Merchants of Knowledge and Magic

The Pentagonal Dominion

by Erika McCorkle

On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she’s intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro’s illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman- a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel.

But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe’s discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible.

But if she plays them wrong…

…she’ll learn slavery in her pursuers’ hands is a fate far worse than death.

Genres: Fantasy, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Adult, Intersex

530 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 8, 2022

Reviews

[Esmay Rosalyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Before We Go Blog

4.5 stars (rounded up)

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a story of truly epic proportions, and to say it is unique would honestly be the understatement of the year. Filled with diverse and slightly unhinged characters, interdominional travel, dangerous secrets, riveting mysteries, page-turning intrigue, and breathtaking world building, this is the diverse and refreshing dark epic sci-fantasy you didn’t know you needed.

As an aroace, intersex, human-dragonfly hybrid Merchant of Knowledge, Calinthe is not your typical run-of-the-mill fantasy protagonist. Together with her closest companion Zakuro, whose illusionist magic keeps her ‘abominable’ gender hidden, she travels the various planes of the Dominion to gather the most valuable secrets for her demonic employer.
But to fulfil her latest mission, she must cross into the most dangerous place she could ever find herself: the Ophidian Plane, ruled by the worst of terfs and vile matriarchal slavers. What follows is a wild emotional rollercoaster of a quest that will not only test her and Zakuro to their utmost limits, but also put all life throughout the entire Pentagonal Dominion on the line.

Now, books very often get labelled as being either plot- or character-driven, but I’d argue that this story is neither. If anything, it’s the truly astounding world building and exploration of gender and diversity on which every single aspect of this story hinges. The Pentagonal Dominion is truly one of the most imaginative worlds I have ever had the pleasure of exploring, and I was fully absorbed from page one.

Filled with weird and bizarre creatures, diverse characters, enthralling landscapes, rich cultures, and intriguing magic, this world just feels like it’s living and breathing all on its own. Is there arguably way too much to take in? Probably. Did I still eagerly gobble up every single sliver of new information we got? Abso-fucking-lutely. Fans of footnotes, you’re in the right place here.

I think I was so fully pulled into this world because we get to explore it so organically through Calinthe’s first person perspective. Because of her weird mix of genes, she can come off a bit emotionally closed-off (almost autistic-coded, but don’t take my word for it), yet I still latched onto her immediately. On her travels as a Merchant of Knowledge, we naturally get to explore this world in all its glory and interact with a plethora of diverse and intriguing characters who make this story come to life.

Because, you see, as much as I loved reading from Calinthe’s perspective, I think it was the supporting cast of endearing, peculiar and slightly chaotic characters that completely stole the show for me. First of all, the relationship between our titular merchants of knowledge and magic absolutely gave me life. As someone who is questioning if they are on the ace-spectrum, I loved how the deep-seated bonds of love, loyalty, and trust between Calinthe and Zakuro are fully established without any grand romantic or sexual gestures. The representation feels so authentic and their relationship tugged on my heartstrings in all the best ways.

And then we’ve got the oddly endearing Demon Lord Williford (willy for the win) and the completely unhinged Merchant of Hedonism, Requiem, who were both unacceptably hysterical. The dialogue in their scenes was just effortlessly funny and had me cackling out loud more times than I can count. Please, for the love of all that is holy, give me a spin-off just following them going about their daily lives. I would sell my soul for it.

Though, as wondrous, whimsical and entertaining as this story can be, the author doesn’t hold back on mixing in some truly dark, dirty, and depraved elements. The more you read, the darker the story gets, up to the point that you will be filled with rage and ready to incinerate certain utterly depraved characters who will single-handedly obliterate all your faith in humanity. Themes of bodily autonomy, religion, gender discrimination, sex slavery, rape, torture, and domination are explored in a brutally raw and honest way, which makes the emotional impact of this story higher than you could possibly ever have imagined.

Normally I very quickly bounce off the more dirty and twisted content, but here it just worked really well for me. Every single aspect of the story is so beautifully in sync with each other and that is why those more disturbing twists didn’t feel gratuitous or out of place. The author handles these heavy topics with the care and nuance they deserve, while also expertly maintaining the more whimsical and slightly zany tone of the story.

Now, I could ramble on and on about what is so brilliant about this book, but I honestly don’t think my words can ever capture the magic or fully do this story justice. If you don’t mind a slow-burn start, heavy thematic messaging, and a bit of an indulgent approach to world building, then you are in for an absolute treat here.
Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is nothing short of a masterpiece. This unapologetically weird, diverse, queer, imaginative, indulgent, and deliciously dark gem of a book will keep you on your toes from start to finish.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a free ecopy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Maria Blackrane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever read a book that was so interesting and out there (in a great way!), it literally took you to some other dimension and you have to reset your eyes and mind back to reality? Welcome to the Pentagonal Dominion! This is what reading Merchant of Knowledge and Magic was like.

We follow Calinthe and Zakuro on a quest to rescue a couple of men enslaved in the TERFdom of Ophidia. They meet Requiem, who joins them. They visit Demon Lord Williford, Calinthe's boss. From there, it's one mash of adventure, interesting characters and more phenomenal worldbuilding after another. There is absolutely nothing like it.

The deep lore and expansive worldbuilding that Erika so cleverly crafted together became a hit among social media circles long before the book's release. It gives me a science fantasy vibe because of the detailed biology and abilities of the different species and the technology. Fans of Star Wars should check this out!

Don't let the "fairy" on the cover mislead you, the book takes a dark turn. It had such an expected and mind-blowing end that I had to read the last part a few times to really absorb it. A terrific debut by a rising new star in indie publishing!

Not recommended for your grandchildren!

[Cat Bowser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free ARC copy of this book and am leaving a review voluntarily.

Wow. Just Wow. And wow some more.

I love fantasy. I love fantasy worlds. I love well rounded characters and cultures. This book has them in spades. I was furious that I had to stop and sleep and angry my brain couldn’t process any faster. Once you get into this world, you won’t want to leave.

The worldbuilding is massive and in depth. You can tell the author has been building and developing this world for years. The detail, the attention to how elements interact, the histories of not just the characters but the places themselves. It gives the world a rustic, lived in feel. You will find yourself re-reading to catch details you missed.

Erika does not spare details. This is an adult book, make no mistake. The world has its ugly sides, the characters have to make decisions that have no good options and the villain…well, they are deplorable in the best kind of way.

The best praise I can give for this work of art? I feel like I’ve found, in terms of story, character and especially world-making, a new Tolkien.

Go. Read. It

[TheBookDude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is an interesting and unusual beast of a fantasy.

Our main character, Calinthe, is a merchant of knowledge who trades in information. And when I said the book is unusual, I wasn’t joking - she is an intersex, asexual, human dragonfly hybrid with wings and tail and as well as a merchant of knowledge, oh and she is also a Mind volkhv, which is a type of priestess.

If that’s a lot to take in, then you are starting to get a picture of this book. I like the idea of making a character like this and its clear the author put a lot of time in Calinthe, but I do wish a bit more time was spent on making the character a bit more likable. While, certainly intriguing, I was never really fully rooting for Calinthe. Having said that there is more than enough meat on the bone to keep you following Calinthe’s story along.

The world building is high quality and in my opinion where the book stands out. The Pentagonal Dominion is a rich vast world full of weird and bizarre creatures of every type, magic powers, cultures. This is an area where the author gets 5 stars. We have the creatures and magic of a children’s fairy tale combined with the darkness, sex and intrigues of an adult tale. There is a lot of travelling around for much of the novel so the author was lucky (well luck is not the word) that they had created such a rich world, as I think the book might have started to feel a little slow-paced after a while if there wasn’t smooch to see.

The writing itself is solid enough. You are not going to be wowed by the prose or anything, but it reads like a solid fantasy, you won’t find the writing getting in the way of the story. It does its job. I will say I think the language gets a little overly crude for my tastes as it goes along, the ‘c’ word is used multiple times and there is a lot of time dedicated to describing various sexual stuff, ball gags, sex slavery, rape, torture, domination etc. Unfortunately this stuff really starts to overtake the book as it goes along. I knew there would be a fair bit in it, but I think it was overdone.

Overall I would have liked bit more humour and a bit more emotion/feeling for the characters, a bit less sexual abuse etc. I felt the story went in the wrong direction in the latter half, but maybe others will disagree. All in all it is an imaginative and really quite unusual fantasy that is worth checking out if you are looking for something a bit different.

Great world building, very different, lots of potential but a bit too much focus on sex and domination (for my tastes) overtakes it in the second half- 3.5 stars.

Thanks to the author and thewritereads for my copy

[Theartsyreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok so... when I saw the cover I was really not expecting what I got myself into! The blurb gives some of it away, but not all of it. Let me divide this into my positives and my negatives:
Pros:
- The worldbuilding. It's a really complex world that the author obviously spent a great deal working out
- The writing. The author knows how to write. The writing is flowing nicely, the sentences aren't clunky, I never felt that it is too boring or moving too fast.
-We come across a wide range of very diverse characters and creatures.
- All sorts of LGBTQ+ characters as well as different sexual orientations are represnted

Now to the parts that weren't really my cup of tea:
- The list of CWs really is fully utilised. Like, the things you find mentioned in the content warnings aren't just mentioned on the side, they are actually explicit. You will come across slavery, rape, torture, violence, abuse, among other things.
- The language, I felt, was a bit unnecessarily crude in places. The f-word was used all over the place, as well as others, much more explicit vocabulary that is just not my cup of tea to come across in books, or, well, I just don't think such a liberal use of them was necessary.

So, the negatives I'm mentioning are mostly due to my own comfort zone, but if you know what you are getting into when you pick this book up you might like it much more than I did. I think I would have been more ok with some of the situations if they had been part of a concensual rather than a slavery setting, but some of the non-consensual bits and the slavery was, after a while, a bit hard to read. Again, the author wrote it well, and when readers know what it is about when they pick it up it is probably fine. It just wasn't my cup of tea, but I can definitely see some people liking it way more.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable fantasy debut

If you're looking for a highly unique fantasy book that hits all the points on the light dark spectrum, look no further. The world of Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is one of the most unique and fascinating that I've ever read. And if you like corruption arcs, you're in for a treat. I must warn, though, the darker parts of this book are super dark so make sure to give that consideration before picking it up (there's a comprehensive list of trigger warnings just to be safe). But, if you're not easily fazed or not squeamish in the least and you're looking for a new fantasy to dive into, give this book a try.

[Nancy Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ufff un librón que te engancha y no te quiere soltar! I am having a hard time thinking of how to approach this review. Half of me wants to write it in Spanish, while I believe it should be in English to be understood by more people.

I'll certainly write my feelings once my brain makes its mind and selects the right language. It isn't often that books do this, proof of how much I enjoyed it.

[Elizabeth Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This won’t be a conventional review because this isn’t a conventional book. I don’t really need to remind you that Merchants of Knowledge and Magic has a list of content warnings long enough to make this a niche, and one that very few would deliberately seek out. Likewise, even a passing look at the book will tell you it has world-building so excessively detailed that only a mother could love it. I’d maybe even go as far as to say that being neurodivergent or queer will help a lot with being able to tolerate the many eccentricities of this book. These are what I consider to be the obvious caveats, so beyond that, I won’t bother telling you things you already know.

Everything I loved about this book was also something I hated. Take for example the footnotes that litter the book with world-building. Sometimes they were genius, like when McCorkle creates unique idioms for her world, which is something I’ve never quite seen done before. It made the world feel like it existed outside of the pages, and had layers that even the reader won't ever fully see. But other times the footnotes existed just to explain a made up fantasy term that was directly analogous with a word in English, which just left me wondering why the change was even necessary to begin with. I think the author has every right to add the footnotes if it's how they want to support their obviously gargantuan world-building efforts, but I still believe that it could have been scaled back without any great cost.

Likewise, the body diversity in the book had highs and lows. I genuinely appreciated reading from the perspective of an intersex character, as besides the absolutely unimpeachable greatness of The House in Fata Morgana, I’ve never seen any other work of writing centre an intersex character with as much understanding as this does. But as happy as that made me, I at the same time grew tired of the clinical and methodical rollout of all McCorkle’s fantasy species, and how few of their descriptions inspired my interest or enthusiasm. Much to this books great pain, I can only read ‘biped’ (among other blunt descriptions) so many times before my eyes start to glaze over.

And then there was all the sexual content. I felt that when McCorkle wanted to dig deep into the trauma and indignity of non-consensual sex, especially for a character that is asexual, it was well explored. In fact the narrative climax of the story was fantastic as a direct result of this character work, and did much to redeem Merchants of Knowledge and Magic’s slower segments. But there is always a but, and butts, with everything in this book. I found that much of the sexual content dragged, and at times even overwhelmed and bogged down everything else around it, which I can see people finding gratuitous or self-indulgent. It's not like this was ever blindsiding me, I'm just not sure I really needed to read chapter after chapter of how, precisely, rapists get their kink on.

Overall, I don’t feel confident enough to say I enjoyed Merchants of Knowledge and Magic. It’s single-mindedly creative and unique, which results in a one-of-a-kind experience that isn’t always easy or pleasant. It is crafted with care and clear passion, but I felt that at every turn the writing resisted my attempts to love it, and while I wouldn’t rule out a revisit to The Pentagonal Dominion, I’d probably only do so with a different story.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 100% not prepared for that ending, wow.

This book has some of the most thorough and comprehensive worldbuilding I've ever seen, and I especially enjoyed the many references to insects. Very fascinating stuff! I also really liked to two main characters, and even though the plot sometimes felt a little meandering, it all came together very well in the end. Do pay attention to the content warnings, though - there are some tough topics addressed on-page in this one. Overall, looking forward to immersing myself in the Pentagonal Dominion again soon!

[Tissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still, every now and again I happen upon a fantasy that waters my crops, clears my skin, and removes those twenty-odd years from my soul in zero point five. One page in and I’m that girl again, squeeing at world-building or raving about fantastic MCs.

[Keep reading @ Bookshelves & Teacups]

[Leslie Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A totally absorbing story set in one of the most fully realized, unique and imaginative worlds that I've ever encountered in fantasy fiction.

[Dr. Andy]

I've heard this has intersex rep and therefore I must read it.

[Lanie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calinthe is a Merchant of Knowledge for her Lord Williford, the Demon Lord of Ignorance and she has been sent off on a mission to track down a missing demon. While in the middle of her mission she meets Paivi who is on the run from its seems everyone after turning traitor Calinthe agrees to help her escape from those chasing her but feels there much more to the story than Paivi is letting on and once they return to the Lord of Ignorance's realm she learns that not only is that the case but the missing demon is far more important than she had imagined.

What a freaking ride! From beginning to end this story had me guessing what was going to happen next and it honestly didn't go any direction I thought it was going to end in.

As always we'll start with the characters and omg are there a lot of them, like maybe too many there were more than a few times that I wasn't sure who was talking or which was the Lord of what, or who was a god and why did these Terran guys matter? Ultimately that's what brought this down to four stars instead of five (it's not just in the characters where I found myself confused), there was just a ton of information, I was probably 65% of the way through the book before I could say for certain that I understood who each character was and how they were connected. That being said once I finally did the characters and their motivations made way more sense. Calinthe of course was the most interesting, I have to admit she's the first ACE character I've read so I don't really have a lot of knowledge there to say whether or not she was written well in that respect but the rest of her character I found extremely interesting. She's got a lot going on and I think while she says often that she can't know what's wrong if someone, particularly Zakuro, doesn't tell her but she also seems to assume other people know what she's thinking. It's definitely a blindness of her person that leads to incredibly awkward situations and it does take her a long time to figure this out. I don't think she ever really admits this to herself either, especially with how this ends. Zakuro, I found a bit less interesting, her self-esteem issues while understandable given her mother ended up being extreme to the point of annoying, and while this is in part due to Calinthe's inability to express her emotions, it's difficult to get past just how whiny Zakuro is throughout the book. Williford was by far my favorite character, he is definitely extremely secure in who and what he is which I think was an absolutely perfect way to demonstrate just how immature Calinthe and Zakuro are and makes it much easier to forgive their annoying traits. They are young and trying to do better and that takes time so for all that I said these were annoying traits, when compared to someone who has lived longer well, they are just human traits.

Now, onto the bad guys. Kamiko and all of Ophida for that matter are just freaking evil. We aren't talking a little evil here either. We are talking utterly depraved, impossible of redemption, and I'd support the death penalty here. The introduction of Kamiko and the noble women of Ophida took a relatively mild fantasy story and turned it into a horror novel in a few sentences. I spent the whole last 25% of the book basically reading just to make sure Calinthe emerges unscathed or as far as unscathed as she could because mentally she's effed forever.

The world building in this was excellent and to be fair I know it was going to be as that was the number one thing mentioned when this book was recommended. This is a vast world with all sorts of stories within the story, many cultures, and many races. All of which were mostly unique although there were several that had been almost duplicates of their real-world counterparts the Ophida especially are heavily influenced by Japanese culture. What I also found interesting is that there are several very quick passages sometimes just only a sentence that allude to the Demon Lords being human so I'm interested in seeing how that plays out in book two. And while the deep dive world-building was wonderful it was again just a ton of information. Much like the characters, it was difficult to keep track of all of it. Luckily we really end up focusing on the Ophida in the latter portions of the book.

What this story truly excels at though is its gender representation. Erika mentioned to me on Bluesky that one reader has referred to it as "gender punk" and I think that's an apt description. Thanks to this multitude of races gender is a very solid spectrum. And by solid I mean at its very core it's understood to not be just two things but a multitude of things because of this it is shocking to come across not one but two races that raise on gender over another. And honestly, this could be simply because the MC herself is intersex so our introduction to gender in this world is through her eyes but I don't think so.

Finally, I really want to discuss the latter half of this book because omg is it an absolute nightmare. Calinthe and Zakuro end up enslaved by the Ophida after Calinthe makes what I believe is a really stupid decision to trust the Ophida, who as an entire society would be the last people on the planet I would trust. And since I've already gone over how absolutely horrendous these people are I'm not going to dive too far into it. What I found to be utterly surprising was how in the end the Gods end up being blamed for the Ophidians continuing to get away with their truly brutal form of slavery. Calinthe mentions several times how she doesn't understand why her god doesn't step in and stop it, which for a highly religious person who has a god who can do that sort of thing that makes sense to a point. What I don't understand is how the rest of the people in the world tolerate it. Which given our current political climate is a very good question to be asking, and maybe that's not McCorkle's point but it's definitely what I took away from this. It's mentioned several times that no one wants to go to war with these people because they have guns but if there was ever a valid reason to take out a country Ophida's treatment of their slaves is at the top of my list. Given Calinthe's declaration at the end of the book, I'm incredibly interested to see how this all plays out.


Honestly, I expected a maybe cozy little read with some conversations on gender when I started reading this, but what I didn't expect and what was pleasantly surprising was what I got. And I'm not even sure what to call what I got. McCorkle has created one of the most interesting, most complex worlds I have ever read which will make you question your morals and actions in the face of cruel injustices. There is almost a feeling of understanding truly what it means to "be on the right side of history" by the time you get to the end. I can't explain that feeling, not really but it is the only way I can sum it up. I will be reading book two very soon because there are so many things here I am interested in seeing play out.

[Blaise · Rating 4 out of 5]

And done! Epic worldbuilding in a complex and wild plot. Standalone book that grimdark readers will love. Full review to come!

[Alina Leonova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger / content warnings: slavery, abuse, rape — the subjects are presented as the atrocities they are, so if you're sensitive to them, proceed with caution.

Characters
The protagonist and the point of view character is Calinthe — a merchant of knowledge and a volkhv (priestess). She's a rare hybrid, as her parents belong to two different species, which gives her unique traits, such as her dragonfly wings and tail. She's also intersex and seems to be aromantic and asexual. As a merchant of knowledge, she collects and trades secrets, and as a volkhv she's forbidden from using money, so secrets are her only currency.

I found her a compelling character. There was a scene where she mentioned that others saw her as cold and calculating, unable to express emotions, even though her emotional world was rich within. I must admit that I also saw her as cold and calculating, sometimes insensitive to others' needs and emotions. Her mind seemed very analytical and logical, and while inside her head I often had an impression that she was distanced both from her own and others' feelings. However, she was trying her best to take care of her insecure partner / best friend Zakuro and communicate how important she was to her.

I can't say that I particularly liked Calinthe as a person. I didn't dislike her either. But I was interested in her and enjoyed her as a character. Just like this whole book and world, she felt very unique and real.

There are many other fascinating characters — various merchants, demons, slavers and slaves, gods and others. Williford — a demon Lord and Calinthe's employer — with his strange speaking patterns and overall personality was probably my favorite. He was so entertaining! I enjoyed getting to know other characters as well, including villains. They all felt real, each with their unique abilities, traits and motivations, belonging to various species and cultures.

There are many LGBTQ+ characters in the book.

Plot
For about two thirds of the book, the plot mainly consists of Calinthe and Zakuro traveling various planes of the dominion, meeting people and getting in trouble as they hunt for information, looking for a certain missing demon. The last third takes a dark turn, but I don't want to spoil it.

World-building
Ah, the world-building! This is one of the most delicious components of the book. This is such a complex, multi-layered and vast world, and the author has thought *everything* (and I do mean everything!) through. It's full of unique creatures and plants, gods and their descendants inheriting different magical powers, entangled political relationships, societal roles, drastically different cultures and so much more. It's a world like no other, and everything in it works according to its internal logic. It felt tangible, real and magical at the same time. I've fallen in love with it!

Impressions
I loved Merchants of Knowledge and Magic! Immersing in the fascinating magical world, meeting all the intriguing characters and creatures and hating the cunning villains was a real adventure. The book also broke my heart, and certain scenes disgusted me (which was intentional). There is a lot of darkness in the story, and it might be too brutal for some readers. It is, without a doubt, absolutely unique and unlike anything else. Can't wait for other books by Erica McCorkle!

You might enjoy Merchants of Knowledge and Magic if you like in-depth world-building and understanding how things work, original stories, adult content and don't mind violence, slavery, rape and abuse.

This review was first published on my website, where you'll find more reviews, author interviews, short stories, lists and more.

[Vanessa Krauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you go into this based on the cover alone, you're in for a rough time. The blurb sets the tone accurately for what is 50% a dark fantasy whose primary focus is being LGBT across several plains of reality where one in particular is the culprit of all evils done upon the rest. Was recommended to me since apparently my own novels have some overlap with this. And, I dare not go as dark as this one does towards the end. So, that is your mandatory trigger warnings. Onto the rest!

Calinthe is an intersex hybrid of an extremely exotic pairing whose one goal is to retire to a nice cottage life. She plies her wares as a Merchant of Knowledge, essentially a combination of spy, storyteller, and teacher, since her trade is based on accumulating and dispensing knowledge in exchange for life's essentials. Her companion is a 1/8th Godblood, Zukaro/Pom. Most of Calinthe's business is done for the Demon Lord of Ignorance, who is paid in secrets and reciprocates in tangible things, and Calinthe is a very hard worker. It starts out with the quintessential fantasy setting, the tavern... and goes into a deeper mystery that by the end of the book leaves many more questions than answers.

Book starts out stereotypical Fantasy and cute, with a lot of LGBT and disability inclusivity nods. That is until it gets to the Ophidian segment, a race of mostly female snake people who enslave anything that isn't a biological female for their repulsive ideas of entertainment. It's a long book, a bit slow at the start as there is quite a bit of world exploration and explanations of the races. The Game of Eight Questions appears several times and runs long, but I wasn't bored. If you're fine with being cleverly lore dumped, it's a stellar read. Its lore basis gives me 1970's/80s high fantasy throughout. Author McCorkle put a tremendous amount of thought into it, and their leading POV is an intelligent narrator. The last 1/6 takes a tremendous 180 however, goes both too fast and too slow for the content it is depicting; and while it opens itself nicely to a sequel, I felt rushed and deflated by the time it was over. I'd definitely like to see a book 2 in hopes for something uplifting, silver lining sort of stuff.

If you're into a 70s/80s high fantasy novel that is absolutely unapologetic about its exotic lore, you will absolutely enjoy this. If you're the type of person whose idea of a fantasy novel is 2010s Chicago and a magical pony shows up, steer clear of this. It's an exceptionally well done fantasy novel that reflects the worlds some odd 50 years ago with a fresh take on gender.

[Jamedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full text review: https://jamreads.com/reviews/merchant...
Interview with Erika McCorkle: https://jamreads.com/interviews/some-...

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is such a unique dark fantasy novel, a first step into the Pentagonal Dominion world created by Erika McCorkle. It is a really brave book, one that is not afraid of portraying the grimmest aspects of the world, with an extensive labour of world-building and characters that defy conventionalisms.

Our story is going to be following Calinthe and Zakuro on a quest to rescue a couple of men from the Ophidian plane; a quest that will push both to their limits. Before starting this quest, they also get to have an encounter with Williford, Calinthe's patron; which marks the real start of the quest for our merchants.

And let's stop for a moment to talk about the characters, especially about Calinthe. Our merchant of knowledge is an intersex character, showing how McCorkle introduces also the notions of the difference between sex and genre in her world; due to this rarity, Calinthe will be seen as a really desirable specimen for the slave traders on the Ophidia plane. Zakuro has been her loyal mate for a while, somebody who Calinthe loves and appreciates; a circumstance that will be used by the slave traders to put pressure on Calinthe multiple times.
Among the secondary characters, we can see the Ophidian flesh merchants as the representation of hedonism, how they can only see the relationship between specimens as different variations of the master/slave version. McCorkle is not shy about portraying these aspects, so I strongly recommend reading the content warnings before diving into this book. Rest of the cast is certainly interesting, with a deserved mention of lord Williford, as it is interesting to see how demons behave in general.

Worldbuilding is also one of the most impressive aspects of this book; Pentagonal Dominion with its several planes is developed in a really organic way, showing different details of it in small bits, being Calinthe's occupation perfect for this. It certainly remembers me a little of science-fantasy, especially because there are several details regarding the biology and anatomy of the characters that feel really suitable for the genre.

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a different take on the dark fantasy genre, a unique book that I strongly recommend reading (and again, be aware of reading the content warnings), especially if you like extensive world-building. Pentagonal Dominion has gained a new fan!

[Casie Aufenthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her debut novel, ‘Merchants of Knowledge and Magic’, McCorkle provides a master class in worldbuilding in this complex fantasy. No aspect of the Pentagonal Dominion was left unexplained. Unique religions, currency, species, land, cultures, and language are all richly developed without forsaking the narrative in favor of massive information dumps. Each detail was given thought, often based in a branch of science. The fact there are detailed footnotes at the end of nearly every chapter is telling of just how much time and research and creativity the author put into creating the space in which her characters exist.

Speaking of the characters, the main characters are Calinthe, a Merchant of Knowledge, and Zakuro, her godblood lover. Calinthe does get the lion’s share of the chapters, though, which worked, but I found Zakuro’s more engaging, and I wish there had been a bit more of a balance between the two. That said, both characters were fully-fleshed out and complex, so it was easy to follow them on their journey through this incredible world as they slowly unravel mysteries of huge importance.

The plot itself is intriguing, with tidbits parsed out here and there. At first, this new information was being learned on every page, either about the world, the characters, or the main mystery, but toward the middle, the narrative felt a little meandering. This is just my personal opinion, but there were times I wasn’t sure how some of the chapters/information were relevant. However, the story most definitely finishes strong! I won't say more at risk of spoiling it, but the ending packed a punch.

It should be noted that there are triggering concepts and scenes in this novel. I highly encourage readers to follow the link in the author’s note to check the content warnings prior to reading. I’m not particularly sensitive, and some of the scenes were rough for me to get through. However, if you’re looking for a book that challenges a great many concepts, holds no punches, and contains some of the most memorable worldbuilding I’ve ever encountered, I urge you to check out ‘Merchants of Knowledge and Magic’.

[Hello]

It's a weird book. Check trigger warnings before reading. Also it has a lot of sexual content and graphic depictions of violence.

I loved Calinthe and Zakuro dynamic. Calinthe is a scholar who is emotional but is bad at expressing said emotions. She also comes from a loving family, something Zakuro can't relate to. Zakuro on the other hand is shy and she can't believe her girlfriend actually cares about her. Both of them don't know if they are lesbians because neither was attached to another person before and neither is interested in intimacy.

I liked the lore about demonic lords they are basically embodiments of their respective ideas. Also Wiliford who looks and acts as an affectionate granddad to the group. His cohort is also well-developed. He's still a powerful deity and I wouldn't cross him. They remind me Daedra from the Elder Scrolls.

