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Ariah Cycle #1
Ariah
Ariah's magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him. As his friendship with Dirva's brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders. War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love.
398 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 2015
46 people are currently reading
2898 people want to read
About the author
B.R. Sanders
24 books112 followersB R Sanders is a white, genderqueer writer who lives and works in Denver, CO, with their family and two cats. Outside of writing, B has worked as a research psychologist, a labor organizer and a K-12 public education data specialist.
Other names I've published under (the whole B R thing gets tricky--sometimes periods get added, sometimes not, etc):
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Other names I've published under (the whole B R thing gets tricky--sometimes periods get added, sometimes not, etc):
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
September 20, 2016
This was really a two and a half stars book for me. It had potential and that kept me reading, but there were a few places where it almost became a DNF. The main reason is really that the editing was sloppy in terms of character consistency and worldbuilding, and that kept jarring me out of the story.
A secondary reason is that I never really liked Ariah; he felt very much like a plot puppet that had things happen to him and he just went along for the ride.
A secondary reason is that I never really liked Ariah; he felt very much like a plot puppet that had things happen to him and he just went along for the ride.
June 8, 2016
Ariah, for me, is a book about empathy, acceptance and love.
I have never encountered such variety of intimate relationships and gender diversity in a novel before. For that alone I think this was one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year and I devoured it greedily, wanting to know more, impatient to find out where the author will take me, who Ariah (and I) will meet next and how that will influence his life and the lives of those he loved and cared about.
Ariah’s journey, his character evolution is the central storyline of the novel. Growing from someone who accepted quietly and unquestioningly the rules of the world he lived in, from hiding his gifts and being afraid all the time to a person who accepted all variety with an open heart, who challenged everything that put limits on how people could express who they are, to express their love to others – all of that was fascinating to witness.
I loved Ariah but I’m going with 4 stars because I couldn’t shake off the niggles I had till the end. I think I am a reader who pays attention to detail but I had difficulties understanding the structures of the Aerdh universe and I often felt like I was expected to know how things work in it. At times, the pacing was a bit uneven with scenes that seemed too long and others that I wished the author got into more detail. Some extended periods of time would be covered in several pages and Ariah’s reflection on the events in such periods would take even fewer pages, and that left me somewhat confused.
Emotionally, the last third of the book was the strongest for me. It was so intense that despite the hints I got here and there of what Ariah’s future looked like I read the whole thing with my heart beating fast and not daring to stop to rest my eyes.
I hope the author considers giving us a couple of short stories revisiting the characters in Ariah in the future. I will miss them.
July 30, 2016
Many recommended me this book, and although I read some reviews I really didn't know what i was going into until i started the book.
Ariah is a coming of age story settled in a high fantasy world so diverse and enthralling it just sucks you in. We see how our protagonist, Ariah, struggles with his magic and tries to learn how to live with it, also we feel his alienation in a place he doesn't belong to and feel his need of companionship, acceptance and love.
His journey at times is calm at others is troublesome but it's never easy. He meets interesting characters along his journey and learns different things of himself and the world everytime he has to go somewhere new. But in the end both the reader and him get to understand his true self, how *home* differs from one person to another and time by time little by little you get to find your people, your family, and roots.
This is a different read form all the fantasy books I've read before and i'm glad i picked it up because it was a novel experience. B.R Sanders writing is beautiful and i'm gonna keep an eye on her future books.
Ariah is a coming of age story settled in a high fantasy world so diverse and enthralling it just sucks you in. We see how our protagonist, Ariah, struggles with his magic and tries to learn how to live with it, also we feel his alienation in a place he doesn't belong to and feel his need of companionship, acceptance and love.
His journey at times is calm at others is troublesome but it's never easy. He meets interesting characters along his journey and learns different things of himself and the world everytime he has to go somewhere new. But in the end both the reader and him get to understand his true self, how *home* differs from one person to another and time by time little by little you get to find your people, your family, and roots.
This is a different read form all the fantasy books I've read before and i'm glad i picked it up because it was a novel experience. B.R Sanders writing is beautiful and i'm gonna keep an eye on her future books.
March 19, 2017
“When you’re very young and you’re different, you begin to believe that no one has ever been as different as you and that no one has ever felt that difference as keenly as you.”
When I sit down to write I review I usually make a list of likes and dislikes. It should tell you something about how much I like this book that the list, in its entirety looked like this:
“Likes: everything about this book
-Genuinely, everything”
The book begins with Ariah, a young elf, journeying far from his familial home to study with a mentor who will help him control his rather unusual gifts. He lives in a world where elves are looked down upon by their human compatriots. Ariah is part Semadran, an ethnic variant of elves with strict and conservative family values, and part Red Elf, a wilder, more carefree people who don’t hold with the same traditions as the Semadrans. Ariah is a mimic, a gift that allows him to learn language and the nuances of voice with ease, but he is also something more dangerous, something he tries very hard to play down and hide. He is part shaper, very in-tune with others’ emotions, able to manipulate the emotions of others and can find himself losing all sense of who he is the great sweep of others minds. It is a gift that is heavily regulated in the empire and is viewed with great mistrust.
He begins his training with Dirva, his mentor, but familial problems lead to Ariah travelling beyond the borders of the empire alongside him. There he meets Dirva’s younger brother, Sorcha, and comes face to face with the realization that he does not know himself at all.
This is a wonderful, beautiful book. I don’t think I’ve read a book that’s lingered with me after reading the last page quite like this in a long time. I want to read it again even though it’s only been a handful of hours since I put it down. I can’t tell you how long I have been looking for a book like this. Beautiful, beautiful fantasy world building with diverse incredibly written characters and relationships that are delightfully non-heteronormative. As a bisexual fantasy lover this was a dream come true.
‘Ariah’ is very much a character as opposed to plot driven book. That’s not to say that nothing happens because by the end of the book you feel as if you’ve been on an odyssey with the main character, but if you’re looking for page after page of action then you might be disappointed. In my humble opinion, this is honestly some of the best character writing I have ever come across. You feel as if you could reach out and actually touch the characters they are painted so vividly. I love Ariah, I love Sorcha, I love Shayat and Dirva, I’m having a very hard time putting into words just why and how. They are all imperfect people, you embrace every inch of them through Ariah’s eyes, every feature and flaw, every moment of affection or miscommunication. It is very intense and strangely comforting.
“For some of us, the places we come from are not the places we belong, and never were, and never will be.”
Sanders touches on some very important issues in this book, most notably the idea of 'difference’ and what it means to be 'different’. I adored the way they handled Ariah’s internalised homophobia due to his strict upbringing and the effect that has on his sense of self after he develops intense feelings for Sorcha. The fact that Ariah has very little sense of self to begin with, that he 'loses himself’, molds himself to the wants and whims of others, damaging himself in the process, becoming whatever he feels the other needs. The book ponders the different types of love, the different types of need, and the different possibly configurations of personal relationships. It talks about gender, attraction, identity and race all smoothly bound within the narrative. It is an incredible rich book and I had a tear in my eye and a tight feeling in my throat for a lot of it.
Sanders has incredible prose, it lulls you along, so smooth and rich, it honestly does not feel as if you’ve lost an entire afternoon in reading. I read part of this book on a train and I was very shocked when I realized I was at my destination and two hours had passed. I may also have had a handful of very groggy mornings due to late night reading sessions…
(Also, have you seen that cover art?? Gods of cover art have truly blessed Sanders. I’ve been a huge fan and follower of C. Bedford ( @c-bedford) for the last couple of years, so it was a match made in heaven to find their art on the front cover of my new favourite book. )
I can’t recommend this book enough. I already have plans to order a hard copy because I can’t wait to read it again, this time with the pages physically in my hands. Seriously, if you’re looking for a wonderfully written fantasy with diverse protagonists and sublime character development go and get a copy, I repeat, go and get yourself a copy now.
☆☆☆☆☆
(Thanks to Zharmae Publishing and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.)
When I sit down to write I review I usually make a list of likes and dislikes. It should tell you something about how much I like this book that the list, in its entirety looked like this:
“Likes: everything about this book
-Genuinely, everything”
The book begins with Ariah, a young elf, journeying far from his familial home to study with a mentor who will help him control his rather unusual gifts. He lives in a world where elves are looked down upon by their human compatriots. Ariah is part Semadran, an ethnic variant of elves with strict and conservative family values, and part Red Elf, a wilder, more carefree people who don’t hold with the same traditions as the Semadrans. Ariah is a mimic, a gift that allows him to learn language and the nuances of voice with ease, but he is also something more dangerous, something he tries very hard to play down and hide. He is part shaper, very in-tune with others’ emotions, able to manipulate the emotions of others and can find himself losing all sense of who he is the great sweep of others minds. It is a gift that is heavily regulated in the empire and is viewed with great mistrust.
He begins his training with Dirva, his mentor, but familial problems lead to Ariah travelling beyond the borders of the empire alongside him. There he meets Dirva’s younger brother, Sorcha, and comes face to face with the realization that he does not know himself at all.
This is a wonderful, beautiful book. I don’t think I’ve read a book that’s lingered with me after reading the last page quite like this in a long time. I want to read it again even though it’s only been a handful of hours since I put it down. I can’t tell you how long I have been looking for a book like this. Beautiful, beautiful fantasy world building with diverse incredibly written characters and relationships that are delightfully non-heteronormative. As a bisexual fantasy lover this was a dream come true.
‘Ariah’ is very much a character as opposed to plot driven book. That’s not to say that nothing happens because by the end of the book you feel as if you’ve been on an odyssey with the main character, but if you’re looking for page after page of action then you might be disappointed. In my humble opinion, this is honestly some of the best character writing I have ever come across. You feel as if you could reach out and actually touch the characters they are painted so vividly. I love Ariah, I love Sorcha, I love Shayat and Dirva, I’m having a very hard time putting into words just why and how. They are all imperfect people, you embrace every inch of them through Ariah’s eyes, every feature and flaw, every moment of affection or miscommunication. It is very intense and strangely comforting.
“For some of us, the places we come from are not the places we belong, and never were, and never will be.”
Sanders touches on some very important issues in this book, most notably the idea of 'difference’ and what it means to be 'different’. I adored the way they handled Ariah’s internalised homophobia due to his strict upbringing and the effect that has on his sense of self after he develops intense feelings for Sorcha. The fact that Ariah has very little sense of self to begin with, that he 'loses himself’, molds himself to the wants and whims of others, damaging himself in the process, becoming whatever he feels the other needs. The book ponders the different types of love, the different types of need, and the different possibly configurations of personal relationships. It talks about gender, attraction, identity and race all smoothly bound within the narrative. It is an incredible rich book and I had a tear in my eye and a tight feeling in my throat for a lot of it.
Sanders has incredible prose, it lulls you along, so smooth and rich, it honestly does not feel as if you’ve lost an entire afternoon in reading. I read part of this book on a train and I was very shocked when I realized I was at my destination and two hours had passed. I may also have had a handful of very groggy mornings due to late night reading sessions…
(Also, have you seen that cover art?? Gods of cover art have truly blessed Sanders. I’ve been a huge fan and follower of C. Bedford ( @c-bedford) for the last couple of years, so it was a match made in heaven to find their art on the front cover of my new favourite book. )
I can’t recommend this book enough. I already have plans to order a hard copy because I can’t wait to read it again, this time with the pages physically in my hands. Seriously, if you’re looking for a wonderfully written fantasy with diverse protagonists and sublime character development go and get a copy, I repeat, go and get yourself a copy now.
☆☆☆☆☆
(Thanks to Zharmae Publishing and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.)
August 6, 2022
I loved this book but realize it will not be for everyone. It's a meandering fantasy that is essentially focused on the narrator's sense of place in the world as a new adult. There is no quest to overthrow evil, instead, the book is more interested in the question of how one lives under oppressive systems and beliefs. It is long, with lots of different scene changes but each episode feels like a slice of life, rather than any real turning point in the plot. I guess most of the narrative tension is wrapped up in hoping Ariah finds a way to be happy on his own terms in the imperfect world of the book. Bisexual and Polyamorous rep, along with homophobic elements.
April 30, 2015
Fantasy novels are so often driven by the conflict, the action-packed quest as a means to adventure—and these stories provide reliably gripping reading. Certainly Ariah contains the seeds of quest and the Us vs. Them type of conflict between an imperial force and a downtrodden people, but these elements are background, not the central focus. Instead, as the title implies, this is a story driven by characters, and the quest is one of self-discovery. As an elf living in the Qin empire, Ariah is part of a downtrodden and exploited race, but he doesn’t seek to change the grand scheme of things so much as he wants to find and preserve a place for himself within the world he occupies. The action is driven by relationships, by love, and the ties that bind friends, lovers, and families together.
Ariah’s journey uses a carefully crafted fantasy world to explore the influence of deeply entrenched and often narrow social rules, expectations, and traditions and how those rules end up shaping our lives if we allow them to—often to the detriment of our own happiness and satisfaction. The elves’ world within the Qin Empire is strictly stratified by class and by race. Gender expectations, and the accompanying sexual norms, are strictly defined and rigidly enforced, both by the Qin authorities and through simple social pressure within the elf community. It calls into question the restrictions we tend to place on ourselves in the service of “acceptable” behavior and at what point we are willing to sacrifice “acceptable” for freedom and happiness.
As Ariah travels outside the confines of the Empire, he finds his own desires—social, romantic, and sexual—are more and more at odds with the expectations placed upon him to live a “respectable” life. Ariah’s mentor, Dirva, serves as a cautionary tale in this respect, as he parts ways with the man who may be his soul mate in favor of a conventional marriage to a woman so Dirva can maintain his own status in the Empire’s hierarchy. Even before Ariah is able to fully accept his own love for Dirva’s brother, he can see that Dirva’s path is not for him, which leaves him somewhat unmoored as he figures out what path he does want to take.
That Ariah’s primary magical power marks him as a “shaper” seems especially telling. In the novel, a shaper is something like a cross between a mind-reader and therapist, one with extraordinary powers of empathy. Shapers can read the thoughts and feel the feelings of others around themselves, and without proper training, this ability can easily sweep them away on a tide of emotions. The term shaper comes from the idea that a shaper can draw out the thoughts and emotions of others, allowing them to shape another person by bringing these ideas and feelings to the surface. Besides struggling with the conflict between his own desires and society’s expectations, Ariah struggles to master his abilities as a shaper, and these conflicts dovetail as it becomes apparent that the person Ariah is really trying to shape is himself and the destiny he ultimately hopes to shape is his own.
Ariah’s journey uses a carefully crafted fantasy world to explore the influence of deeply entrenched and often narrow social rules, expectations, and traditions and how those rules end up shaping our lives if we allow them to—often to the detriment of our own happiness and satisfaction. The elves’ world within the Qin Empire is strictly stratified by class and by race. Gender expectations, and the accompanying sexual norms, are strictly defined and rigidly enforced, both by the Qin authorities and through simple social pressure within the elf community. It calls into question the restrictions we tend to place on ourselves in the service of “acceptable” behavior and at what point we are willing to sacrifice “acceptable” for freedom and happiness.
As Ariah travels outside the confines of the Empire, he finds his own desires—social, romantic, and sexual—are more and more at odds with the expectations placed upon him to live a “respectable” life. Ariah’s mentor, Dirva, serves as a cautionary tale in this respect, as he parts ways with the man who may be his soul mate in favor of a conventional marriage to a woman so Dirva can maintain his own status in the Empire’s hierarchy. Even before Ariah is able to fully accept his own love for Dirva’s brother, he can see that Dirva’s path is not for him, which leaves him somewhat unmoored as he figures out what path he does want to take.
That Ariah’s primary magical power marks him as a “shaper” seems especially telling. In the novel, a shaper is something like a cross between a mind-reader and therapist, one with extraordinary powers of empathy. Shapers can read the thoughts and feel the feelings of others around themselves, and without proper training, this ability can easily sweep them away on a tide of emotions. The term shaper comes from the idea that a shaper can draw out the thoughts and emotions of others, allowing them to shape another person by bringing these ideas and feelings to the surface. Besides struggling with the conflict between his own desires and society’s expectations, Ariah struggles to master his abilities as a shaper, and these conflicts dovetail as it becomes apparent that the person Ariah is really trying to shape is himself and the destiny he ultimately hopes to shape is his own.
December 21, 2016
Didn't really gel for me
The world of Ariah never really came alive for me, nor did the characters solidify. I think there were a few reasons.
First, this book does not really have a plot. It follows Ariah as he wanders through life, but serves mostly as a vehicle for the author to explore various cultures, languages, and sexualities. It starts in a fairly standard fantasy setting and then explores cultural values that include polyamory and same sex relationships. The last 25% takes place mostly in a genderless social group for which the author used invented pronouns. But none of it contributed to a plot or end result, it was some stuff that happened.
The difficulty with that was that the author used a style that eschewed direct explanation and expected the reader to figure things out from context. This includes the multitude of races, ethnic groups, etc that were introduced. Unfortunately it was really difficult to do so, because there just wasn't enough contextual information provided. For example, all of the different races can interbreed, but it's implied that some are separate species. Elves are universally oppressed, but some groups are more oppressed than others, but I didn't get a handle on what differentiated those groups from other groups. There are different elf colors that share characteristics and seem like ethnic groups, but are also races. It all needs much more fleshing out.
While the story is told in first person by Ariah, the author provides very little internal dialogue about these things, or the magic system, or much of anything other than sex and relationships.
And there is inconsistency as well- for example, the adventures start when Ariah's mentor asks him to go to another city with him. But then when he does that, the mentor does nothing to prepare him for traveling and basically dumps him in the new city. The author seemed to be struggling to fit the plot and characters and it didn't always work. Sometimes I would find out that I had read an entire scene completely differently than it was intended, and have to adjust.
There are some great moments, but it really wasn't enough. It needed a plot other than "boy meets man, then boy, then girl, then boy, marries some of them, the end." It needed much more explanation about the different groups of people and what binds them together and separates them. The story has an underlying theme of oppression that was never really explored or explained.
And I really am not crazy about overly idealized poly stories. The effort to eliminate conflict to make the poly seem natural makes the relationship boring and unrealistic. Conflict is part of romance.
The world of Ariah never really came alive for me, nor did the characters solidify. I think there were a few reasons.
First, this book does not really have a plot. It follows Ariah as he wanders through life, but serves mostly as a vehicle for the author to explore various cultures, languages, and sexualities. It starts in a fairly standard fantasy setting and then explores cultural values that include polyamory and same sex relationships. The last 25% takes place mostly in a genderless social group for which the author used invented pronouns. But none of it contributed to a plot or end result, it was some stuff that happened.
The difficulty with that was that the author used a style that eschewed direct explanation and expected the reader to figure things out from context. This includes the multitude of races, ethnic groups, etc that were introduced. Unfortunately it was really difficult to do so, because there just wasn't enough contextual information provided. For example, all of the different races can interbreed, but it's implied that some are separate species. Elves are universally oppressed, but some groups are more oppressed than others, but I didn't get a handle on what differentiated those groups from other groups. There are different elf colors that share characteristics and seem like ethnic groups, but are also races. It all needs much more fleshing out.
While the story is told in first person by Ariah, the author provides very little internal dialogue about these things, or the magic system, or much of anything other than sex and relationships.
And there is inconsistency as well- for example, the adventures start when Ariah's mentor asks him to go to another city with him. But then when he does that, the mentor does nothing to prepare him for traveling and basically dumps him in the new city. The author seemed to be struggling to fit the plot and characters and it didn't always work. Sometimes I would find out that I had read an entire scene completely differently than it was intended, and have to adjust.
