONE IS QUEER and one of those plots that has a million threads but you're weaving a delicate, intricate, watertight tapastry (tapastries aren't watertight but you know what i mean, i can't use words like dale can)
the thing is i never trust authors with a book like this, i don't believe anyone can set up a story this ambitious and actually deliver on every character arc, every world building snap of a twig, that so much build up can lead to satisfaction
we've grown into old and cynical nerds with Lost and BSG offering us only set up and no payoff, Robert Jordan died young, it's always winter and never Christmas
this is Christmas guys
this is the real deal
open your gifts
what could go wrong when you start to wonder whose magic burns to fuel your world?
what could go wrong
October 30, 2024
The Ilasi language in the land of Hwoama depends not only on ordinary pronunciation but also on lilt, “a subtly varying emanation of mæj from the body of the speaker, modulating like the light of a flickering match,” overlaying the pronunciation like a harmony. We are drawn into this language, almost hearing it, though the book is written in English. Keep your eye on the “wifedreading” patriarchs of Enn and on what happens to the hundred-day child. An intricate, glowing landscape, crackling with reality-benders and powered by courageous rebellion. More about this on Medium (July 8, 2024) and an author interview (February 12, 2024). I got a free ARC.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews