A K Larkwood

This was nominated for the Astounding Award in 2021 so I originally got it in the Hugo Packet, started it and put it down in favour of other books. This time I trudged through the first few chapters and then it took off and I was hooked. I wanted to know if Csorwe the Orc would deal with the myriad of different peoples after being brought up to be a sacrifice to the God who liives in the Mountain above the monastery where she was reared. She finds herself in a completely different world as he not only exposes her to more of her world but also the multiple of worlds that magicians can reach. It's an interesting universe that A. K. Larkwood has created but I have a suspicion that all the ideas were thrown at the page here, rather than dealing with different threads of the story in different ways.… (lisätietoja)

This is the kind of book where I can see the issues—slightly slow, wobbly start; the pacing in the mid-section could do with tightening—but I also don't care that much about them very much. Reading The Unspoken Name felt like a ride in a rollercoaster where you're winched along very gradually and slowly and you think eh, this is maybe not going to be that—and then ohhhhhhh shiiiiiit you're flipped over the edge of a very long drop and then the next thing you register is the end of the ride and your hair's a mess and you're grinning.

This metaphor has gotten away from me.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is: if you dig queer coming-of-age-stories, an Emperor's Hand-esque figure working out their own self-worth, creepy Ancient Gods and their weird-ass death cults, Fun With Tropes, and young women rejecting a world that wants to treat them as disposable, give this a whirl! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.… (lisätietoja)