There are some great moments, but it really wasn't enough. It needed a plot other than "boy meets man, then boy, then girl, then boy, marries some of them, the end." It needed much more explanation about the different groups of people and what binds them together and separates them. The story has an underlying theme of oppression that was never really explored or explained.
And I really am not crazy about overly idealized poly stories. The effort to eliminate conflict to make the poly seem natural makes the relationship boring and unrealistic. Conflict is part of romance.
April 23, 2016
So, finally here’s my review of this! I'm honestly embarrassed it's taken so long; this book deserves much better. I read it late January to early February 2016 and found it just . . . extraordinary, on so many levels. I had a zillion thoughts & feelings about it, but as often happens with things that affect me deeply or that I feel are important (and this is both), I was overwhelmed & struggled to articulate my experience of the book.
So I set my review aside for a while. Actually, I did that multiple times, repeatedly revisiting it over the past couple of months. There were times I hated it & despaired of ever finishing. But finally some things crystallized, so I managed to sort it all out & finish. I'm pretty sure people have written entire books in the time it's taken to write this review! :P Anyway, my review still doesn’t come close to doing justice to this book, but it’s probably the closest I’m ever going to get, so here it is, such as it is.
PS: Oh, one caveat about spoilers: I don't consider this review spoilery; I don't feel I give away major plot points here. But I know highly spoiler averse people may feel differently. I did talk about an ability of a major character that is not spelled out until some way into the book, though that scene is more official confirmation than reveal, heavily hinted at beforehand & coming as no real surprise. Also I discuss the opening scene quite a bit. I didn't hide any of this under spoiler tags because I feel the entire review doesn't work without those things. But I don't feel it merits hiding the whole review as a spoiler either. Anyway, just a word to the wise: If any of that sounds remotely concerning, probably you should just avoid this review :)
**********************
For a book that isn’t about humans, Ariah is one of the most profoundly, achingly “human” stories I’ve ever read.
To say I found this book compelling, complex, at times overwhelmingly poignant, and deeply thought provoking, would be accurate, but merely grazes the surface. I've honestly never read anything like this. This book is so broad in scope and so affectingly personal, and succeeds brilliantly at both of those things. And the way it engages your emotions while at the same time keenly challenging your perceptions of concepts like identity, gender, power, culture, language, sexuality and love, I find remarkable. And afterward it sticks with you, almost haunts you, or at least it did me. Though it’s been over two months since I read the book, I still find myself thinking about it often, going back to re-read sections, relating it to real life situations.
I often have a difficult time reviewing books, and one reason is that I have trouble seeing my way to the heart of what a book was for me. Being a sees-the-trees-more-than-the-forest sort of person, books often seem irreducible to me: What they are seems to be virtually everything they contain. And with a book as complex as this one, that seemed more than usually true. But as I came back to this review again & again, I finally saw it:
Empathy. That's what this this book is about. At its heart I think Ariah is about the power, the transformative experience, of empathy.
Ariah is a journey, a journey of almost every conceivable kind: Cultural, emotional, geographic, ideological, temporal, sexual, and spiritual. So it’s fitting that it begins with a physical journey. When we first meet Ariah, the protagonist, he's fresh off a train and quite literally a stranger in a strange land. He’s just traveled from his home city to Rabatha, the city of his new mentor, in the heart of the powerful Qin empire, where he experiences a rude awakening
At 30 years old, barely an adult as defined by his society, until now Ariah has lived a mostly unquestioned and unquestioning existence. Though he’s always been a member of an oppressed race, life in his home city, where his people are a statistical majority, has been deceptively comfortable. It has permitted him to exist in a certain state of denial. But when Ariah steps off that train he’s stepping outside his comfort zone, in every sense of those words, for the first time in his life. And he is quickly confronted with the reality of his oppression, the oppression of his people, in a way he’s never had to face before.
It changes him. Cracks him open, removes the scales from his eyes, leaving him shaken, uncomfortably conscious of his own vulnerability. But I think it also leaves him more receptive to the experiences to come.
A major theme of the story centers on Ariah’s path to mastering his “gift”, an ability called “shaping”, an ability to, not only quite literally feel another person’s feelings, but also to influence, “shape” them. “Ariah” explores the ramifications of this in some depth, both in terms of vulnerability and accountability. In fact, these themes of vulnerability and accountability play off each other all through this story. But shaping also functions as a metaphor, for our more ordinary, human capacity for empathy and influence, the way our words and actions impact others. Reading this story with an awareness of that gave everything a kind of double emotional resonance.
Ariah is a book full of insights, not just for the characters but also for the reader, if you are open to it. It’s a story that holds up a mirror to our own world. It makes you think, really think, about the definitions and limitations of our own society we just accept without questioning or examining, often without even noticing. About the realities and constructions of things like sexual orientation, sexuality, gender, race, language, culture, privilege and marginalization, and of almost every conceivable relationship, bond, and permutation of love.
But just in case I’ve made this sound like a social justice text, let me make it clear Ariah does none of these things in a heavy-handed or didactic way. This isn’t one of those books that tells you things, it allows you to see them for yourself. Yes, it’s social commentary, but organically so, in the way that life itself is social commentary. The story is never subsumed by the message, it is the message.
Take this quote for example:
“The gold elf sang as the slavers led him up to the stage. And I felt it. By virtue of the gift I felt the fatalism, the loss, the bleakness of it. Shayat appeared next to me. She sighed. ‘I hate it when they sing.’”
Really though, all you need is the first sentence, the rest of the paragraph only embroiders on it. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, or maybe it won’t read the same out of context, but that single sentence is like a poem, spare and painfully beautiful, about dignity in the face of oppression. I found its juxtaposition of beauty and cruelty, humanity and inhumanity (so to speak), piercing & haunting; heartbreaking.
And that was only one small moment in one small scene. This book is filled with scenes and moments like this. And nobody has to hit you over the head with how tragic it is, how cruel, how appalling & heartbreaking, how bitterly wrong. All you have to read is: “The gold elf sang as the slavers led him up to the stage.” And you feel it.
This book is so many things. It is a coming of age story. It’s a love story; in fact it’s many love stories, about many kinds of love. It’s a richly detailed fantasy set in a complex, multicultural world that takes us deeply into the heart & soul of the cultures & the people it portrays. It captures and reflects the loneliness, the isolation inherent in marginalization. And there's much more I can't even express.
It’s also quite wonderfully queer. Though not identified by these words, because the world of Ariah is not our world, there are characters who are bisexual, gay, genderfluid, genderqueer, polyamorous, kinky; there is a heartachingly beautiful love story that is asexual. But again, there’s nothing about this that feels like it’s checking off of all the boxes. Its diversity is simply the rich diversity of life.
Which brings me to this. Really, that’s what this book is, it’s just . . . life. It’s life. A full, glorious, terrible, wonderful panoply of life. Which fits right into my thought that the book is about journeys and empathy. Because isn't that what life is about too?
This book is heart expanding, mind expanding, full of love, loss, cruelty and compassion, betrayal and forgiveness, grief and tenderness. It will break your heart more than once, but it is not a tragedy and the ending is full of hope and love.
And I think everybody should read this book. Everybody.
***************
PPS: For a really tour-de-force review of this book, I recommend this absolutely amazing thing. A bit spoilery but just so awesome: http://www.tor.com/2015/08/18/b-r-san...
So I set my review aside for a while. Actually, I did that multiple times, repeatedly revisiting it over the past couple of months. There were times I hated it & despaired of ever finishing. But finally some things crystallized, so I managed to sort it all out & finish. I'm pretty sure people have written entire books in the time it's taken to write this review! :P Anyway, my review still doesn’t come close to doing justice to this book, but it’s probably the closest I’m ever going to get, so here it is, such as it is.
PS: Oh, one caveat about spoilers: I don't consider this review spoilery; I don't feel I give away major plot points here. But I know highly spoiler averse people may feel differently. I did talk about an ability of a major character that is not spelled out until some way into the book, though that scene is more official confirmation than reveal, heavily hinted at beforehand & coming as no real surprise. Also I discuss the opening scene quite a bit. I didn't hide any of this under spoiler tags because I feel the entire review doesn't work without those things. But I don't feel it merits hiding the whole review as a spoiler either. Anyway, just a word to the wise: If any of that sounds remotely concerning, probably you should just avoid this review :)
**********************
For a book that isn’t about humans, Ariah is one of the most profoundly, achingly “human” stories I’ve ever read.
To say I found this book compelling, complex, at times overwhelmingly poignant, and deeply thought provoking, would be accurate, but merely grazes the surface. I've honestly never read anything like this. This book is so broad in scope and so affectingly personal, and succeeds brilliantly at both of those things. And the way it engages your emotions while at the same time keenly challenging your perceptions of concepts like identity, gender, power, culture, language, sexuality and love, I find remarkable. And afterward it sticks with you, almost haunts you, or at least it did me. Though it’s been over two months since I read the book, I still find myself thinking about it often, going back to re-read sections, relating it to real life situations.
I often have a difficult time reviewing books, and one reason is that I have trouble seeing my way to the heart of what a book was for me. Being a sees-the-trees-more-than-the-forest sort of person, books often seem irreducible to me: What they are seems to be virtually everything they contain. And with a book as complex as this one, that seemed more than usually true. But as I came back to this review again & again, I finally saw it:
Empathy. That's what this this book is about. At its heart I think Ariah is about the power, the transformative experience, of empathy.
Ariah is a journey, a journey of almost every conceivable kind: Cultural, emotional, geographic, ideological, temporal, sexual, and spiritual. So it’s fitting that it begins with a physical journey. When we first meet Ariah, the protagonist, he's fresh off a train and quite literally a stranger in a strange land. He’s just traveled from his home city to Rabatha, the city of his new mentor, in the heart of the powerful Qin empire, where he experiences a rude awakening
At 30 years old, barely an adult as defined by his society, until now Ariah has lived a mostly unquestioned and unquestioning existence. Though he’s always been a member of an oppressed race, life in his home city, where his people are a statistical majority, has been deceptively comfortable. It has permitted him to exist in a certain state of denial. But when Ariah steps off that train he’s stepping outside his comfort zone, in every sense of those words, for the first time in his life. And he is quickly confronted with the reality of his oppression, the oppression of his people, in a way he’s never had to face before.
It changes him. Cracks him open, removes the scales from his eyes, leaving him shaken, uncomfortably conscious of his own vulnerability. But I think it also leaves him more receptive to the experiences to come.
A major theme of the story centers on Ariah’s path to mastering his “gift”, an ability called “shaping”, an ability to, not only quite literally feel another person’s feelings, but also to influence, “shape” them. “Ariah” explores the ramifications of this in some depth, both in terms of vulnerability and accountability. In fact, these themes of vulnerability and accountability play off each other all through this story. But shaping also functions as a metaphor, for our more ordinary, human capacity for empathy and influence, the way our words and actions impact others. Reading this story with an awareness of that gave everything a kind of double emotional resonance.
Ariah is a book full of insights, not just for the characters but also for the reader, if you are open to it. It’s a story that holds up a mirror to our own world. It makes you think, really think, about the definitions and limitations of our own society we just accept without questioning or examining, often without even noticing. About the realities and constructions of things like sexual orientation, sexuality, gender, race, language, culture, privilege and marginalization, and of almost every conceivable relationship, bond, and permutation of love.
But just in case I’ve made this sound like a social justice text, let me make it clear Ariah does none of these things in a heavy-handed or didactic way. This isn’t one of those books that tells you things, it allows you to see them for yourself. Yes, it’s social commentary, but organically so, in the way that life itself is social commentary. The story is never subsumed by the message, it is the message.
Take this quote for example:
“The gold elf sang as the slavers led him up to the stage. And I felt it. By virtue of the gift I felt the fatalism, the loss, the bleakness of it. Shayat appeared next to me. She sighed. ‘I hate it when they sing.’”
Really though, all you need is the first sentence, the rest of the paragraph only embroiders on it. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, or maybe it won’t read the same out of context, but that single sentence is like a poem, spare and painfully beautiful, about dignity in the face of oppression. I found its juxtaposition of beauty and cruelty, humanity and inhumanity (so to speak), piercing & haunting; heartbreaking.
And that was only one small moment in one small scene. This book is filled with scenes and moments like this. And nobody has to hit you over the head with how tragic it is, how cruel, how appalling & heartbreaking, how bitterly wrong. All you have to read is: “The gold elf sang as the slavers led him up to the stage.” And you feel it.
This book is so many things. It is a coming of age story. It’s a love story; in fact it’s many love stories, about many kinds of love. It’s a richly detailed fantasy set in a complex, multicultural world that takes us deeply into the heart & soul of the cultures & the people it portrays. It captures and reflects the loneliness, the isolation inherent in marginalization. And there's much more I can't even express.
It’s also quite wonderfully queer. Though not identified by these words, because the world of Ariah is not our world, there are characters who are bisexual, gay, genderfluid, genderqueer, polyamorous, kinky; there is a heartachingly beautiful love story that is asexual. But again, there’s nothing about this that feels like it’s checking off of all the boxes. Its diversity is simply the rich diversity of life.
Which brings me to this. Really, that’s what this book is, it’s just . . . life. It’s life. A full, glorious, terrible, wonderful panoply of life. Which fits right into my thought that the book is about journeys and empathy. Because isn't that what life is about too?
This book is heart expanding, mind expanding, full of love, loss, cruelty and compassion, betrayal and forgiveness, grief and tenderness. It will break your heart more than once, but it is not a tragedy and the ending is full of hope and love.
And I think everybody should read this book. Everybody.
***************
PPS: For a really tour-de-force review of this book, I recommend this absolutely amazing thing. A bit spoilery but just so awesome: http://www.tor.com/2015/08/18/b-r-san...
May 2, 2017
"My mind is indecisive, wretchedly so, but my heart is not so patient."
* * *
Oh my goodness.
Oh.
I've spent like ten minutes just staring at the screen and mentally breathing into a paper bag because words kind of don't... begin? (A quirk of my Definitely Not Typical brain = the more important something is to me, or the more intense an emotion I experience, the harder it is for me to express it in words. That's what is happening here, so forgive any strange phrasing. *Ariah's words rid me of mine.*)
It's beautiful. This book is so beautiful. My chest aches thinking about moments in it. The prose reads like poetry, like lyrics to a song you never want to end. You read it and there's *more.* To life. To a world you may not think you belong to. And you might not. But you read something like this, and you think maybe someday, in another place, you could.
I am honestly starting to cry right this instant because of Sorcha in general and his existence. I can't actually get into this, as I'm skirting the edge of actually breaking down, and that WILL push me over, but. He is... so much.
Ariah himself is... one of the most compelling characters I've come across in some time. His openness - dangerous for a Shaper, or at least *in the way his culture dictates they live*, his inability to project "walls" and distance himself from emotion, people, desires, pains. His sense of losing himself in the people around them and the maelstrom of their lives. His indecision, his paralysis, his uncertainty, fear, grief, and slow-dawning hope.
Shapers can create 'mirrors' of magic. This book is a mirror to me. For better or worse, beautiful and infuriating, I see more of myself - and the deep, vulnerable ache to CONNECT, live together and understand one another, even in our shared isolation and relatable solitude - than I can easily say. It's a hard mirror to look into. But it heals the way cauterizing a wound does.
This is very hard to write.
It's sometimes hard to read.
But it should be read.
That is all I can say here because I am on the edge of coherency and it's getting overwhelming. Please read my highlights; there are many. https://www.goodreads.com/notes/31826...
And please read this book. It might hurt, but it also might heal.
* * *
Oh my goodness.
Oh.
I've spent like ten minutes just staring at the screen and mentally breathing into a paper bag because words kind of don't... begin? (A quirk of my Definitely Not Typical brain = the more important something is to me, or the more intense an emotion I experience, the harder it is for me to express it in words. That's what is happening here, so forgive any strange phrasing. *Ariah's words rid me of mine.*)
It's beautiful. This book is so beautiful. My chest aches thinking about moments in it. The prose reads like poetry, like lyrics to a song you never want to end. You read it and there's *more.* To life. To a world you may not think you belong to. And you might not. But you read something like this, and you think maybe someday, in another place, you could.
I am honestly starting to cry right this instant because of Sorcha in general and his existence. I can't actually get into this, as I'm skirting the edge of actually breaking down, and that WILL push me over, but. He is... so much.
Ariah himself is... one of the most compelling characters I've come across in some time. His openness - dangerous for a Shaper, or at least *in the way his culture dictates they live*, his inability to project "walls" and distance himself from emotion, people, desires, pains. His sense of losing himself in the people around them and the maelstrom of their lives. His indecision, his paralysis, his uncertainty, fear, grief, and slow-dawning hope.
Shapers can create 'mirrors' of magic. This book is a mirror to me. For better or worse, beautiful and infuriating, I see more of myself - and the deep, vulnerable ache to CONNECT, live together and understand one another, even in our shared isolation and relatable solitude - than I can easily say. It's a hard mirror to look into. But it heals the way cauterizing a wound does.
This is very hard to write.
It's sometimes hard to read.
But it should be read.
That is all I can say here because I am on the edge of coherency and it's getting overwhelming. Please read my highlights; there are many. https://www.goodreads.com/notes/31826...
And please read this book. It might hurt, but it also might heal.
July 31, 2016
ETA: Check out this INTERVIEW with B R Sanders on Just Love Romance...
___________________________________
Sometimes a book just sucks you in and when you resurface from the depths of its pages, from a stunning and vivid inner world, you feel so full and can’t imagine how to start talking about it.
Well, I know this high fantasy deserves the highest rating and it’s made it’s way on my favourite shelf – the fourth book this year that I chose to put there. But otherwise, I’m left a little disoriented. I want to talk about the world, the characters, the magic, the races and different societies, the forms of living and loving – believe me, there is so much that fascinated me and that was unique and something I had never read about. Writing all this, I think the review would get out of hand, though, so I’ll try to focus on what spoke to me most. But how to choose?
This book basically tells Ariah’s story that spans over many years of his adulthood, starting when, with 30 years, he goes to Rabatha in order to start his magical training with his mentor Dirva. In many different phases and also places, we accompany Ariah as he learns how to live with his quite difficult shaping gift, in a world that often does not look mildly on elves and oppresses them. We witness how he finds love, that comes in different shapes and genders, and many amazing people to share it with, and how he grows into the person he – probably ;-) – was meant to be.
The, for me, most beautiful love Ariah has is with Sorcha:
And to witness their relationship change and develop over the years was both wonderful and part wise heartbreaking. So very touching.
I think part of the charm of this book is that you don’t really know how it’s gonna end and with whom Ariah is gonna end up with or at all, so I’ll be leaving it at that. The romance isn’t even the important or prominent part of this book – but such a great one nonetheless.
I absolutely love how the book is divided into different parts. They are all connected via Ariah, because the story is written in first person from his perspective, and that binds them together and makes them feel whole, but every part has also a further different feel to it and there is something new to discover and learn. Be it about Ariah himself, his gift, or be it about the land, the city, or the desert, or be it about the different elven races and how they live, or be it about the people he gets to know and even sometimes love.
I also find it remarkable that this book shows us a different kind of elves – not the ones we associate with the word because of Tolkien. No, these elves are not high and mighty and fortunate. In the Qin empire they are only treated a little bit better than slaves and the unfairness of their lives, that they just take for what it is, is in parts hard to witness. I am utterly grateful that not every part of the book plays in the Empire. In addition, there are different elven races who are not only different in appearance but also have different gifts and ways of living. That was so interesting.
I want to add a thought about the shaping gift that Ariah has and needs to learn to master and live with. His gift is hard to understand and grasp – not only for the reader, but also for him and everyone, and that’s why it takes him so long to get a hang of it. Ariah can sense other people’s wishes and thoughts and is in a way forced by his gift to positively react to and mirror them. And that’s not only mind-blowing, because there are times when you start to wonder if what he feels and does is really him, but it also brings consent or the lack thereof to a new dubious level. Readers who are (very) sensitive to this, should be warned. I am sorry that I can’t explain this any better.
I am sure I forgot to mention something very important. I’ll probably think about this book for some time and come back to it. Oh, by the way, I’ve seen there are more stories in the same universe, and I’m so going to read all of it.
Let me come to an end for now. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you like high fantasy and love to read something new and unique on all accounts and if you can keep an open mind and want to be surprised, then this is your book.
_________________________________
Genre: high fantasy, (romance)
Tags: bisexual, poly/open relationship, magic
Rating: 5 stars, favourite of 2016
Notes: new to me author —> need more of their work
Blog: Reviewed for Just Love Romance
___________________________________
Sometimes a book just sucks you in and when you resurface from the depths of its pages, from a stunning and vivid inner world, you feel so full and can’t imagine how to start talking about it.
Well, I know this high fantasy deserves the highest rating and it’s made it’s way on my favourite shelf – the fourth book this year that I chose to put there. But otherwise, I’m left a little disoriented. I want to talk about the world, the characters, the magic, the races and different societies, the forms of living and loving – believe me, there is so much that fascinated me and that was unique and something I had never read about. Writing all this, I think the review would get out of hand, though, so I’ll try to focus on what spoke to me most. But how to choose?
This book basically tells Ariah’s story that spans over many years of his adulthood, starting when, with 30 years, he goes to Rabatha in order to start his magical training with his mentor Dirva. In many different phases and also places, we accompany Ariah as he learns how to live with his quite difficult shaping gift, in a world that often does not look mildly on elves and oppresses them. We witness how he finds love, that comes in different shapes and genders, and many amazing people to share it with, and how he grows into the person he – probably ;-) – was meant to be.
The, for me, most beautiful love Ariah has is with Sorcha:
I had no ready answer. There were never any ready answers to explain whatever it was between myself and Sorcha. I coiled a lock of her hair around my finger and tried to gather my thoughts. “Well, he…he is my roots,” was the best I could do.
Shayat batted my hand away. “Roots?”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sorcha is…he keeps me grounded in myself. There is no need for privacy with him. There is no judgment, no expectations, just solace.”
And to witness their relationship change and develop over the years was both wonderful and part wise heartbreaking. So very touching.
I think part of the charm of this book is that you don’t really know how it’s gonna end and with whom Ariah is gonna end up with or at all, so I’ll be leaving it at that. The romance isn’t even the important or prominent part of this book – but such a great one nonetheless.
I absolutely love how the book is divided into different parts. They are all connected via Ariah, because the story is written in first person from his perspective, and that binds them together and makes them feel whole, but every part has also a further different feel to it and there is something new to discover and learn. Be it about Ariah himself, his gift, or be it about the land, the city, or the desert, or be it about the different elven races and how they live, or be it about the people he gets to know and even sometimes love.
I also find it remarkable that this book shows us a different kind of elves – not the ones we associate with the word because of Tolkien. No, these elves are not high and mighty and fortunate. In the Qin empire they are only treated a little bit better than slaves and the unfairness of their lives, that they just take for what it is, is in parts hard to witness. I am utterly grateful that not every part of the book plays in the Empire. In addition, there are different elven races who are not only different in appearance but also have different gifts and ways of living. That was so interesting.
I want to add a thought about the shaping gift that Ariah has and needs to learn to master and live with. His gift is hard to understand and grasp – not only for the reader, but also for him and everyone, and that’s why it takes him so long to get a hang of it. Ariah can sense other people’s wishes and thoughts and is in a way forced by his gift to positively react to and mirror them. And that’s not only mind-blowing, because there are times when you start to wonder if what he feels and does is really him, but it also brings consent or the lack thereof to a new dubious level. Readers who are (very) sensitive to this, should be warned. I am sorry that I can’t explain this any better.
I am sure I forgot to mention something very important. I’ll probably think about this book for some time and come back to it. Oh, by the way, I’ve seen there are more stories in the same universe, and I’m so going to read all of it.
Let me come to an end for now. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you like high fantasy and love to read something new and unique on all accounts and if you can keep an open mind and want to be surprised, then this is your book.
_________________________________
Genre: high fantasy, (romance)
Tags: bisexual, poly/open relationship, magic
Rating: 5 stars, favourite of 2016
Notes: new to me author —> need more of their work
Blog: Reviewed for Just Love Romance
December 13, 2017
A fantasy novel written in the style of a literary novel, exploring everything from fluid sexuality to polyamory to gender identity.
In terms of expectations, don't expect a traditional romance arc. Ariah falls in love with several people in the course of the story, and whatever sex that happens on page is sparse and not the point. This is more about Ariah growing up and coming to terms with who he is, regardless of what society expects him to be.
I can relate to Ariah being an empath and getting sucked into other people's emotions. I can relate so hard that many part of this novel were enlightening for my own troubles of separating myself from the people around me.
I also enjoyed how several types of cultures were explored. You have the rigid traditionalists, who are heteronormative and homophobic. But then you have other places where a man can marry another man, and then he can marry a woman too. Even more so, there's a society where gender doesn't exist at all (gender-neutral pronouns ahoy), and relationships can be sexual without being romantic or romantic without ever getting sexual. It was very refreshing, especially knowing that the author is genderqueer.
If I had any gripes, it's that when describing people, there's a lot of "almond-shaped eyes" and "kinky hair." It's not a deal-breaker -- we're talking about elves -- but it's cliche and reminded me that even though plenty of progressive stuff was going on, it isn't as meticulous about racially-charged descriptors (see: eyes; hair).
But overall, it's a solid story, and I highly recommend it.
In terms of expectations, don't expect a traditional romance arc. Ariah falls in love with several people in the course of the story, and whatever sex that happens on page is sparse and not the point. This is more about Ariah growing up and coming to terms with who he is, regardless of what society expects him to be.
I can relate to Ariah being an empath and getting sucked into other people's emotions. I can relate so hard that many part of this novel were enlightening for my own troubles of separating myself from the people around me.
I also enjoyed how several types of cultures were explored. You have the rigid traditionalists, who are heteronormative and homophobic. But then you have other places where a man can marry another man, and then he can marry a woman too. Even more so, there's a society where gender doesn't exist at all (gender-neutral pronouns ahoy), and relationships can be sexual without being romantic or romantic without ever getting sexual. It was very refreshing, especially knowing that the author is genderqueer.
If I had any gripes, it's that when describing people, there's a lot of "almond-shaped eyes" and "kinky hair." It's not a deal-breaker -- we're talking about elves -- but it's cliche and reminded me that even though plenty of progressive stuff was going on, it isn't as meticulous about racially-charged descriptors (see: eyes; hair).
But overall, it's a solid story, and I highly recommend it.
April 12, 2016
I was a little wary picking this book up. Several people I know have read and raved about it. I think I'm a little more critical of such books, for fear I'll get swept away with the fervor and just unthinkingly agree with the masses. But even being extra vigilant of my own feelings about the novel, I can say with certainty that I absolutely loved it.
It was not an immediate love. It took a while to settle in. The book is separated into sections in a way I find disruptive to reading. It presented characters I fell in love with and then it moved away from them. It was slow at times and I had trouble keeping track of all the ethnicities. But by the end, I genuinely, tearfully loved it.
Someone else claimed it is the queerest thing they ever read and I have to agree whole-heartedly. Not because it has male/male or female/female pairing. Not because it allowed for bi sexuality. Not because it includes gender fluidity. Not because it presented polyamory and platonic love, but because it allowed for all of it and more. Several types of identity, relationships and types of love are presented as functional, acceptable and un-exotic, along with the implicit understanding that there could be more besides; all without ever deteriorating into any kind of indictment of modern Western mores or feeling like it was just going down a laundry list of minority statuses.
The sense of inclusiveness in this book is palpable. This I think is one of the core threads of the book. It's about Ariah, the experiences of his life and how they contributed to his becoming the man he became. But in telling his tale he invites the reader to consider those same experiences and share in some of the changes they inspired in him. I was moved by it.
In the course of this book I laughed, I cried sadly, I was anxious and angry and I ended in happy tears. OMG, please tell me Sanders has written more books. I think I need them all.
It was not an immediate love. It took a while to settle in. The book is separated into sections in a way I find disruptive to reading. It presented characters I fell in love with and then it moved away from them. It was slow at times and I had trouble keeping track of all the ethnicities. But by the end, I genuinely, tearfully loved it.
Someone else claimed it is the queerest thing they ever read and I have to agree whole-heartedly. Not because it has male/male or female/female pairing. Not because it allowed for bi sexuality. Not because it includes gender fluidity. Not because it presented polyamory and platonic love, but because it allowed for all of it and more. Several types of identity, relationships and types of love are presented as functional, acceptable and un-exotic, along with the implicit understanding that there could be more besides; all without ever deteriorating into any kind of indictment of modern Western mores or feeling like it was just going down a laundry list of minority statuses.
The sense of inclusiveness in this book is palpable. This I think is one of the core threads of the book. It's about Ariah, the experiences of his life and how they contributed to his becoming the man he became. But in telling his tale he invites the reader to consider those same experiences and share in some of the changes they inspired in him. I was moved by it.