The first half of the book is the group travelling to the matriarchy and doing a quest. Calinthe tries not to attract too much attention to her since she's intersex. One of the overlords says quiet part out loud when she points out that she doesn't hate men, she'd abuse women if she could. There's also them assigning gender to asexual species (basically if they want to enslave them they are all men, otherwise they are all women).

The second half is about our characters being abused described in excruciating detail. I am not a fan of seeing my favorite characters suffer and I am not even sure what was the point other than to make readers sad.

The book kinda ends in middle of things. I don't even know if they fullfillled their quest. And given that book 2 follows a different cast of characters I don't know if I'll ever find out. Erika McCorkle created such a compelling mystery but didn't bother solving it. 😭

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic by Erika McCorkle is the first book in the Merchants of the Pentagonal Dominion trilogy which is made up of three standalones that can be read in any order. I will absolutely be reading the other two because WHOA!!!!

The world building a phenomenal and what I’m mostly going to rave about in this review. This took me far away into another world and honestly, it was very difficult for me to come back to reality. I just wanted to live in this world!

The book follows Calinthe and Zakuro on their quest. Not only am I incredibly impressed with the world building, but the characters are just as fantastic. I’m a big fan of character driven stories that give us people to get to know and cheer on.

There is some dark turns in this plot and it is addicting to read. I barely could put it down. I can’t wait to read the next two books because I can’t wait to get back into this world. Incredible writing and an author to put on my auto-buy list. Highly recommended! Don’t miss out!

Thank you to The Write Reads for the free review copy and tour invite. All opinions are my own and unbiased.

[Tessa B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world building is amazing it’s so detailed, I lost some sleep because I couldn’t put the book down. The story doesn’t let you go!
The writing is really good but it’s not for me, it was really hard to get into it.

[Julie Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoilers: Of the various worlds in Epic Fantasy that I visited this year (and there were many), among the most evocative, unique, and intriguing is The Pentagonal Dimensions in Erika McCorkle's Merchants of Knowledge and Magic.

It is the strangest, most bizarre, most fantastic world that I have come across in some time.


The plot, or rather plots, are mostly slight. They involve a pair of merchants hired by various people throughout the book to find someone or retrieve something for some greater purpose. The missions aren't fully connected and they don't really seem to add up to anything important, at least not in this volume anyway.

The book's structure is in loose anthology form as each mission is introduced separately and equal time is given for the characters to resolve that mission. Then that assignment usually leads them head (or heads) first into the next assignment or adventure.


Instead, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic's strongest virtues are in character, setting, and world building. In fact the main purpose of the various missions is to introduce the Readers to this strange new world. Since it is a world that captures the imagination and is impossible to forget, I would say "Mission Accomplished."

Every character and setting seems to come from someone's weirdest fever dreams or nightmares. Boy, is it ever a crazy oddball fever dream that we stumbled into.


The two Merchants in question are Calinthe Erytrichos and Zakuro "Pom" Rathmusen, the eponymous Merchants of Knowledge and Magic respectively. They are a very fascinating pair.

Calinthe is half-Ulese and half-Odonata, species that many believe can't reproduce until they meet her. She has green skin, wings, and is intersex (though prefers she/her pronouns). Calinthe is a Mind volkhv which means that she can obtain knowledge. She often interrogates suspects with a game of Eight Questions in which they have to tell the truth (though they aren't above using certain points of view or telling half-truths to cover up information).

Zakuro has four arms, dark skin, and is a Godblood, which means that she is descended from gods. She is practiced in various magical abilities such as making herself invisible or shape shifting. She was isolated by her abusive mother and had barely encountered non-deities until she met and fell in love with Calinthe.

The two travel together to do various assignments as Calinthe obtains information while Zakuro serves as a bodyguard and protector using her magic to help or hide them if things go badly. They earn money by trading magic and knowledge as currency.


Already this book stands out from many other Epic Fantasies and Science Fiction because of the lack of humanoid characters. Many times authors insert characters who are human in appearance as though their imaginations couldn't conceive of a world where humans, or species resembling humans, don't exist. With neither of her two leads being human, McCorkle stretches the imagination by looking through the perspectives and lifestyles of different creatures and species that are different from those who are reading it.


Calinthe and Zakuro aren't the only unique characters that this book encounters. We first encounter the duo as they walk into a bar which has a Kraken bartender and a Werewolf suspect that they have to interview. (Sounds like a bad joke from another dimension). Things go awry when the Kraken gets stabbed by the nervous Wolf.



One of the characters that they meet in the bar is Paivi Valkoinen, who may be a spy or a deserter from the powerful Aloutian military. One of Paivi's unique traits is that her belly is hollow and can be used to store objects which are chilled or warmed by her body temperature. So yes she is in fact a walking cooler (which excites Zakuro since they can have an ongoing supply of ale).

That's nothing however. Calinthe's father is so large that her mother and sometimes she can travel inside his abdomen. (Take from that what you will).


Many of the settings are also unique. People can travel from dimension to dimension and gravity is different on each one. A person who is considered thin in one place can be weighed down by the gravity in another one.

One of those places is Ophidia, a misandrist society in which women are considered superior and men, intersex, neuter, and non-binary species are looked down upon. Calinthe hates the place and has to hide her intersex qualities whenever they visit (including a newly growing appendage which is synonymous with a penis).



Their arrival attracts two sisters, The Ryuugas: Requiem, a white skinned purple haired biped-bibranch and Sayuri,a reptilian Orochijan, with thin vertical pupils and a forked tongue. Oh yeah and they travel with horses who can change their shapes into bipedal forms. The Ryuugas want to leave Ophidia even though they are members of the ruling class because it's a "f$#@d up country that treats men like mud and sludge." So they tag along with and befriend Calinthe and Zakuro.


The strangeness in character and setting is only augmented by the Pentagonal Dimensions' pantheon of demons and gods. While most Earth pantheons acknowledge their deities' offbeat qualities (like Zeus' womanizing, Loki's tricks, or The Morrigan's association with death), the gods in these worlds come right out and admit their infallibility with their titles. They are rich with names like Lord Selfishness and the Lord of Ignorance.


Lord Williford, the Lord of Ignorance, is a particularly memorable deity in that he acts less like a god and more like the lovable storytelling drunk at the bar. He uses Welsh slang terms like "ditty" for little and "tidy" for nice. He also uses profanity and is more interested in carnal pleasures and being sarcastic than in being a positive vessel for his mortal followers. He is hilarious and fits right in with the rest of the Pentagonal Dimensions' weirdness.


Despite or maybe because of the strange world building embedded in Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, the book surprisingly has a lot of emotions and heart.

In one chapter while they are in Ophidia, Zakuro and Paivi try to end slavery by killing slavers and slaves much to Calinthe's chagrin. The decisions that the three are faced with are ethical ones in which the characters debate whether they should put their personal experiences and safety over the greater good and whether using violence to prevent injustice causes more problems than helps.


Zakuro and Calinthe also show strong love and devotion towards each other particularly when they encounter their families. After a heartbreaking conversation with her abusive mother, Zakuro is cut off, feeling like she doesn't have a family. Calinthe takes her on a detour from their current assignment to visit Calinthe's loving parents so Zakuro could feel loved and accepted and they could adopt her as a second daughter.


In one of the most traumatic sections, Calinthe is forced into slavery for several chapters. Her narration reveals the pain and anguish, particularly when she goes from referring to her masters by name to the title of "Master" in her narration. She goes from a free spirited, independent, intelligent, intersex Merchant of Knowledge with lovers and friends to a passive, dependent, traumatized victim who isn't sure if she ever had anyone love her. It is a striking heart wrenching transformation that suggests that it will take some time in the next volume for her to recover, if she ever does.


Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a masterful novel of world building which offers unique characters and settings that are strange but also believable. Because of that, this is one of the Best Books of 2022.

[Bryony Indecisive Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

“My secret would plunge the world into chaos.”
“How much is it worth?”

CW: Slavery, rape, injury, death, torture, male subjugation, gender discrimination, gender dysphoria

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic was an immense fantasy book. In scale similar to the likes of Lord of the Rings and The Priory of the Orange Tree, this book spans realms and countries, each with magic systems, beliefs and religions. There were gods, goddesses and demons to worship, and various species to learn about. It was a book you could tell the author had spent plenty of time poring over.
Calinthe was a really unusual character – an asexual, intersex, human-dragonfly hybrid who deals in knowledge and secrets instead of money or goods. I found her premise really interesting and I liked the relationship she had with Zakuro. I didn’t find her a particularly engaging character (I did wish she’d show more emotions towards some of the “normal” things that happened in society, and to a particular event at the end of the book) however – although that could have been on me because I struggle to picture characters and so a human-dragonfly hybrid was kind of beyond me.
Although I liked that this was a queer norm, matriarchal society, it felt like the matriarchy went too far the other way. I didn’t feel comfortable with the slavery and sexual assault (the point, I know, but still) and personally didn’t think it needed to be as explicit as it was.
I don’t think the plot was particularly high-stakes until just before the end, so I struggled to get into the story. I think, if I’d not been reading this for a blog tour, I would have been able to read it at my own pace and fall into enjoying it rather than forcing myself to get through it for a deadline. I may pick up others in this series.

[A Night Bird]

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is written in the voice of Calinthe, an educated, arrogant Merchant of Knowledge and a Volkhv of the Mind Spirit, Lucognidus. The narrative flows very smoothly and I found it supremely easy to read, one of the easiest-to-read books I've ever read. I hardly noticed the length of the book.

Calinthe narrates like she's educated, and like she is arrogant, about knowledge, about her religion and her place as a Volkhv – something like a priest – and her self-image. Her companion is Zakuro, a four-armed Merchant of Magic and a Godblood, granddaughter to three gods: Lucognidus, the Mind Spirit Calinthe worships, the Death Spirit Sawyer, and the Water Spirit Liqua, giving her powers from all of them, as well as a requirement to follow all of their laws to keep the blessings of the gods. While many Godbloods in the Pentagonal Dominion, due to their descent and powers, have a great deal of prestige and some level of arrogance or expectations, or at least confidence, to go with it, Zakuro is lacking in self-confidence, believing herself to be stupid, and having a difficult time understanding she is of value. She is absolutely in love with Calinthe, who both of them believe to be the smart one, and while she feels that it is absolutely wonderful to be accepted as a companion and partner by Calinthe, she feels that their relationship isn't mutual, and to some degree, it isn't. Calinthe does not experience any sexual or romantic attraction, though she values Zakuro deeply as a friend and companion, something that Zakuro is not very good at understanding. Some of this is due to Zakuro's traumatic childhood, but some of it is due to Calinthe's arrogance and sometimes abrasiveness, and to the fact that Calinthe is bad at expressing her emotions, however deeply she feels them, so she's not good at making Zakuro feel cared about and valuable, even when she tries. Because, she can be callous. At the same time, Zakuro's deep insecurities prevent her from opening up to Calinthe and sharing her fears and concerns and how Calinthe's actions make her feel, and sometimes she resorts to deceptions and manipulations of her own out of her need not to be cast aside or concerned that Calinthe will cast her aside for her stupidity.

The character development never seems external; Calinthe and all the people with whom her life intersects feel like they are genuine, real people, consistent within themselves (kind of like a fantasy world should be internally consistent – this one is – but is not usually consistent with the observed rules of this world), though of course we see this most with Calinthe as it is her internal narration we are invited into. I have to say, that was what made this story sing for me: how well the characters are developed, not in the sense of changing – some of them we don't get to see change – but in the sense of being themselves. Feeling like real people, who act and think because that's how they would act and think, not because it's what someone else thinks makes sense, or fits the plot, or anything else. But for those for whom elaborate, fantastic, and very neatly defined world-building really makes a story, this is the perfect book. There's a lot of the world we don't get to see, simply because the Pentagonal Dominion is pretty large and it is all new, imagined, made-up, with a full eighty-eight species with humanesque intelligence, not counting demons or hybrids. Almost every plant and animal is unique to the Pentagonal Dominion, from wagon beetles to glowlight lotuses to Cherish Cherries. However, if one wants a world that sings of the mysterious and incomprehensible, fathomable only to the emotions or through poetry, the Pentagonal Dominion isn't the world for you: the Pentagonal Dominion has lots of wonders and impossible (to us) things, like the Derion whose hands detach from their bodies and hover up to do whatever the Derion want them to, with the full strength of the Derion behind them, and the people who live in the Pentagonal Dominion might not understand how everything works yet, but that is a yet. The world has a very neat, ordered feel to it; it appears that everything can be categorized and understood with logic and a scientific approach, within the Pentagonal Dominion itself.

However, if you're looking for a book that has the complexities of an adult novel, in a world populated by creatures that look like they come out of a fairy tale or a kid's book, with the same sorts of powers and abilities that would happen in such a book, with both a lot of light moments and discoveries and flawed, struggling characters who have a heart-breaking story that has some pretty horrible and even gory moments to it, then this is a book for you. I skimmed over some of the darker, more horrible parts, and even so, it was enough to make the proverbial skin crawl. It's not primarily physical torture and gore; there's a lot of nasty psychological and mental abuse, as well as sexual stuff, and it's not distant: it's very close, communicated through and in the character. So it's not a light read at all. But most of that is concentrated near the end of the book, so if you really want to read the book for everything else it has but you don't want to read very much of that, as long as you can handle a little bit and you don't have a hard time stopping reading when things get darker than you are comfortable with, it is possible to read the rest of the book and get very little – not none; there are allusions to some horrible things and one scene I found pretty skin-crawling earlier, but it's not constant horror. And then you can just stop around Calinthe's second meeting with Kamiko. Or you can read the last few pages of the book to find out how it ends. Again, that won't make it anything like a children's book, but if it will spare you the worst of it.

As part of the Escapist Book Tours Blog Tour for Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, I received a free eARC of Merchants of Knowledge and Magic. This has in no way affected my review or rating.

[Peter Kiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review will contain some spoilers for major events near the end.

´Merchants of Knowledge and Magic´ is a story very unlike a lot of fantasy. It has a very unique world extremely distinct from our own with people, animals, and cultures cut from an entirely unique cloth. But despite this, it still has characters whose personalities and desires are still grounded enough in reality to still feel relatable.
It´s a book that I admire for what it is doing, and especially for a first book it is a marvellous creation.

