Freedom's Apprentice

The Dead Rivers Trilogy #2

by Naomi Kritzer

With Freedom’s Gate , acclaimed author Naomi Kritzer introduced a dangerous world of magic and intrigue. Now she continues the story of Lauria, a bold young woman who has turned against a way of life she once believed in. . . .

Once the trusted aide to powerful military commander Kyros, freeborn Lauria hunted down his escaped slaves. But during a mission to infiltrate the bandit tribe known as the Alashi, Lauria’s loyalties shifted. When her identity was discovered, she was cast out by both sides. Now Lauria is determined to regain the trust of the Alashi, and, with the help of her blood-sister Tamar, liberate those she once returned to captivity. But they cannot accomplish the daunting task alone. Desperate for a spell-chain to free a mine slave, Lauria turns to her enemies–the Sisterhood of Weavers–and apprentices herself to a sorceress. But learning to harness magic will come at a greater price than she ever imagined.

Genres: Fantasy, Ebooks, Lesbian, Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Epic Fantasy

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ry Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another well-written entry in a fantasy series that keeps the adventure going in high gear while at the same time taking a hard look at the effects of slavery and oppression. I'm eager to see how it all comes together in the third and final book.

[Loton Cagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing middle book in the Dead Rivers Trilogy!

Loving this series! Lauria is a really complex character and the changes she goes through as sets right the wrongs she created are fascinating as are the many adventures she encounters on her journey. The ending leaves you itching for more!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/0...

Solid second volume, as the protagonist and her blood sister set off on a quest to try and right some wrongs. The middle dragged a little but I think was necessary, information-wise, but this was an entertaining and action-packed outing for sure. I’m psyched for book three. A-/B+.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series continues and it's a little more free flowing, a more open-ended adventure as we're not sure where Lauria is going to go or do. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, more so than the first, and sets up the final installment.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many difficulties and the need to be better.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is absolutely zero reason for this book to have a half-naked woman on the cover. It's a well-written and well-executed adventure story with great characters.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second installment of Kritzer's Dead Rivers Trilogy shares many of its predecessor's enjoyable features -- thrilling adventures, narrow escapes, calculated risk-taking, swashbuckling battles -- while expanding on the fantasy elements of shamanism and sorcery. Kritzer continues to centre femaleness in her worldbuilding; while Freedom's Gate introduced us to the homosocial sisterhoods of the desert bandit tribes, Freedom's Apprentice explores the competing factions of all-female sorceresses struggling to maintain a monopoly on the region's magical and material resources by enslaving spirit djinni as well as racial minorities. Kritzer's writing seems to take the innate femininity of magic itself for granted, which I find interesting mostly for the matter-of-fact style in which it is executed. While Gate explored issues of loyalty, allegiance, and belonging as they relate to the overarching theme of freedom, Apprentice sees its characters grappling with power, duty, and penance. While certain elements of this sequel were so thoroughly enjoyable that I wished I could wrap them in a bow and gift them to my younger self (such as the synasthetic art of constructing beaded spellchains and telepathic communication via a spiritual dreamland), Apprentice did not quite live up to the pleasure I took in Lauria's adventures with the bandits in Gate.

Throughout the book, I was frustrated by the bond between Lauria and her "blood-sister" Tamar, and then was further frustrated by my own frustration. Half of me cheers the platonic female friendship at the heart of this trilogy, a friendship that is passionate, at times strained, but always enduring. The other half craves overt queerness from this series that is so straightforward in its celebration of women and of lesbian relationships -- in its background characters. The reader in me who is over and done with non-canon, queerbaiting innuendo wants to see Lauria and Tamar's love canonized by the author and testified by the characters themselves.

That said, I can't help but feel that much of the novel's ambiguity regarding this central relationship is deliberate: on numerous occasions, Lauria is interrogated as to whether she and Tamar are lovers, but Lauria refuses to answer the question, either to her interrogator or to the reader. Though her narration is void of eroticism (that I could identify), the novel ends with a declaration of love that opens the door to many possibilities in the sequel. Equally possible is that Kritzer is purposefully blurring socially constructed lines between her protagonists as lovers and friends to make a statement about patriarchal boundaries on female love, but that interpretation seems a bit bold and ambitious for a series that I think is still marketed as YA.

I understand that my conflicted reactions to and expectations for Lauria and Tamar's relationship are rooted in society and literature's dearth of powerful female relationships more generally. When confronted with this rare specimen, I have always had to choose: either this pairing will be platonic or it will be sexual, and whatever it is, the paucity of female love on the page and on-screen will leave me craving more of both and leaving me to pin all my demands on this one representation. I anticipate a day when our culture is so saturated with femaleness and with stories about women that the burden to represent all women, all relationships, and all love will be lifted from these special few.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Freedom’s Apprentice’ (Bantam Spectra, $6.99, 356 pages) is also a nicely written tale with an interesting setup: When Penelope was pining for Odysseus around 1200 BCE, she wove herself into a meditative state that allowed her to capture djinn, or genies, and make them do her bidding. This sorcery (limited to women) naturally changed the shape of the ancient world, though Alexander the Great did still come along and do some serious conquering.

‘Freedom’s Apprentice’ kicks in around 200 BCE, it appears, and it’s an ancient society with an overlay of powerful magic. Sorceresses can control djinni, though it eventually costs them their sanity, and the djinni can do things like fly and build canals. In fact, a huge collection of djinni were put to work rerouting two major Central Asian rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, which altered geography and history.

Lauria, the protagonist, begins the book with a goal of freeing some slaves she had once before captured (she has seen the evils of slavery and wants to redeem herself). Along the way, she’s involved in sword and sorcery, and though there are some improbabilities, all in all it’s a very fun ride -- the concluding volume in the trilogy is set for next spring, so we won’t have to wait that long to see how it all turns out. (I’m guessing, though, that the good girls win.)

[Jen526 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first volume more, but this was still a solid, enjoyable read that fits perfectly as the second "act" in a trilogy. Having cut ties with her former employer and the rebel group she was investigating for him (voluntarily and involuntarily, respectively), Lauria sets herself a goal of freeing a handful of slaves who she'd originally dragged back to slavery when she was still in Kyron's employ. The variety of challenges presented by the situations of each slave she wishes to free kept the story moving at a steady pace, and I enjoyed the give-and-take of her relationship with Tamar - with them at a point of being loyal friends, but also having strong disagreements about how to proceed with Lauria's plan. The expansion of the role of the djinni and the sorceresses who enslave them was also a good move, with some solid setup for possible directions for the final volume.

[Isana Skeete · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting to already be finished, but it was really good enough. It was really interesting. Tamar and Lauria are wonderful and Kritzer makes their adventures believable. But they never get away too easily. When she pulls the rug out from under her characters, she REALLY send them crashing down, which is great because then I get to read about how they get out of it. I'm not sure whether I truly believe their luck and accomplishments or if I'm just refusing to disbelieve because of how quick the story goes and how much it pulls you in. But, I don't really think that it matters because it's a great read.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up for $0.75 at a book sale, not because I was at all interested, but because I went to school with the author. :) Sorry Naomi, I misjudged the book by its cover! This was a quick, fun read. It's apparently the middle book of a trilogy, but I didn't have any problem picking the story up midstream. All around enjoyable fantasy book in a fun world of magic.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sci-fi trilogy, strong female characters.

[Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the first book in the trilogy.