In the course of this book I laughed, I cried sadly, I was anxious and angry and I ended in happy tears. OMG, please tell me Sanders has written more books. I think I need them all.
August 24, 2019
I'm not even sure what to say about this book. I loved it, I devoured it in a few days, I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever I wasn't reading it. It's a story about magic and powers and learning to use it without getting lost in it, but in a very passive, contemplative, introspective way that I had never really encountered in a fantasy setting until now. The books is a long, in depth character study about empathy, the good and the bad that it can do to an empath, about building boundaries, about growing into the person we need to be while trying to unlearn the unfair expectations we're born into. It's about the different types of love, about sexuality and gender and bonds, and the way the lines often get blurred, the ways some lines are or aren't crossed, about coming of age in an oppressive society, about how liberating it is once we decide to make the leap. I want to recommend this book because it moved me in a deep and personal way, but I realize it's not your average fantasy book, that it's not your average coming of age story, that it's a story that might not interest everyone. The writing is beautiful and poetic and flows so wonderfully (I'll admit I got choked up a few times simply from how gorgeous the words were), and never have I identified with a character more, strengths and especially flaws and all, than I have with Ariah. I was curious about this book and its premise, and I had every reason to be.
July 15, 2018
Обложка роскошная. История вызвала смешанные чувства, это что-то типа мемуара, событий много, но они мелонхоличные и по большей части описаны по факту свершения. За пару абзацев может пройти два года из жизни, а может за всю главу пройти один день... Мир оригинальный, сложный, как такового введения в него нет, приходится выискивать объяснения по ходу дела.
Романтическая линия странная. Герои держат дистанцию, спят с другими (причём довольно графично это описывается), а потом сходятся без объяснений. Типа время пришло. Идиллию автор не описывает совсем, зато страницы через две после первой закадровой близости ничинает новый виток проблем в их отношениях. Я даже толком не успела поверить в чувства, когда начались намеки на измены. Тут я и сдалась :(
Но обложка чудесная, это правда.
Романтическая линия странная. Герои держат дистанцию, спят с другими (причём довольно графично это описывается), а потом сходятся без объяснений. Типа время пришло. Идиллию автор не описывает совсем, зато страницы через две после первой закадровой близости ничинает новый виток проблем в их отношениях. Я даже толком не успела поверить в чувства, когда начались намеки на измены. Тут я и сдалась :(
Но обложка чудесная, это правда.
November 25, 2017
This is an amazing, thought-provoking queer fantasy bildungsroman. I loved reading this. It has a few issues, but I love it for what is and what it's about. It's about people and love and home and acceptance and being different and figuring out what matters in life. It's super queer and it embraces queerness in an amazing way. It's well-written, engaging, thoughtful, and so moving. It's a book that leaves a strong impression. This is definitely one of my favourite books I've read this year and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.
January 1, 2024
2.5
I liked it better than when I dnf'ed it but mostly it gave me nothing everytime I wanted more (or anything at all.)
Review full of spoilers.
I liked Shayat a lot, Sorcha grew on me a little bit, it had a lot of cool explorations of gender, sex and romance. I liked the magic system, though it seemed to me that it was a very soft magic system that the characters treated like a hard magic system, which got a bit jarring. I liked Ariah in the bits when he had some actual bite and edge. There was some cool world building that I wished we had gotten more of.
Pretty disappointing that something promised in the blurb only happens in the last quarter of the book. And Ariah's whole .. thing about being so taken in by the songs of the enslaved people with brown skin and kinky hair and wishing he "looked as Droma as he felt" feels... Uncomfortable, to say the least. Maybe could've been three stars if not for those two things.
A lot of things just had no weight or importance, like Abira trading her drums for Ariah. Drums that she hasn't used at all or that haven't even been just described.. If it wasn't for Dirva's comment, I'd assume she just brought them to have something to trade at the border, that she's not actually a drummer and that her sacrifice was not that at all.
When the context of things are only explained when they happen, the scene ends up lacking weight and tension for me. Eg Ariah's birthmark being mentioned for the first time when Sorcha is trying to find him means the recognition has no impact for me.
And if the empire is expanding because they're struggling to fill the factories with "full citizens" (full citizens who?) why is Ariah's conscription the first we ever hear about it? He worked in a factory. Iirc, Nisa worked in a factory. Why was the lack of factory workers not explored earlier, especially given that the narrative implies that it is not difficult to end up there? The consequences of refusing conscription would have had so much more weight, too, if it had been explored beforehand, if we had seen someone getting conscripted, refused and received bad consequences. Maybe Shayat's dad.
For big, important chunks of the story, I felt left out as reader, being told about important things rather than shown. Sorcha and Ariah apparently dancing around each other, how Ariah, Sorcha and Shayat compliment each other, the family dinners and the emotional stress they cause Ariah or Ariah's time at the border. Bummed to be just told about these things instead of actually exploring them, getting to feel them. I want to read about the family dinners and feel suffocated, not just told that Ariah felt suffocated. And Ariah standing before a classroom of Qin just... Do not have the same weight that it could have had, if we had been really shown Ariah's time being detained, tortured and used, if it had been given any space actually worthy of the implied impact that it had on him.
The little inconsistencies got grating. Making up a word for "godfather" and then having a character say godfather. Nobody but Ariah was surprised when Sorcha began lactating — and then Sorcha is surprised that he starts lactating. Ariah is secured while working for the army because he's... Important? No, he isn't. They might not know that he's sabotaging the Qin officers' learning but since the officers apparently are incapable of learning, and they've known this for 1.5 years, he is... Not important. His skills are useless to them.
Or the dinners with Dirva's family being deeply private but Ariah can come because of this position as Dirva's mentee (ok fine) and as Sorcha's budding friend (they... barely know each other at that point). Okay, fine, he's there as Dirva's mentee. And going to one means he's basically adopted into the family. But he can't be there for Dirva's da's death 🫠 the last two especially feels like the story failing to follow through on itself.
Honestly? I would like to rescue Ariah from almost everyone around him, especially Dirva. Seriously, eff that guy. Look, I don't think a book is bad because a character does a bad thing but I'm going to rant about this anyway because it felt like the narrative forgot about its own power structures in it.
So Ariah is, what, the equivalent of a 20 year old, entirely dependent on his mentor. They're in the City for Dirva's sake, they went on an incredibly dangerous journey to get there, as evidenced by Ariah's later detainment and abuse/torture (which Dirva is fully aware can happen), Ariah has no money, has been unceremoniously dumped at the squat house (with no warning that he would have his ear pierced against his will) instead of, oh idk, staying with Dirva and Liro, and he is left completely to his own devices. Then Dirva's brother assaults him, then Ariah loses control of his magic and bends to Sorcha's desire for him and runs in a panic to Dirva, the older person who he. Is. Dependent. On. The person who is his magic teacher. Ariah parrots internalised homophobic attitudes and slurs in the context of him having been assaulted by the person that Dirva left him with and Dirva... Decides to take this personally? And abandon his barely adult mentee to a world that is preeeetty hostile and dangerous to people like him? A quite young person hasn't examined his internalised homophobia and now deserves to be dumped far from home in a world where authories can and will abuse him for their own gains because he... Said a slur after being assaulted? And he is the one who should apologise? Hell no. Dirva sucks ass and deserves nothing in my book.
I liked it better than when I dnf'ed it but mostly it gave me nothing everytime I wanted more (or anything at all.)
Review full of spoilers.
I liked Shayat a lot, Sorcha grew on me a little bit, it had a lot of cool explorations of gender, sex and romance. I liked the magic system, though it seemed to me that it was a very soft magic system that the characters treated like a hard magic system, which got a bit jarring. I liked Ariah in the bits when he had some actual bite and edge. There was some cool world building that I wished we had gotten more of.
Pretty disappointing that something promised in the blurb only happens in the last quarter of the book. And Ariah's whole .. thing about being so taken in by the songs of the enslaved people with brown skin and kinky hair and wishing he "looked as Droma as he felt" feels... Uncomfortable, to say the least. Maybe could've been three stars if not for those two things.
A lot of things just had no weight or importance, like Abira trading her drums for Ariah. Drums that she hasn't used at all or that haven't even been just described.. If it wasn't for Dirva's comment, I'd assume she just brought them to have something to trade at the border, that she's not actually a drummer and that her sacrifice was not that at all.
When the context of things are only explained when they happen, the scene ends up lacking weight and tension for me. Eg Ariah's birthmark being mentioned for the first time when Sorcha is trying to find him means the recognition has no impact for me.
And if the empire is expanding because they're struggling to fill the factories with "full citizens" (full citizens who?) why is Ariah's conscription the first we ever hear about it? He worked in a factory. Iirc, Nisa worked in a factory. Why was the lack of factory workers not explored earlier, especially given that the narrative implies that it is not difficult to end up there? The consequences of refusing conscription would have had so much more weight, too, if it had been explored beforehand, if we had seen someone getting conscripted, refused and received bad consequences. Maybe Shayat's dad.
For big, important chunks of the story, I felt left out as reader, being told about important things rather than shown. Sorcha and Ariah apparently dancing around each other, how Ariah, Sorcha and Shayat compliment each other, the family dinners and the emotional stress they cause Ariah or Ariah's time at the border. Bummed to be just told about these things instead of actually exploring them, getting to feel them. I want to read about the family dinners and feel suffocated, not just told that Ariah felt suffocated. And Ariah standing before a classroom of Qin just... Do not have the same weight that it could have had, if we had been really shown Ariah's time being detained, tortured and used, if it had been given any space actually worthy of the implied impact that it had on him.
The little inconsistencies got grating. Making up a word for "godfather" and then having a character say godfather. Nobody but Ariah was surprised when Sorcha began lactating — and then Sorcha is surprised that he starts lactating. Ariah is secured while working for the army because he's... Important? No, he isn't. They might not know that he's sabotaging the Qin officers' learning but since the officers apparently are incapable of learning, and they've known this for 1.5 years, he is... Not important. His skills are useless to them.
Or the dinners with Dirva's family being deeply private but Ariah can come because of this position as Dirva's mentee (ok fine) and as Sorcha's budding friend (they... barely know each other at that point). Okay, fine, he's there as Dirva's mentee. And going to one means he's basically adopted into the family. But he can't be there for Dirva's da's death 🫠 the last two especially feels like the story failing to follow through on itself.
Honestly? I would like to rescue Ariah from almost everyone around him, especially Dirva. Seriously, eff that guy. Look, I don't think a book is bad because a character does a bad thing but I'm going to rant about this anyway because it felt like the narrative forgot about its own power structures in it.
So Ariah is, what, the equivalent of a 20 year old, entirely dependent on his mentor. They're in the City for Dirva's sake, they went on an incredibly dangerous journey to get there, as evidenced by Ariah's later detainment and abuse/torture (which Dirva is fully aware can happen), Ariah has no money, has been unceremoniously dumped at the squat house (with no warning that he would have his ear pierced against his will) instead of, oh idk, staying with Dirva and Liro, and he is left completely to his own devices. Then Dirva's brother assaults him, then Ariah loses control of his magic and bends to Sorcha's desire for him and runs in a panic to Dirva, the older person who he. Is. Dependent. On. The person who is his magic teacher. Ariah parrots internalised homophobic attitudes and slurs in the context of him having been assaulted by the person that Dirva left him with and Dirva... Decides to take this personally? And abandon his barely adult mentee to a world that is preeeetty hostile and dangerous to people like him? A quite young person hasn't examined his internalised homophobia and now deserves to be dumped far from home in a world where authories can and will abuse him for their own gains because he... Said a slur after being assaulted? And he is the one who should apologise? Hell no. Dirva sucks ass and deserves nothing in my book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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October 18, 2019Took me a little to get into, but once I did, I couldn't stop reading. Very interesting fantasy centered on relationships, both sexual and not, romantic and not, and how they change and grow and move over the years, all set in an intricate world where elves, though long-lived are more or less an oppressed people. Polyam. Queer. Variety of genders.
April 10, 2017
Holy cow! I seriously appreciate talent, even more if such talent is put at the service of the general spreading of queer ideas in an absolutely non preachy way. Preachers are irritating, even when they preach values I approve of.
B.R. Sanders has talent in spades. That’s why I read Ariah in two days, and I went to bed at 6 a.m. to finish it, reading all night. When I woke up I ordered also the paperback ;-).
The book is a kind of coming of age story for Ariah, an elf living in the Qin empire, where elves are an oppressed minority. The character progress is superbly made and believable, the book presents many occasions to ponder about gender, sexuality, homophobia, love, minorities, oppression and much more. The world building is probably a tad too much on the not-explaining-things-side, anyway I prefer this to the explaining-too-much ((yawn)).
I appreciated the great, independent woman character of Shayat, not even particularly young or beautiful (!), and the Droma culture which is not gender binary: everybody is just a person, not a man or a woman. Ariah lives with the Droma for 6 years. I also liked how the pronouns were tackled.
There would be many aspects to talk about, in fact maybe the author packed too many themes in the book, anyway better read this in-depth review: On Queerness, Subversion, Autonomy, and Catharsis: B. R. Sanders’ Ariah Reinvents the Bildungsroman or one of the many interesting interviews with B.R. Sanders.
Warnings: maybe not the book for you if you hate polyamory. There is some dubious-con sex (rape?) connected to Ariah’s magic. The book doesn't end on a cliff hanger, but you are left there wondering about the other characters and so on.
ETA: I forgot to comment on the gorgeous cover...
B.R. Sanders has talent in spades. That’s why I read Ariah in two days, and I went to bed at 6 a.m. to finish it, reading all night. When I woke up I ordered also the paperback ;-).
The book is a kind of coming of age story for Ariah, an elf living in the Qin empire, where elves are an oppressed minority. The character progress is superbly made and believable, the book presents many occasions to ponder about gender, sexuality, homophobia, love, minorities, oppression and much more. The world building is probably a tad too much on the not-explaining-things-side, anyway I prefer this to the explaining-too-much ((yawn)).
I appreciated the great, independent woman character of Shayat, not even particularly young or beautiful (!), and the Droma culture which is not gender binary: everybody is just a person, not a man or a woman. Ariah lives with the Droma for 6 years. I also liked how the pronouns were tackled.
There would be many aspects to talk about, in fact maybe the author packed too many themes in the book, anyway better read this in-depth review: On Queerness, Subversion, Autonomy, and Catharsis: B. R. Sanders’ Ariah Reinvents the Bildungsroman or one of the many interesting interviews with B.R. Sanders.
Warnings: maybe not the book for you if you hate polyamory. There is some dubious-con sex (rape?) connected to Ariah’s magic. The book doesn't end on a cliff hanger, but you are left there wondering about the other characters and so on.
ETA: I forgot to comment on the gorgeous cover...
September 16, 2015
So...like apparently everyone else, I ended up here via Foz's review and, while I take some issues with her characterization of the book (it is more like Goblin Emperor than Ancillary Justice, but they still strike me as very different books indeed and recommending this to people who liked those is not a sure bet), I'm glad I came over.
Sanders is doing something fascinating here with the bildungsroman in fantasy. More often, books in fantasy with elements of the bildungsroman are basically the story of the epic hero. This is closer to Great Expectations, in a way, than to the hero's quest. The world, life--the life one is born into and the life one seeks out, the implacable society and its dictates are not so much antagonists as obstacles to navigate. And the reward for getting through is having done so, having grown up.
What makes Sanders book different is that, in setting the bildung in fantasy, she has a chance to question and think about so much of how the world works, how we think and how we understand those who are different than us.
With all that said, it was an exhausting read. (Or I'm just exhausted). And one that I can appreciate and find technically excellent but not the kind of book with which I want to fall in love.
This is the problem - I never liked Great Expectations.
Sanders is doing something fascinating here with the bildungsroman in fantasy. More often, books in fantasy with elements of the bildungsroman are basically the story of the epic hero. This is closer to Great Expectations, in a way, than to the hero's quest. The world, life--the life one is born into and the life one seeks out, the implacable society and its dictates are not so much antagonists as obstacles to navigate. And the reward for getting through is having done so, having grown up.
What makes Sanders book different is that, in setting the bildung in fantasy, she has a chance to question and think about so much of how the world works, how we think and how we understand those who are different than us.
With all that said, it was an exhausting read. (Or I'm just exhausted). And one that I can appreciate and find technically excellent but not the kind of book with which I want to fall in love.
This is the problem - I never liked Great Expectations.
July 26, 2016
ARIAH's blurb does not even begin to encompass the captivating experience this novel is, and I mean that in the best way possible. BR Sander's writing is gorgeous, lyrical in a sort of underspoken way I can only admire. And although there is magic and an shitty empire, ARIAH is not an action fantasy story. It is very much character driven, with a marvelous literary undercurrent. ARIAH touches on how our closed ones impact our sense of selves, how cultures can clash without one being right and the other wrong, how there are layers upon layers to people, but it brings these topics with a masterful hand, everything tied to Ariah's fascinating life.
For the record, there is a lot of exploration of sex and romance, in several different facets (diff cultures, diff relationships). Neither of which is considered essential to the other, yay!! I mention because I know other asexuals prefer to have none, and also because not all of it has clear consent. Most of it is incredibly healthy, well brought, and insightful, and polyamory abounds through the novel so <3 . I am very happy about the amount of queerness throughout the entire book.
For the record, there is a lot of exploration of sex and romance, in several different facets (diff cultures, diff relationships). Neither of which is considered essential to the other, yay!! I mention because I know other asexuals prefer to have none, and also because not all of it has clear consent. Most of it is incredibly healthy, well brought, and insightful, and polyamory abounds through the novel so <3 . I am very happy about the amount of queerness throughout the entire book.
August 28, 2015
So I just read this review of Ariah, and the introduction says everything way better than I ever could:
"Some books are so completely an experience within themselves, so wholly another world — a world that takes up residence beneath your skin, like an inverse tattoo, indelible and sacred — that it’s impossible to fully describe their impact. For me, B.R. Sanders’ Ariah is such a book. I can tell you I cried three times while reading it, twice in a gasping way where I physically shook; and they were happy tears, too, the kind that spring up when the right words in the right order and context burst in your heart like a comet."
(http://www.tor.com/2015/08/18/b-r-san...)
Ariah is both sweeping and close, and while you're reading it and once you've read it it feels like something you've always known.
I think it pushes certain buttons for certain people, in both good and bad ways... but for me it pushes the "close-to-perfect" button.
"Some books are so completely an experience within themselves, so wholly another world — a world that takes up residence beneath your skin, like an inverse tattoo, indelible and sacred — that it’s impossible to fully describe their impact. For me, B.R. Sanders’ Ariah is such a book. I can tell you I cried three times while reading it, twice in a gasping way where I physically shook; and they were happy tears, too, the kind that spring up when the right words in the right order and context burst in your heart like a comet."
(http://www.tor.com/2015/08/18/b-r-san...)
Ariah is both sweeping and close, and while you're reading it and once you've read it it feels like something you've always known.
I think it pushes certain buttons for certain people, in both good and bad ways... but for me it pushes the "close-to-perfect" button.
September 1, 2015
I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone.
This is the kind of book that you cup your hands around as though it was a fragile, beautiful butterfly. This is the kind of book that means such a lot to the right person that the thought of having to talk about it to someone who doesn't get it is too exhausting to contemplate.
I could go on and on about what a magical, beautiful experience reading this book was for me (I'm sitting in my office on four hours' sleep because I couldn't face the idea of going to sleep before I'd finished it) but instead I'm just going to point you at this review by Foz Meadows, which says everything you need to know about this book, in a better way than I ever could.