Characters are often the most important part of any story, and in this regard the book does not disappoint. It is filled with a large and very colourful cast (both metaphorically and literally). Ranging from standoffish and intelligent Calinthe and good-hearted Zakuro to the ever delightful demon lord Williford and the absolutely horrible villain, Kamiko, amongst dozens others.
A lot of these characters feel very distinct and it is clear that the author went out of her way to create characters that were moulded by their society and could show the many different sides of their world and contribute something special to the story. My personal favourites were probably the demon lords, and I knew that there was always something interesting happening when they showed up.

This is a story of two contrasting shades. The first three quarters of the book is an adventure tale where our main characters go from place to place in pursuit of Calinthe´s quest, while meeting interesting people and getting embroiled in local political intrigue. And while not exactly whimsical, it has free-spirited and fantastical charm.
Then, in the last quarter of the book, the story and tone takes a whiplash-sharp turn into far darker territory when the main character is enslaved, tortured, and mutilated. The rest of the story is then about how Calinthe has to escape and has a very different tone from the earlier parts.

The worldbuilding is in my opinion the strongest part of this story. It is undeniable that the author has a vivid imagination and a drive to create a vibrant and fascinating world quite unlike that of most fantasy authors. We have a dozen races of people in many flavours spanning several different nations with remarkably different cultures – from the extremely misandrist Ophidian snake-people setting where much of the drama takes place, to the much more diverse and welcoming Alautian plane, or the strange and intriguing realm of the demons of Makai.
Coupled with this is also a magic system that is very broad in scope, but quite intuitive and systematic. With the only people able to use magic being those who are descendant from the gods, with your powers being determined by which god you descend from, and the strength by how closely you are related.
The story has so many different peoples and places it explores that at points I almost wish it slowed down a little to really delve into one or two of them deeper. I felt like I knew the Ophidians and the culture of the Volkhv with a stronger impression than the others when I was finished. But I suspect that we will get many more books in the series to flesh out these places even more.
My favourite aspect of the worldbuilding was the ´Game of Eight Questions´ a really clever and innovative mutual interrogation ritual that our main character engages in multiple times to gather information from others. This not only adds a lot of flavour to the culture and Calinthe´s work, but also serves to advance the plot on numerous occasions. I loved it enough that I´m a little sad that we didn´t get to see it play a major role in the end of the story.

But while some of the ending was not to my personal taste, I think that overall the story well-written and highly enjoyable. and it is clear that the author has poured a lot of her heart and creativity into the story. The ending deals with some pretty dark stuff, but if these things don’t bother you, or indeed, if a look into the uglier side of such societies and a tragic ending is something that you enjoy then I will absolutely recommend this story.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! I've been struggling with reading (other than my own stories) since I had COVID last year so it was nice to actually be able to read a slightly more "dense" narrative again. Overall it's a 4.5-4.6 for me, the reason for a couple minor points being withheld will be laid out at the end as some might be seen as mildly spolier-y.

First, let's do a spoiler free: To-read or not to-read?

To-read
If you love incredible, unique and super detailed world building. If you loved the detail-levels Tolkien goes into but want something entirely different instead of your standard, human-elf-dwarf creatures, this is the book for you. At times the pace slows right down for elaborate world building so if you're ok with medium to slow pace, this is the book for you.

Not to-read
On the converse, if you don't enjoy exhaustive world building, prefer fast pace and lots of accelerated action, honestly, just skip this one. While it starts out with a bit of action, those action scenes are few and far between.

To-read
Are you ready for a queer-normative world where the sapienti are as colourful as their genders, sexuality and sexual activities? It's obvious from the blurb so I'll assume most people know what they're getting themselves into, I personally loved it especially having an ace MC which we so rarely see. Despite Calinthe being ace there is a *lot* of blatant sexual references, on page activities etc. I had to skip one or two scenes for personal reasons but I knew what I was getting into and didn't feel liek I missed out on anything.

Not to-read
This obviously means that if you struggle with any concept of the progressice pride flag, there's no point you waste time reading this book. It'll only make you mad and offended because some of the planes in the Pentagonal Dominion are honestly much more progressive than even the most laid back countries on earth. Oh and if you're not ok with on-page sex, not all of it consensual, either mentally prepare or don't read it.

Sort of similar to that last point, if you don't like on-page swearing, move on. This book isn't afraid to use both the F and C word. I'm Danish, we swear on kids tv/in front of kids all the time so it was fine for me.

To round it off, there were a couple of minor things that made me mark it down a little, but I'm mostly being nit-picky because all in all, this was a super strong debut!

The first thing that nettled me a bit was too much repetition. Sometimes Calinthe would discover one thing, then a second a few pages later and then a third another few pages along but we'd get a complete "stock" of her previous discoveries as if it was expected we'd already forgot. Also when Calinthe(or someone else) said something and then we get almost verbatim the same thing in her internal monologue or in an interlude by another character. Same went for some footnotes where it was evident from the narrative but then got repeated in a footnote, nonetheless. Honestly, it wasn't that bad, but it stuck out to me.
The second point that made me dock a few decimals is mildly spoiler-y so read on at your own risk.
This is a pet peeve of mine so might not bother others tbh but I really don't like when a blurb reveals things that doesn't happen till way past the halfway mark. It means I'm reading along waiting for the blurb stuff to happen so it feels like the book hasn't begun properly until it happens. And it also means I guessed a great deal of the plot(not the nitty gritty details but overall bits) too early and lost momentum until about the last third where the story really got going.
Neither of those two points of complaint were all that severe. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely read future books by the author and all in all, it was a very solid debut.

[Arnaldur Stefánsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big thanks to the author, and to Booktasters, for providing me with a copy of this book to read!

Somewhere between 3.5/5 and 4/5. I’m slightly torn about exactly how to feel about Merchants of Knowledge and Magic. I feel like if just a few things would’ve been done differently this book could easily get a 5/5 from me, but ultimately the direction in which the story turned left me dissatisfied at parts. With that being said, MoKaM is overall a very entertaining and engaging read, though difficult at times due to the subject matter explored, particularly during the story’s final stages.

Erika McCorkle’s Pentagonal Dominion is an immensely detailed and incredibly immersive world that has very obviously been crafted and refined with care for a long, long time. I really like how the cultures of the various species we get to learn about are clearly– and unapologetically– inspired by the cultures of our own world (my personal favorite are the aggressively Finnish Ruomi). The detail and intricacy of the world remind me of a fantasy version of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, a personal favorite of mine. Such a variety of cultures and species obviously necessitates a whole lot of exposition to make the world work for the reader. I think McCorkle handles the exposition quite well, but (possibly as a bi-product of how detailed and layered the world is) the amount of exposition does feel kind of overbearing at times. In my opinion it tended to interfere with the pacing of the plot at times, but definitely not all the time.

The character work is also really well done. Despite there being a lot of incredibly powerful characters in MoKaM, none of them feel *too* powerful, resulting in a well executed balance. Furthermore, as becomes evident by the end, nobody is safe.
I’m a really big fan of Calinthe Erytrichos as a main character, and she is a great example of this balance. Due to the way she is written, being incredibly intelligent and valuable as a Merchant of Knowledge, she comes off as both incredibly powerful in her own right, whilst also being entirely at the mercy/protection of those around her more conventionally powerful (either magically or physically), thus she is vulnerable to bad actors, as becomes painfully evident.

