GoronyaaNeko

The prose of the book was kind of weird for me. It's good, don't get me wrong. But it just feels very weak at times. The book could have very much benefited from an extra revision; this is the first book to ever get that thought out of me.

And the pacing is pretty weird too. Some story beats seem like they needed some extra time. And for the remaining, it was well paced. 

But largely, I just feel like this was an effect of having to decrease the length of the book to a novella length than a novel one. The two main characters are super loveable. The concept of the world is really well done and just AMAZING. Too much painfully amazing for me because I had some similar ideas for my own solarpunk-ish WIP and the book has done a lot of what I had thought myself (and considered them to be unique) way better than I would have personally done.

I would recommend this to anyone who is wanting for a hopeful scifi story of a unique world which are reminscient of Tolkien's values (and also what is reflected in his books) about nature. 

Greatest book ever written. 

Full Spoiler Review
Contains serious spoilers for ACOTAR book 1, and some small references to couple of scenes in Berserk manga and Tokyo Ghoul;re manga.

This was read for “Book someone in the server hated” square for Book Bingo in Brief Book Respite Discord Community.

I haven't read much “Romantasy”, though I do enjoy Romance genre a lot. Some parts of this review might make comparison with ACOTAR Book 1, not only since it's the romantasy I have read recently before this, but also because a lot of elements in Quicksilver were reminiscent of it, and some were done in a much better way than in ACOTAR.

The first 40% or so of this book is egregious. The world it's set in is a desert dystopia, and any interesting element of the world (the first world since the Main Character is transported to another world soon) doesn't exist beyond that. The worldbuilding is terrible, it hardly makes sense that such a world can persist - although you can make this case for any dystopian world in popular media nowadays, it's pretty egregious in this one. Beyond that, there's nothing going for the world here. Our FMC, Saeris Fane, is actually pretty enjoyable. She is confident; she's skillful, and most importantly, as the book really emphasizes on it, she has a sharp tongue. That, and the profanity in the dialogue which comes off pretty hilarious in the territory of “So bad it's good”, are the only things that the book has for it for the first half dozen or so chapters. 

The prose in this part of the book, as much as I dislike saying it, made me wonder if this book was written by an LLM and then later edited. I know, sad times we live in. The reason for this was the variation in style and quality of the prose. It varied a lot, but a starker contrast could be seen when the author described any battle scene. It switched to a more gritty, and very gorey for the style of writing before those scenes, whenever a battle scene occurred. It felt like an entirely different author had written it. 

Then a certain plot element happens, and our FMC is transported to a Fae world. Yay! I guess finally there would be some cool worldbuilding details and stuff, right? Right? No. This occurs at like 10-12% of the book, and here to 40% of the book was where most of my problem with this book lies. I had problems before this point too, but atleast it worked as a “Turn your brain off” sort of a read. It, atleast, starts a bit okayish. The first character we meet here, who becomes Saeris's first friend, her and Saeris' dynamic is nothing amazing, but it's pretty fun to read. Saeris trying out gowns and dresses and hating it due to this not being the life she was accustomed to, and all those atypical elements of a peasant-turns/emulates-nobles are fun here too. The worldbuilding aspects that follows are the most boring ones in this book. There's a sharp dissonance between that and rest of the book; it just feels out of place, and makes something I would have enjoyed in other stories something I was bored to death reading. Plus the way the Magic works. Although I don't strictly like the Hard Magic/Soft Magic classification that Brandon Sanderson popularized, I prefer magic when it's limited and understandable in what it can and cannot do, largely due to my preference of Battle Shounen manga in my previous age where they have a sort of semi-hard power system. 

There's some forging portions, most of which serve to tell us about the world, the magic system, and build relationship between Saeris, and our MMC Kingfisher. This is a enemies-to-lover story, so obviously what Kingfisher is gonna act like is known. There are some fun stuff here, the bantering between them is pretty fun, mostly because of how un-heldback the dialogue is. But the worst part of this book was how unrelentingly horny Saeris got for Kingfisher when their relationship was of a savior-revealed/turned-captor and a captive, and even more horny the more toxic their interactions were. My intentions aren't of kinkshaming, but theirs felt beyond that, to the point of being actually very toxic. 

