The Unspoken Name

This is YA but not the cozy kind. The system isn't there to coddle the teens as they learn their survival skills. The system is abusive and exploitative.

The world is complex, it's a broken world akin to a multiverse, but we don't get to learn how it got this way and the main plot is a McGuffin hunt. I would have liked to get more background and for the setting to matter more.

For example some of the people have tusks, a broken tusk is prominently displayed on the cover. The tusks are often mentioned, but never explained or used. They are just dressing. In a novel full of hand to hand combat, no one ever uses their tusks. The loss of the tusk is a significant event, but it may as well have been any other extremity.

I picked this up because Tamsyn Muir described it as having many of the same cool elements that she put into Gideon the Ninth.

So I started this expecting something Gideon-like. But for the first third of the book or so, it made me think of nothing so much as a (way darker) Goblin Emperor. (And also, for obvious reasons, Tombs of Atuan).

As the narrative goes on, I think the Gideon comparison becomes more and more apt--queer longing, sass, wizards rolling their eyes at each other. I had a great time with this book all the way through.

A fantasy book that feels like a rollercoaster. I feel like a trilogy could've been made out of this book alone, for better or worse, it has several major arcs, significant timeskips and radical changes of allegiance. The premise and world are somewhat reminiscent of Earthsea for me, although it doesn't have the restraint or contemplative nature that series has; this is very much an action movie that does not stop. That said, it's well written and a lot of fun, the characters are good (even if I wanted the "camera" to linger on them a bit more at times) and the lore is absolutely my jam.

Took me a little while to get into this, but it turned into a fun sword and sorcery novel

What a satisfying second-world adult fantasy novel! I haven't experienced one of those in a long time. The worldbuilding is wonderful--lush and layered--the characters are well-drawn and interesting, the plot is perfectly serviceable fantasy plot that is elevated by how good the setting/character stuff is. The end was a bit rushed (which is an extremely common problem with fantasy novels--most writers either rush it or draw it out too much), but that's really my only complaint. Everything else was so enjoyable.

It is, however, lacking that ~something~ that boosts a book up to the 5-star level, at least for me, but I am so excited to keep following Larkwood's career, and I know that someday she's going to write one of my favorite books.

A moody and strongly atmospheric world that skillfully unfurls around the bones of older works to get their flavour, while still being fresh and uniquely its own. The story focuses on the people who carry it and paints the politics and geography it passes though with broad, impressionistic strokes to let characters shine - but you just know if Larkwood wanted to she could fill in those details down to the colour of every grain of sand. The world is fullly fledged, but the author doesn't reveal any more of it than you need to know to enjoy the adventures of Csorwe and even, gods help us, Tal Charossa.