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Stone
Rael’s father, Drase of the line of Peor, is the best stonecutter Taraf the City has ever seen. Stonecutting isn’t usually women’s work, but Rael—a head taller than her brothers, and as broad across in her shoulders as her father—finds it fits her well. Until the day her brother Tei is killed by a desert tribesman.
Tei’s death comes at a crucial juncture for Taraf the City. Beset by the tribes, as well as a rising threat from a king in the south, Rael and her fellow stoneworkers are scrambling to finish building the city wall. In the city itself, tensions are rising between the scholar-priest of the city and the Taraf, whose line has ruled the city since its founding. Shattered and mourning, Rael and her family are all forced to make choices between their desire for vengeance, their love for each other, their loyalty to their home, their duty towards God, and what their hearts tell them is right.
In this return to the world of Sunset Mantle, Alter S. Reiss continues to explore the harsh realities as well as the joys of an Iron Age culture that never was, where God’s law and family duty are paramount, yet moral certainty is as rare as water in the desert.
Tei’s death comes at a crucial juncture for Taraf the City. Beset by the tribes, as well as a rising threat from a king in the south, Rael and her fellow stoneworkers are scrambling to finish building the city wall. In the city itself, tensions are rising between the scholar-priest of the city and the Taraf, whose line has ruled the city since its founding. Shattered and mourning, Rael and her family are all forced to make choices between their desire for vengeance, their love for each other, their loyalty to their home, their duty towards God, and what their hearts tell them is right.
In this return to the world of Sunset Mantle, Alter S. Reiss continues to explore the harsh realities as well as the joys of an Iron Age culture that never was, where God’s law and family duty are paramount, yet moral certainty is as rare as water in the desert.
149 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 16, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 30, 2023
I loved Reiss's Sunset Mantle, so I was excited to see more of the same world! I really loved following Rael, the only woman among the stoneworkers of the city of Taraf, from the heart-rending death of her brother, to the increasingly troublesome moral quandaries she finds herself in. The book was described as an "Iron Age that never was," and it felt like that exactly--the technology might be limited, but the people sure arent, and the complexities of their religion and the geopolitical landscape did a great job in showing how people lived and the tensions they're currently under. Some mind find this perhaps a bit slow or too "slice-of-life," but I thought Rael was well-realized and seeing everything snap together in the final fifth of the book was quite exciting, especially with the consequences in store for everyone. All in all, I'm just really happy to see more from Reiss--I thought Sunset Mantle was one of the highlights of the early Tor.com novellas.
May 15, 2023
Great Read.
The writing is crisp and clean. The story winds and twists so the ending is a complete surprise, I will look for more from Reiss.
The writing is crisp and clean. The story winds and twists so the ending is a complete surprise, I will look for more from Reiss.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews