Cradle of Sea and Soil

Islandborn #1

by Bernie Anés Paz

The Primordial Wound has festered with corruption since the birth of the world. The island tribes have warred against its spawn for just as long—and they are losing.

Burdened by the same spiritual affliction that drove the first Halfborn insane, Colibrí lives in exile with little more than her warrior oaths and her son. But when Colibrí discovers corrupted land hidden away by sorcery, those same oaths drive her to find answers in an effort to protect the very people who fear her.

Narune dreams of earning enough glory to show that he and his mother Colibrí are nothing like the Halfborn that came before them. Becoming a mystic will give him the strength he needs, but first, Narune will need to prove himself worthy in a trial of skill and honor.

Together, Colibrí and Narune must learn to become the champions their people need—and face the curse threatening to scour away their spirits with fury.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Epic Fantasy, Adult, Fiction

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 23, 2020

About the author

Heya, visitor! I’m a Puerto Rican fantasy author that enjoys creating unique settings. You can usually find me devouring books and story-rich video games, visual/graphic novels, and anime whenever I’m not wordsmithing.

I’m also a former U.S. Army medic and spent most of my service time working in an ER, which was an amazing and humbling experience. Before that, I worked for Dell, which helped spark my love for customizing tech and computer-building. Right now I’m in Tigard, Oregon and loving every moment of it!

I hope you enjoy my worlds as much as I enjoyed writing them. Feel free to let me know what you think wherever you find me.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.bookwormblues.net/2020/06/...

I’ve tried to write this review a few times, and each time I just fail. There are a few reasons for this. First, I edited this book, so I’m pretty attached to it. I’ve got a personal connection that is hard for me to see around, and I have a hard time talking about stuff that I’m personally attached to like this. It isn’t easy. Secondly, I loved this book so much, I have had just a holy hell of a time distilling all the reasons it is so amazing.

As I’ve said, this book is one I’ve edited, and so this isn’t really a review. I am not coming here as an unbiased reader. I am very much biased, because I loved this book, I worked on it, and I want it to do well. Take that into consideration before you read on.

Cradle of Sea and Soil is one of those multilayered tapestries that just ticks off all my boxes. First, with have Colibrí and Narune, mother and son. The story is told from both of their perspectives, mother and son. Colibri is a single mother. Both her and her son are outcasts, exiles, lowly regarded for what they are—Halfborn. Humans with animal/plant traits. In Narune and Colibri, it manifests with ears and tails. In another character in the book, she grows flowers and etc. It’s really freaking cool. However, the fact that they are Halfborn makes them a danger. Things happened long, long ago that hang over everyone who is born this way, and so all Halfborn are reduced to a life of poverty and exile, if they are not forced to sacrifice their own halfborn children.

So, we’ve got social stratification going on, and lots and lots of deeply rooted prejudice that has been worked into the bedrock of the society that has been crafted for this book. Added into that is Narune’s coming-of-age story as he fights for his place in his world as a man, and to bring honor to his mother’s name. And then there is his mother, who is doing everything she can to keep everything, and everyone she loves protected as the world comes fraying apart at the edges. More about that later.

The relationship between Narune and his mother was probably one of my favorite parts of the book, purely because it’s just so incredibly rare that relationships between family members are examined in this way. Not a relationship where various parties are overwhelming and hard to deal with, but relationships where there is love, so strong and realistic that I could honestly feel it through the pages. And this expands out. Narune has two friends that he spends a lot of the book with, and the intimacy and emotional pull I felt there as well was just as vivid and real as everything else in the book. I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I’ve read a book with realistic family and friend relationships, and how rarely I actually find that in fantasy, but here is one, and it’s kisses fingers magnifique.

The plot of the book circles around this idea of the Primordial Wound, basically a wound in the fabric of the world that births all sorts of unholy beasties and basically slowly kills the land. The war between the islanders and the primordial wound has been going on for ages upon ages, but now, they are losing. The leader of the islanders is trying to find outside help, but getting very little serious offers of aid, so largely they are isolated, alone, and fighting for the future of the world and, more immediately, their islands. There are battles fought, and they are so well realizes and well written, you’ll feel like you’re on the edge of your seat, living through them. The reason behind why things are happening the way they are came as a bit of a surprise to me, which is saying something because I’m pretty hard to surprise these days (I read too much).

There is a lot of action and intensity here, and since Bernie is playing on a few different levels, not all of it comes in the form of pitched battles and lots of wounds and sweating. No, a lot of the action happens on more personal levels, as well. There are misunderstandings, rifts in friendships, typical growing pains between a mother who wants to keep her son safe and young, and the son who wants to prove his adulthood for his mother and blaze his own trail. There’s also some really interesting, subtle magic (literally) that takes place between mother and child in the way of coercion, which can be used both for good, and almost as an abuse. And there’s ways friends can share memories by touching skin and whatnot. It all adds to a really multitextured tapestry that always has something going on, no matter what. Basically, the action isn’t always where you expect it to be.

I want to talk a bit about the world building, because this is a Caribbean styled world, written from someone who is from that region of the world. I absolutely love OwnVoices, and this book is absolutely that. Bernie has written a lot of what he knows into this book to create the world. I often found small details, like the coqui frogs that fill the book actually exist in the real world, and his uncle can’t fall asleep without hearing them, interesting because it’s just something that, no matter how much I read about a place, I never would have added. So, his personal experience with this region, his personal connection to it, really floods the book. Furthermore, he takes some inventive liberties and has filled his jungle paradise with some creatures that are just surreal and so awesome I wish I’d thought of them first, like plants that actually wander around hunting people, and wolves made out of moss. Tree lords, and root roads, and just so many cool things. I literally spent about 75% of this book just soaking in his genius because oh my god, this world building is incredible.

I also want to give a shoutout to the diversity. There is a lot of LGBTQ+ in this book, and it’s done in such a good way, from the m/m fathers mentioned, to the polyamorous relationships, and just about everything else. A lot of the time, people seem to try to make their books diverse in this way, and then they sort of hang up flashing lights and say, “Look at all my diverse characters” but this book isn’t like that. In this book, diversity exists because it exists, and no one blinks twice at it because it’s just part of the world in which they belong. I do have to admit, on a personal note, that I get tired of carrying the prejudices of our own world into secondary worlds, and while sometimes that needs to be done, I do always find it extremely refreshing when a character can have two dads and literally no one in the world says a word about it because it’s fine, normal, and not worth mentioning.