This is the kind of book that you cup your hands around as though it was a fragile, beautiful butterfly. This is the kind of book that means such a lot to the right person that the thought of having to talk about it to someone who doesn't get it is too exhausting to contemplate.
I could go on and on about what a magical, beautiful experience reading this book was for me (I'm sitting in my office on four hours' sleep because I couldn't face the idea of going to sleep before I'd finished it) but instead I'm just going to point you at this review by Foz Meadows, which says everything you need to know about this book, in a better way than I ever could.
August 2, 2015
Really enjoyed this book! The reader follows Ariah's journey as he harnesses and explores his own abilities while also struggling to overcome cultural and social barriers. He's torn between wanting acceptance within his community and his desire to express who he is and find happiness. Despite being a fantasy novel, it's highly relatable in the sense that the characters are well developed and experience very "real world" conflicts. It's a very astute and discerning approach to tackling complex societal themes in a fantasy setting which definitely defied my expectations as a reader. Strongly recommend!
May 30, 2016
This book aims high, and succeeds on many levels.
It addresses issues of race, gender, sexuality and relationships via Ariah's journey which is both physical and emotional. It's both epic and small, and though I had issues with some of the pacing, and certain parts of the story felt forced overall for me it was a beautifully written, humane and brave book.
Long review to follow on the blog Here
It addresses issues of race, gender, sexuality and relationships via Ariah's journey which is both physical and emotional. It's both epic and small, and though I had issues with some of the pacing, and certain parts of the story felt forced overall for me it was a beautifully written, humane and brave book.
Long review to follow on the blog Here
May 28, 2013
I've been lucky enough to read this book in full, and it's going to touch its audience very deeply. We've been needing smart, sexy fantasy like this. Sanders writes compelling personal struggles in a detailed, fantastic setting. The themes of queerness, family, and belonging will speak to a lot of people. I can't wait for more people to get their hands on this so that I can talk to them about how great it is!
November 25, 2017
There were parts of this book that I really loved, like worth of 5 stars. The discussions around sexuality and relationships, romantic or platonic; the themes of knowing one's self and discovering new people and ways of life, tolerance, self improvement, empathy, family... but some other parts were more on a 3/5 scale and some didn't sat right with me. It's a book containing a lot and I am glad I read it, I loved the exploration of all the different kind of elves and their place around each other's and in the Empire. Ariah was a complex character really interesting to follow; there were times when I was filled with compassion for him, times when I deeply related to his struggles; and there were times when I wanted to shake him a little, put some sense into his head. He is young for an elf and the whole story and his path can be linked to the Bildungsroman genre: it is a coming of age novel, where Ariah will grow on the moral, psychological and magical aspect. It is told from the point of view of an older Ariah and the kind eye he has on his younger self is really nice, it helped me look past his prejudices (that he'll grow out of, thankfully) even if some of these parts were a bit hard to read for me.
I have a lot of thoughts and I will try to write a better review when I can, plus the content warnings (wrote them down somewhere that I can't find anymore *sorry* )
I have a lot of thoughts and I will try to write a better review when I can, plus the content warnings (wrote them down somewhere that I can't find anymore *sorry* )
March 13, 2019
The Meaning of Belonging
Ariah, at 30 years of age and just barely an adult, leaves home and parents to study with a mentor and learn his gifts. His life with Dirva, his mentor, is interrupted when Dirva receives bad news from his hometown, and invites Ariah to travel with him. What follows is several lifetimes worth of living in which Ariah must unlearn his upbringing and decide how to live in places where he truly does not belong, all while battling questions about sexuality, gender, love, and the meaning of home. Excellent world building and very emotional.
Ariah, at 30 years of age and just barely an adult, leaves home and parents to study with a mentor and learn his gifts. His life with Dirva, his mentor, is interrupted when Dirva receives bad news from his hometown, and invites Ariah to travel with him. What follows is several lifetimes worth of living in which Ariah must unlearn his upbringing and decide how to live in places where he truly does not belong, all while battling questions about sexuality, gender, love, and the meaning of home. Excellent world building and very emotional.
May 19, 2023
This was a beautiful journey through a new world. Written like a fantasy memoir, the main character Ariah brings the reader along on his journey through rich, vibrant worlds, each new one bringing him face to face with new ways of understanding relationships, gender, and community. It was like listening to someone reminisce around the fire. Slow at times, but so rich with emotion and self-discovery. As Ariah opened up to new ways of loving, so did I.
November 30, 2017
When I finished the book I rated it 4.5 stars. Mostly because along the way it felt too much emotionally to bear. Sometimes it felt like I am a psychologist at a session with a patient. There was also one particular a bit sad sub-plot that stroked too close to home and made me depressed. But as the time went and I thought back about the book and the characters I decided to upgrade my rating to full 5 stars. Because at the bottom line it was good story with vibrant imaginative world building; which talks about gender and sexual diversity in a very honest, non-preaching and non-judgmental way. I really liked all various relationships in the story. The major point of the novel to show the reader that relationships are complex and always personal, that there are no wrong or right decisions, that sometimes circumstances dictate how things will fall out, that there is more than one way to love.
The book had amazing world building. It was a curious idea to create the world where elves are oppressed and exist on the lowest layer of society. I also enjoyed Sanders choice to concentrate on average people trying to survive the system instead of some chosen heroes born to fight it.
In overall the story very character/relationship driven. Almost nothing happened over the length of the timeline, which is over 20 years. But we learn a lot about Ariah’s journey to acceptance: of the people in his life, and most importantly of himself.
I felt that the last – 7th part of the story was a bit too much, but I think I can understand authors need to add this side to the story as well.
The book had amazing world building. It was a curious idea to create the world where elves are oppressed and exist on the lowest layer of society. I also enjoyed Sanders choice to concentrate on average people trying to survive the system instead of some chosen heroes born to fight it.
In overall the story very character/relationship driven. Almost nothing happened over the length of the timeline, which is over 20 years. But we learn a lot about Ariah’s journey to acceptance: of the people in his life, and most importantly of himself.
I felt that the last – 7th part of the story was a bit too much, but I think I can understand authors need to add this side to the story as well.
June 1, 2015
This is very much an 'ideas' fantasy and deep character exploration via the medium of fantasy, so if you go into it expecting typical sword and sorcery or epic or any other fantasy sub species, then you're probably going to experience a disconnect.
I really enjoyed it. The voice is beautiful. The world building is exquisite. The characterization is very carefully drawn and developed. It is not a light read. It is not fantasy for entertainment alone's sake but it is an unusual and brilliantly well written fantasy.
It is easy to identify with Ariah as he goes from effectively a late adolescent to a grown man in the passage of the book. Those same instances of questioning and dislocation, of a sense of alienation and then finally becoming comfortable in one's own skin and, more importantly, with the fact that you will not ever have all the answers and that's ok.
Sanders cleverly draws on her well imagined and built cultures to explore issues of pairing, what it means and whether it stretches to incorporate more than a pair. I found all of the ideas fascinating - despite the tendency of the prose towards a density that many might find off putting.
I enjoyed the journey that Ariah takes the reader on. Others might argue that not much happens here but while the conflict is almost entirely internal or at least very subtle (human vs elf, silver vs red, empire vs other cultures) there is plenty going on.
I suppose where I came unstuck were several moments of severe irritation with the characters. Dirva's harsh reaction to Ariah's initial outburst in a The City especially annoyed me. I realise that this is partly me - the position of mentor is a sacred one as far as I'm concerned so I felt that Dirva, superior in years and experiences, should have demonstrated the tolerance he expected Ariah to emulate. Let's be honest the lad was barely out of the school room, Dirva neglects his training and then is willing to strand him in a foreign land because Ariah, after a severe fright, parrots opinions he has never had to confront before and probably took in with breast milk. Instances like that annoyed me. I occasionally found Ariah's decisions to be completely inexplicable too. Rage against the machine all you want but don't endanger others over it maybe?
Anyway, more me than the book I fear.
Overall this was not a light easy read but it was a very rewarding and enjoyable one. Loved it.
I really enjoyed it. The voice is beautiful. The world building is exquisite. The characterization is very carefully drawn and developed. It is not a light read. It is not fantasy for entertainment alone's sake but it is an unusual and brilliantly well written fantasy.
It is easy to identify with Ariah as he goes from effectively a late adolescent to a grown man in the passage of the book. Those same instances of questioning and dislocation, of a sense of alienation and then finally becoming comfortable in one's own skin and, more importantly, with the fact that you will not ever have all the answers and that's ok.
Sanders cleverly draws on her well imagined and built cultures to explore issues of pairing, what it means and whether it stretches to incorporate more than a pair. I found all of the ideas fascinating - despite the tendency of the prose towards a density that many might find off putting.
I enjoyed the journey that Ariah takes the reader on. Others might argue that not much happens here but while the conflict is almost entirely internal or at least very subtle (human vs elf, silver vs red, empire vs other cultures) there is plenty going on.
I suppose where I came unstuck were several moments of severe irritation with the characters. Dirva's harsh reaction to Ariah's initial outburst in a The City especially annoyed me. I realise that this is partly me - the position of mentor is a sacred one as far as I'm concerned so I felt that Dirva, superior in years and experiences, should have demonstrated the tolerance he expected Ariah to emulate. Let's be honest the lad was barely out of the school room, Dirva neglects his training and then is willing to strand him in a foreign land because Ariah, after a severe fright, parrots opinions he has never had to confront before and probably took in with breast milk. Instances like that annoyed me. I occasionally found Ariah's decisions to be completely inexplicable too. Rage against the machine all you want but don't endanger others over it maybe?
Anyway, more me than the book I fear.
Overall this was not a light easy read but it was a very rewarding and enjoyable one. Loved it.
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