I’m kind of shocked I finished this 600+ page first book of a trilogy. I have DNFed so many fantasy books lately. I think this worked for me partly because it’s mythological, so there isn’t a hard magic system or a lot of info dumping. Instead, like a classic work of mythology, weird stuff just IS.

Examples: a mountain is lifted from the ground, a woman is pregnant for two years, two men combine to create one more powerful man.

Even so, I almost stopped reading this multiple times because the writing is really odd at times. The dialogue often reads clunky, clichéd, or just unlike how real people talk. The mythological context helped with this, but it was an inconsistent tone. Sometimes the characters read as formal and out of some epic poem, then other times as more grounded in realism.

But I kept reading. The story was so refreshing and strange. I grew to care about the characters despite how oddly they were drawn. The number of relevant characters by the end of the first book is huge, and they haven’t all reached their plot potential. I really have no idea how this will play out.

The women here are a mixed bag. I appreciate that Banker included many capable women, including fighters. But I’m not quite sure what to make of the SA of Ember and Umber (not a spoiler - something you learn early on). The story hesitates to call it SA, and I’m not sure if that’s the perspective of the author or the character - I could believe it’s just the character. The role of the women also seems to be largely as baby makers. But to be fair the whole story, for both the men and the women, is largely concerning succession so they’re all focused on children. Banker certainly gives women more than they usually get from fantasy written by men. The bar is low.

The sex scenes, uh… real cringey.