And then, as if there isn’t enough here that I’m praising, the prose is absolutely superb. Bernie has a way with knowing when to slip into poetry, which I love, and knowing when he needs to use his words like a hammer. He has real skill with knowing how to use words to set an atmosphere, and how to paint a picture that is so vivid his world and the people and events that transpire here breathe with their own air, and seem more real than the world around me.

Okay, so now that I’ve gone on quite an impressive tangent, I really want all of you to read this book. It’s full of action and adventure, part coming of age story, part stay true to yourself story. Mix in some OwnVoices, and some LGBTQ+ representation and we’ve got one of the best epic fantasy books I’ve read in a long, long, long time here. It deserves all the praise, and I really hope it does as well as I think it deserves to.

[K. Nagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read all year.

I almost never pick up a new book by an author I don't know when it's the only one out. Nobody wants to fall in love with an author, then discover that's the only book they wrote. Once bitten, twice shy, as they say. But I saw the beautiful cover and I needed a change of pace, so I gave it a go.

It's good. It's really good. The only thing that annoyed me about it was how late it kept me up reading, and that I was interrupted at 97% and had to finish it the next day.

The story follows two halfborn—people born with the ears and tails of island foxes, pictured on the cover—who have been exiled by their village. The strength and heightened senses that come with their halfborn status also include a constant need to fight against a berserker frenzy. The mother and son are co-protagonists, though the spotlight is on the mother.

I don't want to spoil any of the story. The world is inventive and beautiful. Bernie feels inspired by modern fantasy in books, games, and movies, but he never feels derivative, only inspired. I'm not sure if this book would be classified as YA or not. There are quite a few F-bombs starting about a third of the way in. It feels appropriate for a teen, less so for a middle schooler, but the only thing that made me think of YA was that the son has a coming-of-age story arc. And yet... it doesn't feel like typical YA fare.

The mother is not only alive, she has a fleshed out arc and is the main character. She's interesting, has a life of her own, and is a great character. In YA, it's almost become a cliche to kill off the parents or have them exist only as cheerleaders for their kids. This book isn't like that.

And I a coming-of-age story arc is one of those tropes I avoid at all costs. When it's done poorly, it can be really hard to read. Nothing about Narune's story felt easy, simplified, or cheap. It was a rewarding arc, and while I preferred his mother's PoV chapters, I never felt bad getting to see how Narune was doing.

The world building is excellent, but it's hard to get into it without spoiling story points. I love the inner conflict of the world, and I love the small things, too. I love the way the island coyotes interact with the halfborn. I was always interested in what happened next, in learning more about the islands and their inhabitants.

My only regret is reading this book before the author has published anything else. Now I'm stuck waiting for his next book. In the mean time, I'm recommending it to all of my friends.

[Set Sytes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always wanted more Caribbean fantasy (probably my favourite ever region to explore and fantasise about). That this one is less post-colonial but rather influenced much more by Taino and Carib indigenous cultures and peoples, inspired by Paz researching his own Puerto Rican heritage, makes it all the better. I am not being hyperbolic when I say this kind of book is not only wanted but important, maybe even necessary. How many other Taino fantasy books can you name?

Let's dive in.

SETTING & INHABITANTS

The book is set on an archipelago, the islands connected to each other, and within themselves, by what are known as “root-roads”. These are what they sound like: twisting roots in all directions and elevations that the inhabitants can use to travel through the dangerous rainforest – jumping and climbing from one to another as needed. These root-roads – stretching out from massive “tree-lords” – are so ubiquitous that they seem to be a major part of the entire archipelago, creating the sense of this dense, tangled thicket of a landscape – until you get out from the forests, onto the beautiful beaches coasting the bright island sea, the nearest native village a sandy-footed walk away.

Unfortunately, this island world is not untainted. The very opposite. There has existed – as far back as anyone knows, and perhaps since Creation itself – the Primordial Wound, which creates corruption, an anti-life force called the Stillness. Whole areas of forest turned grey and decayed and lifeless, like post-nuclear ash. The never-ending fight against this little-understood Stillness – and its creations – forms the thrust of this novel, and probably the series as a whole.

Needless to say, I love the setting. The tropical forests, beaches, ocean, the tree-lords and their root-roads, the concept of the Stillness corrupting this dangerous paradise. Quite possibly this was not the author’s intention, but I felt that at times the Stillness was, for several reasons, some kind of dark metaphor for colonialism.

The worldbuilding is very natural and organically appearing, something I am very glad of. I like to explore the land and culture with the characters, not from info dumps. There never was a point where I felt frustrated either at being given too much information, or too little. We know what we need to know at the time, and other things are gradually revealed to us at a relaxed yet satisfying pace.

Though island life has much in the way of creatures (and plantlife) to it – moss wolves, deer-like carabaz, ghauctl shadow birds, singing coqui, leviathan umoths . . . – there are three main “races” to consider, those most important to the story.

There are the Islandborn, the indigenous tribal people of the islands. These can be divided into two: the Trueborn and the Halfborn. The Trueborn are those with full human souls. The Halfborn are those who share their souls with nature, animal or plantlife. Some time ago, all the Halfborn – who were most effective at fighting the Stillness – were maddened with an unleashing of inner fury and most violently betrayed the Trueborn. The Halfborn were then wiped out, with only one spared. Since then, any Halfborn have been distrusted, feared, hated and ostracised by the Trueborn.

Our two POVs are Halfborn. One of them is the warrior Colibri, the one who was spared. The other is her son Narune. They share their spirits with that of the island coyote, with the ears and tail to match.

The Islandborn are, as you’d expect, pretty different from reading about some generic European-inspired culture. The societal culture is polygamous/polyamorous and LGBTQ-friendly, there is a clear and uncontested distinction between intimate relationships and sex, and nudity is both common and without sexualisation or shame. But there is much that is familiar and relatable; these are not aliens, they are people not unlike you or I.