The parts where they are experimenting with an element of the magic system, that's like the crux of the story, is pretty fun to read and one of two things that prevented me from outright dropping it (the other one was due to this being part of the bingo). Another complaint, which I really shouldn't be having due to how lackluster and barebones the worldbuilding in this book is, is how the in-world curses feels unnatural to this world. This was really disappointing after in-world curses being enjoyable things in fantasy books after Stormlight and Will of the Many. Saeris making the fox her pet, and the transition of the fox into a pet was actually pretty fun to see. 

One really big praise I have for this author is how well she writes smut scenes and smut adjacent scenes. This becomes more apparent later in the book, but even in a kissing scene earlier in the book, which I really disliked for character reasons, it was really fun to read. The PJ plot point, the one Saeris makes deal with Kingfisher to fetch her brother (and which goes hilariously bad), was the first thing I had known of this book. And it was in the context of how horrible this book was. To my surprise, it wasn't as horrible as it seemed. And the way it was revealed was actually pretty funny.

As the book progresses, the prose was better and more consistent. I stopped being bothered by it, and my LLM comparison felt absurd when I read the later parts of the book. But can't say the same for worldbuilding. The dissonance is still there. At a point in the story, we are taken to a tavern and we see there are way different sort of creatures in the realm, and while there's enough well written description to properly help visualize them, the story and the prose and just everything treats it as some sort of passing. Even the wonder that Saeris had on seeing Fae, when she was in much more danger right now, was way more than what was presented here. Surprisingly, the chapter where I had this big of disappointment in worldbuilding was also the first chapter in this book to make me cry, and hence makes it more disappointing on the earlier parts of the book. This is the part where the Kingfisher's identity is revealed in the tavern, and we see people kneeling in respect of Kingfisher, thanking him for the countless miraculous victories and saves he has done for the people. This scenes speaks more about Kingfisher's character, his struggles, his conflict and his pain more than the previous 40% of the book does. We can infer just so much from that scene about why Kingfisher is who he is currently, and in a way we can infer the gist of the story that is revealed in the climax of the book. In just 3 pages, it made me cry for a character I didn't really care for.  This fact makes it even more disappointing because this shows the author is skilled; she can write simple interaction which is meaningful in many levels. So why didn't she write such good stuff before this.

This is when the book finally found its footing for me. There were some boring portions here, and it really only got to a point where I wanted to actively read it at around 70%, but this was the point where I wanted to at least read through the book completely. The prose got more consistent in quality, and well I started to vibe with it. The interactions were more fun now that Carrion was involved, and I didn't have the dislike for Fisher that I had previously, largely due to that chapter I praised earlier. The wonder of exploring the new place, which this series lacked, was now present, and the circumstances were largely the cause of it. Though even in the previous instance, there wasn't enough that was warranted for the type of the scenario. And it had more emotional scenes. Yay! Really love a book which makes me cry, or atleast makes me feel things. Yes Fisher meeting Archer. That was great. And the way the worldbuilding elements were covered in this portion largely improved too, although I wouldn't say it came to a decent standard yet. I wouldn't say there was any scene or chapter I outright disliked or felt was terribly done. I don't know if it was my new found interest in the book due to Kingfisher scene that caused this, or it had actually gotten that good. 

Other noteworthy thing was the magic academia sort of part that Saeris has -  her learning about the magic system, and trying to experiment with it. Building stuff, failing at stuff. I am always fan of building stuff, and seeing people build stuff. There's a different satisfaction to it, when things you have put countless hours into learning and making finally works. Her failing countless times while trying to figure it out, her trying different methods, the frustrations, the little bit of hope which turned into frustration each time; it just made the moment when it finally worked later in the story worth it. But the way the process was written largely left me not as satisfied. 