As the main plot unfolds around her, Calinthe’s internal religious conflict strikes me as the main focus that McCorkle wanted the reader to take from her work. Despite everything else going on, MoKaM ultimately feels like a story centered around the abandoning of the idea of blind faith.

Arguably my biggest gripe with MoKaM is how much of the various characters' intentions are easily telegraphed to the reader. It does make sense that Calinthe– as a Merchant of Knowledge, adept at reading people– should be able to gauge the intentions and motives of those around her; however, personally I feel the book’s biggest misstep are the frequent interludes used to show events from another character’s perspective. By divulging information Calinthe would have no idea of knowing by herself, the book does tend to feel a bit predictable at times. The switching of perspectives often worked to remove the thrill and ruin the flow of the story, in my opinion (I’m particularly thinking about some of Zakuro’s interludes where she goes behind Calinthe´s back, and especially Selfishness Interlude 2).

Some of my gripes are just entirely personal preference. I think Calinthe’s capture, although meant to further her disillusionment with Lucognidus, went on a bit too long for my tastes. Eventually, I just felt it became derivative.

Overall, I would still definitely recommend MoKaM to readers looking for a mature fantasy with a heavy focus on worldbuilding.

[Jonathan Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the book follows two main characters, Calinthe Erytrichos, a priestess of the mind god, and her partner Zakuro, as they slowly unveil a sleugh of mysteries that end up holding a huge degree of significance to the world and the characters.

What does this book do well? I’ll start with something which should be fairly obvious to anyone familiar with her work: the worldbuilding is second-to-none. The Pentagonal Dominion is teeming with varied and well-differentiated characters of various species, each with their own specific proclivities and characteristics, who have gone to shape and mould the world around them in a broad variety of unique ways, all of them in accordance to their environmental conditions, capabilities, and necessities. I would not be the first one to notice just how diverse and organic the worldbuilding is, but I will be the first to note just how much of it is grounded in specific scientific concepts and terms. The magic system in particular is quite noteworthy for how it applies actual science when it comes to uses and adaptations of the powers, and observing those interactions in particular made reading this book quite fun.

The main narrative, however, is more of a mixed bag. It’s quite slowly paced, at least in the beginning, but I was actually fine with that. The book is initially effective when it comes to conveying its world and building a narrative the old school way, through dialogue and context clues. Every new page answered some questions, and posed a few others, constantly keeping the readers, or maybe just me, engaged. The problem with this approach comes right about the two-fifths mark, when a lot of plot-relevant information is revealed all at once, but the characters don’t really get to process it, because they have to go on the road again, at which point the narrative goes back to its usual tricks, and it becomes clear the author doesn’t really have a lot of tools in her bag.

The plot takes readers to interesting places and situations, but the narrative doesn’t handle these situations with the appropriate tact. Thankfully, the characters do a lot to pick up the slack. All of them are surprising, engaging, interesting, and present a whole array of new and sometimes unlikely aspects of themselves within the story. All of them come across as complete and believable and worth your attention, for a wide variety of reasons as well. Not all of them make me wish they were protagonists of their own spin-off novellas or anything like that, but they come alive in a large number of interesting ways. Sadly, the story doesn’t really know what it wants to do with them, and most of this very interesting cast gets set aside due to plot economy.

The presentation also suffers because of this. While I mentioned there were two main characters, Calinthe is the POV character for a large majority of the book, and Zakuro, even though she shows up in most of those scenes as well, even when it comes to moments that directly impact her, gets shafted, and the audience is denied a genuine insight into her character. The book treats her input like flavour text rather than substantial content.

Overall, while I would like to present this book as a fascinating new revelation from within the author community, there are, sadly, a few too many missteps for me to call it outstanding.

[Azalea Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. 
Be forewarned: this is NOT for children. Absolutely an adult book. 

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic follows Calinthe, an Odonata/Ulysese hybrid—basically a green dragonfly/humanoid—and her bodyguard, a four-armed Godblood, named Zakuro. Calinthe is a Merchant of Knowledge, a follower of the god Lucognidus who uses only information as currency, and trades secrets for the Demon Lord Wiliford. She is intersex, aroace, and to me, perhaps coded as autistic. 

Zakuro is a Merchant of Magic. She has illusion and liquid powers—the latter being the ability to change any liquid into any other liquid she chooses. She is head over heels for her partner, Calinthe, a bit naive and child-like, and as it turns out, very insecure. But the reasons behind that become very apparent. 

It took me a little bit to warm up to them, especially Calinthe, but that wasn’t really a problem, because much of the first quarter of the book is full of so much worldbuilding that there isn’t really much room for anything else. That’s not a bad thing, though. McCorkle does a wonderful job of delving you into this massive, in depth and foreign universe, giving you footnotes all the way so you can have some inkling of what you’re ‘seeing’ and what’s being talked about. 

That’s not to say I started out disliking Calinthe—on the contrary, I liked her right away. She is calculating, which makes her distant, and she is caught up in her missions from Lord Williford, that it’s easy for her to forget about the feelings and social nuances around her. I found all the characters in MoKaM were written extremely well and believable. Calinthe is eventually able to widen her scope of vision, metaphorically/emotionally, and I absolutely adore how she opens up with her partner, Zakuro, and to other ranges of emotion later in the book.

There are plains in the Pentagonal Dominion in which women are seen as the “superior sex”. And some of these people take that to the extreme. Men are used as slaves, sex toys, and literal living furniture. There are scenes and several chapters in this book that are downright difficult to even read due to the atrocities these women commit. You can easily hate these characters and feel absolute disgust. McCorkle masterfully weaves you through all of this, and more, surprising you, shocking you, and throwing in a bit of despair while she’s at it. 

I found there was a bit much of an importance to sex overall in the narrative (to me), though I can’t say it was necessarily gratuitous as it made sense in the narrative. The first half of the book might seem a bit slow, but it picks up in the second-half, especially the last 20%. Goodness. But upon finishing this book, I was left feeling a bit off-kilter. I truly hope there is a sequel, because while there are awful, disgusting people in this world, there are very many wonderful ones, too. 

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a wonderful, awful, beautiful, terrible alien world full of both heinous and amazing, fun and witty characters that will make you want to laugh and scream, or both. I am very curious to see where McCorkle will take us next. 4.8/5 stars.

[Jithendra Jithu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion)

By

Erika McCorkle

Rating:5/5

Description:

On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she's intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro's illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman—a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel.But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe's discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible.But if she plays them wrong… …she'll learn slavery in her pursuers' hands is a fate far worse than death.

Review:

👉Talking about the title of the book, the title of the book is really so interesting to read.

👉The cover is appealing and attractive .
The story revolves around CALINTHE(a merchant of knowledge and priestess) she is just kind of rare as her parents belong to different species which gives her unique dragonfly and wings she seems aromatic and asexual she collects trade secrets and is not allowed to use money as she is a priestess. There is another character ZARUKO who is best friend of CALINTHE and they traveled to various dominions and in course of their journey thet meet various people and they got in trouble almost every time as they hunt for the information.So did they find what they were searching or something happens with them? To know that you have to read the book as it will be a spoiler.

For complete read do order the book on @amazondotin @amazondotcom

Wow! What a book! I am in love with the book.

👉I just loved reading the book

Happy reading..