The third inhabitants of note – and something I found pretty cool – are the halja, abominations continuously created by the Stillness. These usually take the forms of animals and plants – though sometimes more unique and nightmarish forms (my favourite so far is called the Empty Fury, but I won’t spoil it!) – yet are hollow and grey, made of desiccated sinews. Imagine a long dead, long decayed log you find in the woods, or some ancient skull in a catacombs. You step on it and it disintegrates in a shower of dust and death. The halja are like that, but worse. Their bodies give way easy enough when you strike, but they have no life, and so are not so easily eradicated. You have to hammer and break them until they have collapsed to dust; then the forest itself can finish the job. The same applies to the patches of infected land.

Before I end this section, I want to add one more thing about the worldbuilding: Something that gets me going is evocative creations of things I don’t feel I’ve seen before, casually included in the story/world without fanfare. Two of my favourites here are the aforementioned moss wolves, the appearance of which is undescribed yet unnecessary – the name itself does all the work (I love it when that occurs), and coral lanterns, which are literally fed polyps and in response give off watery glows of different colours. I can just imagine how beautiful they look!

PLOT & CHARACTERS (no spoilers)

So there are a few things going on in this book.

The Stillness is spreading, reaching out to infect more and more of the forest. There are other, new things going on with the Stillness and its corruptions too that nobody understands. These are mysteries to be unravelled.

Narune, the Halfborn son of Calibri, wants very much to wield magic, to be a spiritseer, against the strong wishes of, well, just about everyone. The question is how far will he go to achieve his dream.

The problem is the Jurakán, the “screaming storm” – an inner torment that constantly tries to compel our protagonists to violent, raging madness just like the Halfborn of old. So, while you always feel for the Halfborn and the prejudice they endure, everyone else, the Trueborn. . . y’know, they kinda have reason. It’s a difficult dynamic, one where you can understand both sides. Though, given our access to their internal thoughts (and the repulsion of bigotry and bullying), you’ll assuredly fall on the side of our sympathetic protagonists.

Then there is the Casteónese – Spanish-inspired foreigners who have their own base on the island and while not (at least for now) aggressive, and can be helpful, they nonetheless view the Islandborn as beneath them, as primitives.

The book is very people-centred. Filling the book are the trials and evolutions of friendships and family. Honour and loyalty to oneself and one’s loved ones conflicting with duty and oaths to a greater cause. The centre – and heart – of the book is the mother-son relationship between Colibri and Narune. This heartfelt, loving, caring, dynamic, and tested relationship is a pleasure to read, and possibly the most convincing positive parent-child relationship I’ve read in fantasy.

No character is just plain good or bad, which I like. They all feel like people and you care about them and what happens to them. Paz understands the truism that everyone is the hero of their own story. Flat out pointlessly evil characters – or even one-note bullies – are almost unheard of in reality, and are rarely that engaging to read about in fiction. Here, everyone is humanised; they all have their own motivations and desires, their own pushes and pulls that might cause them to shift perspectives, to cling to principles, to chase dreams, to protect others, to be afraid, to admonish themselves, to seek new alliances, to make mistakes, to lash out, to break oaths, to betray friends . . .

The book carries what I call an “island pace” – relaxed, almost leisurely at times, especially early on, but not feeling slow; unhurried, but with every page offering a sense of place and character. At no point did I feel you could excise or fast track a chapter. Gradually – and without any jarring leap – the novel evolves from feeling small-scale to something worthy of epic fantasy, without ever sacrificing that intrinsic personal focus. It’s a pleasure to read a novel that isn’t in a hurry to get where it’s going, but nor feel padded with filler. There’s no longwinded conversations or lore-dumps here.

But don’t worry, if you want action from your books, there are many great fight scenes . . . which leads me onto something that deserves a section all its own . . .

MAGIC

I have long been fussy with magic. Often I swear off it altogether. In every single RPG I play I’m always the warrior or knight or barbarian, grudgingly using a necessary healing spell but otherwise treating magic as something those silly-wizards-and-them-that-read-books-and-stuff do. While I have my exceptions, talk of wizardry and spells is more often than not a quick turn off for me. For me it is not about soft/hard magic. Rather it takes a sense of mystery, of originality, variety and inventiveness, colourfulness, otherworldliness, of rich imagination, of things little-understood, of total wonder conspiring with the natural, as well as internal cohesion/consistency, to draw me to magic. Or maybe it’s just whatever personally captures me. Because it can be enthralling. After all, it’s magic.

Cradle of Sea & Soil is a clear exception to my aversion. There are no pointy hats here. Here there are spiritseers, warrior-mystics wielding magical blades (as in the blades are literally nothing but coloured magical force, where only the hilt is “ordinary”, made of the heartwood of a tree-lord, and the magic spills out from it like a brushstroke of oil paint). This sorcery is thankfully known not as magic, but as the Flows of Creation. Currents of it, well, flow, through the land, and are drawn from and channelled. Excess channelled magic that does not immediately go into the sword and spells goes into a gourd at the waist, which can be drawn from like a reservoir.

I really like the idea of the Flowing Blades, as the weapons of the spiritseers are called. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s just something slightly reminiscent of a lightsaber (and darksaber) about them, with the different colours that pour out from the hilts (I wonder if Paz was influenced at all by Star Wars). They’re a bit like if a lightsaber mixed with a magic wand. Which is amazing. But describing the blades that are formed like they are strokes of wet paint in the air sounds as unique as it does entrancing.

While Paz draws from familiar magic system tropes (i.e. differently coloured magics with different often elemental attributes – Magic the Gathering comes foremost to mind), he makes his feel original, vivid and evocative. The magic in this book is described in terms of liquid – ink, oil, paint, tides, blood. It’s always smearing and splattering and dripping and pooling and flooding and clotting – and flowing – only to lethally harden at the moment of attack. And I’m all here for it. I love the idea of visible coloured magic, a tangible, swirling, roiling, liquidic source that you can reach into and cast out. Honestly, this is the most I’ve been into a magic system since Harry Potter in my youth (which was less a system and more imaginative handwaving). I was enthused to follow Narune in learning about each new spell (my favourite so far being “Thousandth Sun”), as well as the different types of Flow. And it all makes for some cool, dynamic, inventive fight scenes.