The feeder attack, the sudden occurrence of it and how it worked with the dinner and her recovery really was well placed. I now was enjoying the banter and Saeris being horny more than I had previously. With the tavern scene, and the small improvement in Fisher's behavior to Saeris, it wasn't as bad as before. The war camp portions was done really well, everything from description of Vampire Court's surrounding to the swordfight training to the sweet character moments. A proper conversation between the characters progressing their relationship? Finally! And the kiss was really well written. The author's writing really goes from okay to super great whenever she writes smut or smut adjacent scenes. And the scene of Saeris breaking Danya's sword was really amazing. And the battle that followed in the next chapter, it was actually pretty unique. A sort of siege dependent on breaking the ice and not allowing feeders to pass through. Was p cool. Meaningful character moments, meaningful worldbuilding lore followed. Loved the progression of their relationship and the smut scene was mind-blowingly good. Some of the best I had read in recent memory. Such immaculate dialogues. Great streams of thoughts. “This wasn't just an orgasm. It was an awakening”. And really subtle details showing their relationship and especially Kingfisher's behavior towards Saeris has improved. It was really very good to see. This was something I was disappointed in in ACOTAR. Even subtle things, which unlike the earlier portions were deliberately written boringly, which took place here like having Saeris look for Quicksilver everytime, and how it connected to the conclusion meaningfully was good. I guess this might be barebones for a good story, but with what I had in the first 40%, I feel this to be praiseworthy. Oh yeah some really cool dialogue exchange between her and Danya. The slow revelation of the actual stakes to Saeris, another noteworthy thing. The tavern conversation between Lorreth and Saeris was another scene which had made me cry, for similar reason to the previous tavern scene. Does this author's writing skill get an innate increase whenever a tavern is included? Both have been a big hit for me. The conversation of what Fisher did for Lorreth, what he did for the Wolves, despite knowing the cost of what would happen if he dies first before the others, it just makes me like him more and more. The festival of Ballard, and Kingfisher being vulnerable and more normal around Wendy, it really put a smile on my face. I really enjoyed this portion. 

And what followed was probably my favorite chapter of the book. Chapter 26: Ash and Cinders. Two couples, who love each other, revealing their most vulnerable selves to each other, showing their pains and both accepting each other for that and making love; I know I am describing it terribly but scenes like these always end up being emotional for me. Notable examples off my memory are from Berserk and TG:Re, both of the respective chapters covering those parts are probably my fav chapters of those series. The chapter is just perfect, from the beginning to the end. Saeris helping Fisher with his episode, confronting him about not taking away her autonomy with the oath. Them opening up about their past, Fisher fully respecting Saeris'  wishes and caring about her fully, dropping all the act of pushing her away due to his selfish way of protecting her. Them finally connecting emotionally. And then the smut scene that followed. Extremely amazingly written. It's both cathartic, satisfying and such a good written sex scene. 

The building, making stuff that I praised earlier, the “moment when it finally worked later in the story”. The revelation to that was actually pretty funny. But the conversation with Quicksilver and the buildup to the deal, all of it was paced well and written well. This brings me to one of my FAVORITE concept of the story; the quicksilver asking for song to keep for itself. Which inevitably just made it disappointing for me later. The building stuff aspect of it really shines in the chapter when Saeris is making the blade. What it meant for her, what it served for her confidence and her dream, the description of her working on the sword. It was just very satisfying to read. And then came another of my favorite emotional moment of the series. Aurora and the Ballad of the Ajun Gate. It's just a very beautiful imagery, and the sudden song from Lorreth about Fisher, and a very emotional one at that, especially after the Saeris-Fisher moment we had gotten. Just a really beautiful, emotional song. 

Something I really loved about this moment was about how Quicksilver took songs, which as we saw are emotional pieces of some of the core stories of the characters, and they sort of consume it, making so that it never existed. Only the Alchemist can know this. This creates such an important and poignant role for Alchemists, making them keepers of people's stories. This feels very emotionally powerful, for the lack of a better term. So I very much loved this, and this makes the fact that the Quicksilver's demands changes from instance to instance really disappointing for me. This is fully anecdotal but I feel this leads to a bigger issue that I think most stories aimed for kind of general market suffer from; prioritizing new, different aspects of how some element in plot works over something which is more same, consistent and add more depth to the story as the general market consumes the story at mostly surface level. This was incredibly disappointing to me in so many different levels. 