It isn’t so simple as learning it and using it, either. The Flows are exhausting and draining – literally – and what’s more, they only encourage the screaming storm, making them even more risky for a Halfborn like Narune. On top of that, misusing or overusing it can allow Stillness into your body. Which, as you might imagine, isn’t something that’s good for you.

CLOSING

If I was to describe the book as anything, it’s a labour of love. Seriously, there’s so much love in this book. I don’t mean in any kind of schmaltzy sense, but something more intrinsic, rooted in every character, every page, every sentence. Despite the horrors that appear, grimdark this is not. It is warm and rich and determined, despite all the tides of corruption and death that seem impossible to stop. This is a book where, despite all the conflicts, people come together, comfort and protect each other, where they dream and desire, where they care about each other as well as themselves. This is a book about people doing everything they can do to preserve their way of life. And not giving up, even when all seems hopeless.

The book was not just a great read, but personally inspiring. I was already interested in Taino and otherwise indigenous Caribbean peoples, culture and language some time before reading this book, and starting to include them in my own work, but there’s a big difference between researching them in online articles and exploring Taino dictionaries and with exploring a living, breathing fantasy world inspired by them. While reading Paz’s novel it encouraged me to resume my Taino research, jotting down words, phrases and ideas for use in future books (even though I’m supposed to be working on something completely different!).

I want to tell you that Bernie Anés Paz is an author to watch. But, as with telling you a debut is “promising”, there is that soft implication that the book cannot stand on its own two feet, that we must, instead, wait for the author to improve. Here this would be unjustified. Cradle of Sea & Soil is a bold, exciting, imaginative, confident, vivid, heartfelt, diverse, different debut, better than a great deal of mainstream bestsellers in the genre. You shouldn’t wait. You should read it – and soon.

I wish Bernie Anés Paz all the best in his continuing career. And I look forward to the sequel.

[Geoff Copper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up on a whim for 2021 Reddit fantasy bingo

I want to rate this story higher than this...lots of things I liked, but a few non-trivial issues, too.

It's an interesting premise and magic system, and the author clearly spent a substantial amount of time in world building. The primary and major secondary characters are well-developed and feel "real" in their motivations and actions. The climax was powerful, and felt appropriate, though I'm not seeing much of an obvious thread to lead directly into a sequel.

However, the pacing and exposition were inconsistent at times. The Flows of Creation are instrumental to the story, but I felt like I wasn't really able to fully wrap my head around the entirety of the system until maybe 2/3 of the way through? Then I still found myself saying "ah, that's the piece I was missing" as I read through the Glossary like section after finishing. There were some cases of this with the world history, too. "Show, don't tell" is always a fine line to walk, but I found myself wishing for a teeny bit more background information in several places than the author gave. EDIT: reading through other reviews, a lot of other readers mentioned an infodump. While I agree in part - there is a lot of background to provide - I still felt as though certain places needed more depth earlier in the story; finding a better balance between breadth and depth might be the crux of my issue.

Also, editing issues abound in the latter half of the Kindle version I read; I didn't really notice problems in the first half. Typos, word choice/order problems, syntax issues (referring to the wrong character in a passage) are all present at times; they make it tough to stay immersed when those issues pop up, which is unfortunate.

All in all, this was solid, if not quite fully polished. Worth a read if you like the jacket blurb, in my opinion.

[Calvin Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t remember where I first heard about Bernie Anés Paz and his unique Cradle of Sea and Soil. I’m glad I did, though. So, thank you to whoever it was who mentioned this to me and put Anés Paz on my radar. I’ve mentioned before how I’m constantly looking for unique and interesting fantasy in fascinating secondary worlds. I’m especially taken with worlds that feature non-western or non-typical fantasy settings. Reading the back of the book blurb makes it obvious that Cradle of Sea and Soil is going to check that box.

The first thing that you notice with Bernie Anés Paz’ novel is that the world is incredibly unique. Down to the level of flora and fauna, this is a strange and fascinating world. It isn’t going too far to compare it to Brandon Sanderson’s Roshar in terms of uniqueness and the influence that the world itself has on the story. If you love interesting worlds, this is going to be one that you enjoy.

It’s no secret how much I love world building and especially deep magic systems. Cradle of Sea and Soil delivers on both counts. As I’ve already mentioned, the world itself is strange and fascinating. There are huge trees and forests on an archipelago, the people live in a certain sort of harmony with the land, but there is the Stillness, an enemy of creation itself that seeps from the Primordial Wound. This Stillness can produce halja, strange beasts that are a danger and menace to individuals and the world itself. Now add in some very cool magic, a race of so-called halfborn who share traits with animals of the forest, or even the forest itself (and who are ostracized as a result), and you have the makings of a novel that checks nearly all my boxes. Another element that I really enjoyed was the relationship between the two main characters, Colibrí and Narune. The interactions between mother and son felt real. The struggles they each face and the way they grow, both together and—as any parent can tell you—apart, were poignant. There were also moments during Narune’s story, which has certain coming-of-age elements, where I found myself having to pause for a moment and compose myself before reading further. It was wonderful. With great characters, amazing world building, intriguing magic, and plenty of mysteries to hook you, there is a lot to love about Cradle of Sea and Soil.

There isn’t much that I didn’t like, and yet the couple small issues I had with the novel do impact my perception of it. The first issue for me was that the early going felt a little like a slog. Some of that is down to the world building. It takes time to set up a world this different from our own. That’s understandable. But there were moments when it felt like perhaps information was being dumped. A few scenes felt like they were there to tell me information, rather than show the world to me. On its own, this would be a fairly minor complaint. The other issue I had was the number of typos throughout the novel. These mostly took the form of repeated words in sentences or using “also” and “too” together or that sort of thing. There were also a few grammatical errors or sentences that could have been tightened up. Perhaps those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but I found myself noticing the typos and other editing issues throughout the story. It’s frustrating, because the story is wonderful and would be that much better with tightened prose and fewer typos.

For those highly annoyed by a less than fully polished manuscript, you may find Cradle of Sea and Soil frustrating. But I’d encourage you to give it a try nonetheless. There is so much to love here, from characters to magic to a one-of-a-kind setting. There are action sequences and character scenes from this novel that will both stick with me for a while. This makes for a solid start to what promises to be an engaging series.

8/10

4/5 stars.

5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing

[S. Kaeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book where I adore the worldbuilding. It’s just amazing and fresh and new and I love that. The author drew from his Puerto Rican heritage and the worldbuilding is very immersive, which is exactly how I like it, from phrases and slang to title and how they view the world. Even the food and customs reinforced that this is not the typical fantasy setting, and I really appreciated that.

The plot is interesting, though there are a couple pacing fumbles in the second half where information is given that the reader was already given, so I didn’t think that was necessary. (The editing in the first half was really clean, and then there are more minor editing mistakes in the second half too, I noticed. Still, nothing that drew too much attention from the story.) I really appreciated how it was tied into the village life struggles, and I loved the tie-ins to Colibrí and Narune’s relationship as mother and son. I loved how interactions with the sentient tree-lords and the various animals as they fought through the Stillness plaguing their land, and the magic system was interesting (but I’m not a huge magic system person).

I loved learning about the way the world worked and how their society worked at the same time as I was getting a handle on their personal past and their individual dreams. The pacing of the information being doled out was overall well done and the crux of the conflict--a spreading Stillness that kills the land and magic while spawning monsters that must be broken up into dust--was very cool, especially as the Halfborn are really good at this, and yet they’re exiled from the community they’re protecting because the community fears them.

There’s so much lore and so much interesting stuff to get into, and several of the characters were really cool (even if Ixchel made me furious). But you want characters to evoke strong emotions, too, after all! And the cacica also evoked strong emotions, after all.

If you enjoy second world fantasy but are looking for something new, something that’s not the typical medieval European-style fantasy, then try this!

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dramatic and vivid fantasy set in an island based on Puerto Rico, with characters I liked and a queer-normative society. Doesn't mean the society doesn't have some PROBLEMS though, and I spent a lot of time shouting at the characters to leave, the town doesn't deserve them, as they tried again and again to prove themselves to a community mired in fear. It was at the point where I started to wonder if the author was saying that the prejudice was not supposed to feel like racism and was actually justified? (It isn't, in the end, don't worry, it's just it goes on for a loong time.) Cause after all, the characters have nowhere else to leave to. This is home, this is where their oaths bind them, and they shouldn't have to leave. So anyways, this was thought-provoking in an unexpected way.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the concept but just couldn't get into the story. The worldbuilding is unique, and I love that it's influenced by something more interesting than the typical "medieval European" timeline.

I had trouble following the action scenes, which sometimes felt muddy. I got a sense of "info dump" at the beginning of the story that made it a little overwhelming with worldbuilding details. Like the overall concept, the characters were a fresh take on the typical fantasy characters and I appreciated the relationship between mother and son.

Overall, I think it's a decent start to a series.

[Joharis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Un libro por un autor latino sobre una madre y su hijo tratando se luchar contra la discriminación que existe en su comunidad por el hecho de que son mestizos (coyote/humanos)
El libro a mi parecer es bastante interesante pero me tomó más tiempo de lo normal la historia y mi atención se iba a cada rato. El sistema de magia me pareció muy cool porque necesitaban un tipo de cuchillo que viene de la naturaleza y luego usar los flujos de elementos de la naturaleza y el autor lo explica de una manera excelente. Me encanta como tiene las limitaciones y consecuencias negativas si es mal usado.

Las relaciones que hay en el libro también son muy admirable. Hay normalization de relaciones de poligamia y con personas del mismo sexo así como un equidad de género. El amor y respeto que hay entre Narune y su madre me encantó, así como las relaciones de Colibrí y las otras 2 personas.

Toda las situación con la Stillnes era bastante interesante y habían bastantes criaturas en este mundo, tengo mucha curiosidad de saber de dónde provino todo y que pasará.

Lo recomiendo!

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[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid first book from a new author. There are some strengths and some weaknesses, but I think it was a promising beginning.

Bernie has crafted a really cool world that is unlike others I have read. The magic system is fascinating, I wish we could have gotten deeper into the more advanced uses of the magic. But I guess that's what the next book(s) are for. I also thought the characters were well done. I really enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters, a mother and a son. Moms in the fantasy genre have been criminally underrepresented. We need more main characters that are mothers.

To me, the main weakness of the book was the prose. I found the action scenes to be a little hard to follow/picture in my head. I think a big reason for this is that the sentence structure is too uniform. A lot of the sentences seem to have the same feel, they seem to follow the same beat. I think an easy way to make the action scenes flow better and be easier to follow would be to mix in more short sentences with the longer ones.

[slagathor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read some unique fantasy stories recently, but this book definitely trumps all of them with ease. I just wish that I would have been able to give it 5 stars, but unfortunately it fell a bit short of that rating. So let's get down to business and see what the book did well and what it didn't.

The setting and lore of the whole world is something I've never encountered before and made me feel like a child, taken to the zoo for the first time in their life, seeing all sorts of animals and plants they've never even heard about. It filled me with awe and wonder and I enjoyed every moment I spent in it. But with all the original content came also tons of confusion, too many questions that lacked answers, making me wish from time to time, that the author would have given me a tiny bit more info about the world, the Flows of Creation (I think I get what they are now, but it took me a lot longer than I am comfortable admitting), the flora and fauna and the history of this world. I mean, maybe I missed the memo, but I still don't exactly understand how the Primordial Scar came into being. I do hope we get some more info about that in the later book(s).

What was done exceptionally well though, was the characters. First of all, I loved that the main characters of this book were a mother and her son and there was a heavy focus on their relationship. Colibrí and Narune both had amazingly complex personalities and practically came to life, but it wasn't just them. Nobody in the village felt like a prop or a 2D cutout to make the place seem livelier. Each and every one of them had life in them and many of them made me want to slap them really-really hard. In my opinion this is this novel's strongest weapon and it wields it masterfully.

Where the novel stumbles a few times was the pacing, which started almost painfully slow and by the second half of the book, the editing. I've noticed at least twice that names were mixed up, which didn't just drag me out of the story violently, but once made me actually re-read a few pages to confirm that the person who supposedly said/did something wasn't simply not the one saying/doing said thing, but was literally days of walking away from the scene happening. Also, too many eyebrows were waggled. This is just a personal nitpick, but I got serious Wheel of Time vibes. You know, the braids and the tugging (which also happened in this book, twice). At least Narune was conscious about constantly licking his lips, so there is that, I can at least let that one go.

Still, all the stumbling aside, I think the author did an amazing job, considering that this is a debut novel, if I'm correct and I am more than hyped to see how the story will continue. And I am not ashamed to admit, I'm also looking forward to spend more time with Colibrí and Narune. I just wish I could pet Naru, his ears must be so fluffy...

[Kyle Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cradle of Sea and Soil treads strange ground. It's strengths lie in its unique aesthetic, fantastic powers, and above all, the existential world conflict at the root of the story. But in the midst of all this creative storytelling lies a single wound that I struggled with through my read.

This is a story about two people proving their worth and trying to find their place in this world. Narune and his mother, Colibri, were born as Halfborn. Fated to die, considered too dangerous to live, but despite the vows of their people they survive as outcasts. And now, as danger ramps up and the people who spurned them are threatened with what could be extinction, they both find themselves key to the conflict.

And what a conflict it is! The dread of the mindless foe they face is staggering, and the world they live in is so colorful and dangerous. I loved the magic the spiritseers wield, and wish I could have seen more of it before we escalated into the final battle. Each battle or ritual or discovery is beautifully painted, and thematically everything comes together well. Cradle of Sea and Soil is a good book.

Which makes it sad that the 'wound' tripped me up, and that wound for me was the characters. I failed to care for them as much as I wanted to. I have a guess as to why. Both Narune and his mother Colibri are supposedly 'flawed.' They endure a constant voice that calls them to violence. Colibri is impulsive, an oathbreaker, and Narune follows in her footsteps. He's sometimes dishonest toward her as well, keeping secrets. And yet, when it comes to the story or the combat or the relationships Narune and Colibri have, the two of them are never really at fault. They are loving, forgiving, excellent warriors, near-perfect at what they do. Even negative traits I outlined above end up as positives, in the context of the story. They are all but flawless, and for me, that weakened the story.

Cradle of Sea and Soil is not a bad tale by any means. It is a tried and true story set in a beautifully original world. But the main characters are too perfect for my tastes, too competent and forgiving and free of consequential mistakes. If that doesn't sound like a flaw, give this one a go! The world alone is worth the read.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. The book hit all the right beats at the right time. I really liked the trusting relationship between mother and son. I really liked how even though the family were nominally exiles, they had support, some of it not even grudging.

I wasn't huge on the teen trial becoming-an-adult stuff, but I'm also not very into YA so that's not surprising. My biggest complaint was the overuse of the word "nip"/"nipping". I had to mentally retranslate it to the author's meaning every time, and there are other words that would have served the purpose.

[Bernie Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I'm being a bit biased here, but the voices in my head tell me this is a damn good book. Those same voices also tell me that cheesecake is the embodiment of heaven on earth and that I should eat it whenever possible, so I dunno, they seem to know what they're talking about.

[Adi Greif · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a refreshing fun read - not the best writing in the world but a wonderful non-Western setting with a great magic system and strong female characters. Even feae fighters with children and a positive mother-son relationship, unfortunately rare in fantasy.

[♥Xeni♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am mostly annoyed and also quite disappointed with this book. Mostly because I really really liked the premise and the fact that it is written by an OwnVoices author. But honestly I just didn't like it.

I didn't like how so many bodily functions are described using crude words (fart, piss, etc.), how the Island people (of which there are easily thousands) have no sanitation practices other than going to the bathroom right where you stand, and I just didn't like how this felt like an anime. I don't like anime, and at times this felt like a scene from Bleach my friend once showed me - giant glowing swords sending out weird waves of light. I'm not into it at all.

I also want to point out that the continuous word use of 'nip', the fact that their Goddess / deity creature is as ignorant and uncivil as the rest of the Islanders, how I didn't feel any tension about Narune's future (he has such thick plot armor), and how the Peacemaker character was introduced, how the fight scenes were just too much, all just left me feeling annoyed and irritated at the book.

Which extra annoyed me, because I actually did love a lot of the things: Narune and his mother's relationship is wonderful. I love how they care for one another, and try to help each other even if they have their own problems. It's so uncommon to see a healthy child-parent relationship in a fantasy book.

I also really loved the world. I have no idea how the magic really works, or what even this Primordial Wound is, and that's annoying, but the Islands themselves with their giant trees and root pathways, the plant-animals, the danger that comes with existing in such treacherous landscape, all of this was amazing. It felt a bit like reading about primitive humans hunting woolly mammoths, but more interesting because it's fantasy creatures.

I really liked Kisari's character the most. Just about every other character annoyed me (especially the village chieftain - talk about arrogance), and how much it felt like small-minded idiot villagers populated most of the background. But Kisari with her plant-hair and sensitive soul and her ability to still love and care for her friends even after betrayal, all of that spoke to me. And, honestly, I don't think I would have even been that annoyed at the village idiots, except that they're never really called out on it. They let their fear control them, and are validated in that over and over. It's just sickening. (And there is a bit at the end where at least one characters shows regret, but that's about it).

So, while there were a few interesting concepts, ultimately I don't think I'm the right audience for this book. I think fans of Cradle might really love it. Or people who enjoy anime. I'm not even willing to continue reading to figure out what the screams mean. Ah well.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

So begins the tale of your war against death. May you fight well.

Setting:
The world we see crafted is an archipelago populated mostly by indigenous tribespeople. The vast majority of the islands are covered in massive forests full of dangerous plants, animals, and something worse; Stillness.

There is a blight upon the land. From the Primordial Wound comes the grey corruption that poisons the reality itself and makes foul mockeries of life called halja. People fight it constantly but it continues to bleed out into the land despite their efforts.

Magic works based on the Flows. A color-coded system similar to Brent Weeks' Lightbringer novels in which the color a caster had access to determines how they are able to wield magic.

Finally we have the halfborn. These part-human and part-not individuals seem to be born randomly to fully human parents and they are reviled due to the supposedly innate insanity lurking in each of them.

Characters:
Colibí: Both Colibí and her son are halfborn, their non-human halves being coyote. Colibí has been exiled following a violent outburst when she was younger. She’s not overly bothered about herself being barred from the village but she does wish her son could have a better life than her.

Narune: Narune is very much his mother’s son. He’s tough and stubborn and utterly devoted to proving all the trueborn, or full humans, that halfborn are not cursed time bombs merely waiting to fly into murderous frenzies.

Plot:
Narune has a singular goal in life to which he has fully devoted himself. He seeks to redeem halfborn for himself, his mother, and one of his friends who is also halfborn. He sees the first step in this process as becoming a spiritseer, a sort of warrior-mage.

While Narune pursues this goal his mother is growing steadily more concerned about what she sees as an increasing amount of corruption in the forest. Something or someone must be causing this and she aims to find out what and put a stop to it.

My Thoughts:
Paz gives us a decidedly different fare from the standard fantasy Europe. It has, in recent years, grown somewhat fashionable to flavor fantasy worlds after Asain, Indian, and African cultures. Paz goes a step further than simply picking a less common country to add magic into. Here we have an archipelago covered in massive forests full of strange flora and fauna. The most unique part of the world building is the grey Stillness and what it does. It operates something as an antithesis of life slowly bleeding into the world from the Primordial Wound. The wound itself is perhaps underutilized. There is no explanation as to how or when it came about being. It simply exists, steadily poisoning the world.

Colibí and Narune are both decent if not particularly note-worthy characters. They play their parts well but their goals seem to exist largely only to drive the main plot forward. It is worth mentioning that Colibí manages to be a mother character who A. is not killed off tragically in chapter one to motivate the young hero and B. actually has aspects of her life not directly tied to being a mother. The most interesting character though is Narune’s halfborn friend who finds herself in the odd position of not being exiled due to her father’s importance and sway in the village yet still being hated by virtually everyone around her for her inhuman appearance. Watching her struggle with how she is treated as a halfborn, and also how Narune reacts to the treatment they both receive, is very touching.

The biggest weakness here, really the only significant weakness, is the editing. The first half of the book is pretty clean and has very few errors but the second half seems to have not been edited as well and errors seem to steadily increase in frequency the further into the book one gets. The errors are primarily grammatical issues with phrasing or accidentally using the incorrect word. One instance of this even shows up during a fight scene in which the name of a character not in the fight is used erroneously in place of the fighting character’s name.

The ending of the book has a satisfyingly big dust up following an interesting piece of information which raises questions for the sequels. Aside from the editing issues, in the second half this is a very solid offering from an indie author and well worth picking up.

[Maurice · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I last read a book that I felt so invested in that it was as if I was there and that would make me completely forget the world around me while I was reading it, but this book did exactly that. And whenever I wasn’t reading I kept thinking about this story and the characters.

This world was entirely different from any other novel I’ve ever read, it truly is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre, and it pains me that not a lot of people seem to know about this incredible book. The descriptions of the island and the forest were so well done that I felt like I could not only see all the settings of this story, but experience them with all of my senses. And the setting itself is so beautiful, yet also scary, since the forest itself and especially the stillness are quite dangerous. I also liked how the worldbuilding wasn’t over-explained and there weren’t any info-dumps, because in my opinion that often creates distance between the reader and the world, so the way this book almost felt like it expected the reader to know this world already and be a part of it made it so much easier to get immediately invested. But it definitely still gives you all the information you need to understand the world and see how incredible and detailed it is.

Fantasy worlds without homophobia are one of my favorite things to read, but a lot of the time people in these books still view relationships the same way most people in our society do (and that usually has me somewhere between confused and concerned), so I loved how the Islandborn had a different approach to relationships in general. And I don’t know if it was that, or just how well the connections between the characters were written, but I felt like the relationships in this book were a lot deeper compared to most romances I have read. Narune, Kisari and Ixchel are easily one of my favorite romances ever, maybe even my absolute favorite. But there are also so many incredible non romantic relationships between these characters, the most important one obviously being between Colibrí and Narune, and I loved the bond between those two so much.

[Jonathan Pembroke]

To me, Cradle of Sea and Soil tells two different stories: the idea of struggling against an entropic and desrtuctive enemy, while also struggling with one's sense of identity and place in society. Colibri and Narune, the mother and son who are Halfborn (half human, half animal spirit) are considered outcasts. They have to come to grips with breaking their oaths and defending a society that hates and fears them. This was the more interesting plot thread to me. Venomous treatment at the hands of the villagers and the harsh decisions forced on Colibri and Narune left me raw and unnerved at time. That's a great measure of a book, that the reader connects with the protagonists so well. The depiction of a close, supportive, loving relationship between a mother and teenage child was depicted well and was something I'd love to see more of in fantasy.

I'll also praise the ease and fluidity with which the author inserted the worldbuilding elements into the narrative. The non-western setting was unique and enchanting, and I very much found myself enjoying the slowly-revealed world. The magical system was interesting, if a little complex and underexplained.

That said, the struggle against the Stillness, the anti-life enemy, wasn't as interesting. I generally didn't find those sequences exciting. Te battle scenes tended to be drawn out and over-described and I didn't have fell any tension in the climactic finale. And the implication that the battles resulted in dozens or hundreds of casualties, when the settlement size is described as "a village" felt very out of scale.

Cradle was an enjoyable read and I'd recommend it to someone looking for a non-western setting or a good parent-child relationship in their fantasy.

[Jay Brantner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has a lot to recommend it—a mom as one of the two POV characters (her son is the other, in a coming-of-age arc), and the world is a fresh and fascinating departure from the fantasy norms. It’s a Caribbean-inspired island world with giant trees and an interlocking maze of roots and branches as paths through the forest (reminds me a bit of the mountain-trees from the Raksura, actually), plus all kinds of fun animals. The author alternates POVs each chapter and immediately gets us under the skin of both, a world-weary mother who just wants to protect her son and a teen who wants to bring honor to his outcast family. It’s a quick start that gets me excited about both the world and the people.

It loses a little bit of steam as it goes on. The author does a good job of building tension and anticipation, but the action scenes don’t hold onto that momentum, and while we get deep into the characters, it’s a narrow depth, with both main characters being single-mindedly focused on their driving motivations. I know a lot of people love magic systems now, but I found the magical training to get a bit repetitive. Your mileage may vary.

That said, the ending was pulled together quite nicely, and you can really see how all the different threads lead into it. A promising, if imperfect debut.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Cradle of Sea and Soil! I haven't read much (if any) fantasy that really focuses on tribal/island/tropical settings and characters, so this book was definitely something new for me.

I loved the premise of this book - a coalition of island tribes fighting back against an infinite source of destruction, keeping those forces at bay while the rest of the world is blissfully unaware of their struggle and sacrifice. The story does a great job of highlighting the strengths of the Islandborn in their war, showing that their foreign visitors aren't quite up to snuff when it comes to waging war against the "Stillness". However, it does so in a way that is not condescending or mean, and offers opportunities for the foreigners to contribute in their own way, something which I really appreciated.

Beyond the struggle for the fate of the world, there is a great story here about acceptance of others, struggling to fit in, and dealing with the sins of your ancestors. Without giving away too much, the tale of the Halfborn and how it progresses to the current Halfborn who are the main protagonists of this story was great, and I'm looking forward to new books in this series to see how it progresses.

Overall, I really enjoyed Cradle of Sea and Soil, and I thought it was a very solid first book in what looks like it should be a great series!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I discovered this book! Read for r/fantasy's 2021 bingo, this deserves way more than 19 ratings on here.

I love the Caribbean inspired setting and the magic system. I really hope we get to see more of the flowing blades in the next book! The ideas of the Stillness and Flows were very interesting to learn about. The two main characters Colibrí and Narune really kept me invested in their relationship as mother and son and in following their struggles to prove themselves to their village and friends. The prejudice they face as Halfborn really made me feel for Narune as he is coming of age and doesn't fully grasp how deep the fear and hatred runs due to what he is (or what everyone fears he will become).

Overall, a great debut from this author and series I will be keeping an eye on!

[Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this to get the check mark on Reddit Fantasy's 2021 Bingo Square Forest Setting. Written by a BIPOC Author, this qualifies for HARD MODE as the entire book takes place in the forest. The first book of Bernie Anés Paz's Islandborn Series is expansive, it's long because there's a lot of world building that needs to be done, in addition to the introduction of the characters.

The author does something smart - adds a glossary to the back of the book so it's easier for us to keep track of the terms, and believe me, this is sorely needed. There are so many terms introduced for the creatures, colors, magic system, characters and simple things like how people are addressed plus the names of building that we really feel immersed in the world created, which shows how much effort the author has put into this.


This book could easily have been 800+ pages, and feels like it, but because it isn't, a lot of the creature descriptions are very brief so I kind of still don't know what an Empty Tiger looks like? Similar to a tiger? Hollow? Based on the writing it was impossible to figure out and that's not a good picture in the mind of a reader. Not just that but I struggled to visualize a lot of the creatures and combat, which is typically well written in most fantasy. Possibly the author struggled with trying to make the book shorter because it was already long? At least a quarter should have been cut to make it concise, if not just add another 100 pages so I can figure out the magic system, the "flows", the combat and what the bad guy creatures look like.


The characters are actually okay, I liked the mother-son dynamic, them being half coyote, the politics in the village, all of this was well done. If this just had a better way of describing the magic system, combat and creatures it would really have improved the book from a reader's standpoint.
It took me longer that I expected to finish this because it just wasn't enjoyable and I kept stopping to read other books. Which isn't typically how I do things. But I did keep chipping away at it till I finished. To be frank, if I didn't need this for bingo it might have become one of my very, very rare DNFs.

[Sundeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a darker read than I expected. The main focus is the mother-son duo (which reminded me a bit of The Sword of Kaigen). I liked their relationship, as well as Narune's two friends and the Sage who comes to help them often.

I'm quite bored of the eternal fight between creation and destruction (termed as stilllness in this book) trope though. The spiritseer magic was quite interesting, but it was too difficult to understand and wasn't the focus of the novel. I'd have loved if there were POV among the other spiritseers and their training, relationships, etc. Too much talk about the stillness and the sense of dread they create lessens the enjoyment/escapism I wish to get from reading fantasy.

[Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up for r/fantasy bingo 2021, for the self-published hard mode square. This was, frankly, a hell of a lot better than I'd have expected for a self-published novel with so few reviews, so I'm leaving one too. This was an easy read, and I liked the characters. I would probably read a sequel if and when one becomes available (and it definitely looks like the author intends to write more books in this world, yay!).
The whole concept of the halfborn was fascinating to me, and I look forward to seeing how that develops in future content.

[Darren Askins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted an indie fantasy book that could take me to places I’d never see in something traditionally published, and I got what I wanted and then some. Not only is Cradle of Sea and Soil wonderfully inspired by indigenous cultures and informed by Latinx history, it is one of the most costly magic systems to boot! Recommended for anyone looking for an island adventure that tests the meaning and limits of family!

[Br1cht · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forgettable, but if you subscribe to PC dogma and that is the most important thing for you then you´re in luck, a lot of "Queer representation" and indigenous people "representation" has been put into this. I don´t give a crap anymore since people just cram it in and then expect to be lauded just for that, I expect more from my escapism though.

Just do it well, less heavyhandedly Twitter-focused. The author is a competent writer so I´ll perhaps dip in in the future.

[Andrew Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular

This is a great example of how fantasy works should be. A fully realized world that is a joy to experience and explore, with characters that interact with the world in the most natural way.
The story itself is a brilliant mix of family, tradition, struggle, and adventure. I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anybody.

[Michelle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, unique worldbuilding brings these islands and their mythology to life. The story and characters took a while to hook me, but I was indeed hooked by the end and plan to continue reading this series; there’s a lot of potential for how this story could develop. I particularly love that one of the main relationships was focused on mother and son; it’s not something you see a lot in fantasy.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it 3.5 stars, I would have rated it slightly higher but it suffered from numerous grammatical errors especially in the 2nd half of the book. Otherwise the story and world building itself was solid.