At this point, I am very much deeply invested in their relationship, and love them. Her trying to remove quicksilver in Fisher's eye was really good. More great character moments between them. And we effectively enter the rising action of the story. Great battle, and great performance by Saeris. Everlayne captive. 
But yeah before the plot starts to get messy, there's a really great moment that happens. Something that I was actively looking forward to happening. FISHER ACTUALLY CALLING SAERIS BY HER NAME. Yes. Really tropey. Really really tropey. But things are trendy tropes because they are proven to work. “I give you my blood in thanks, Saeris Fane.” YAYYYY!. 
“A Secret” was a really cool chapter. I love when a multitude of things related to a single word occurs in a chapter which is named that word. And it's something really well done here. Carrion acknowledging the secret, Saeris acknowledging a difficult for her secret, and the secret that Fisher has been trying to hide being accidentally revealed by Te Lena. And Saeris' reaction to it was written absolutely well. I am not someone who's against chosen one or prophecies. I would however require it to have a bit more depth than it serving as an answer to every of protagonist's problem. That's where this shone for me. It's not new, but it's perfect for this story. The chosen couple who are bound to suffer. This makes the next conversation, the emotional outpour between Saeris and Fisher very emotional for me. Not as the first time they were vulernable to each other of course, but close to that. But this makes up for it by the story of Oshelith, which is emotional and recontexualizes a lot about Fisher's behavior at the start of the relationship. It's not to say that there's no problematic elements at all, but it's decreased. It's just a very bittersweet chapter, and is written so wonderfully well. It doesn't feel like the same author wrote those first 10-13 chapters. And about Kingfisher being prepared to kill himself. Every part of that convo was just so sad and so well written. Both need a hug. And Saeris has so much agency that I love it.

Now onto messy parts of plot resolutions. They need a witch. And casual lore drop of some witches, and they go to fetch a Witch and they come back with a witch. But atleast good character moments still existed. Kingfisher agreeing to not give up, and to focus on matter at hand. Them enjoying the night they have together due to the future being uncertain, to savor the time they want to spend with each other as they are likely to meet collective demise anytime. The romantic and smutty scene that took place following was really great to read. Thinking now, it does feel weird to do this when Everlayne is in so much danger, but like the reasoning also works.  “Eighty years or eighteen hours. It doesn't matter to me. It'll still be the highest honor of my life.” -  So good. This was just so full of sweet moments. “I came for a little hope”. Although the end goal of the fates element does make it better for me, the start was still pretty mixed for me. I would have liked for Kingfisher to look to Saeris as someone who had saved him from his captivity from Malcolm. What we got -  Kingfisher having made an impossible deal to work to helping death trapped souls of the burned country to find freedom - was good on itself, but something like Kingfisher being held in captivity with a stilled quicksilver pool nearby, placed deliberately by Malcolm to taunt Kingfisher, and Saeris removing the sword being what freed Kingfisher and that leading to start of it would have gone better for me. We could have still gotten this aspect in the actual story of what we got. 

The note from Kingfisher was very kingfisherly. Sweet obv, but selfish of him to handle all the burden. The cursive font on the book really broke my immersion though. Saeris' reaction was perfect. The pacing of the events and how they occurred was pretty fast. It wasn't like the witch's issue to leave a completely sour taste in my mouth; the stuff that came after it made up for it. The reveal of the actual meaning of “Annorath Mor” was really great. The other major reveals - Madra and Belikon - were really great. It was so right there. Kingfisher being trapped and at mercy of the enemy here, this was pretty reminiscent of ACOTAR. Especially since there was a maze/labyrinth in the backdrop, similar to ACOTAR. The amount of hate that reveal managed to get out of me for Belikon was tremendous. The reveal of what happened at Gillethrye was p great, but even more amazing was the labyrinth. Really makes you hate Malcolm, but the idea of creating a labyrinth to keep the coin at the center, and then hiding a coin among tens of thousands of fake coins; that's some crazy mindfuckery to do with someone. Really interesting idea that the author came up with. The hate Fisher showed towards Madra for having sterilized Saeris, and Saeris' reaction to Kingfisher regarding that. Great. Fisher driving Solace into Belikon's gut was unexpected. Killing Harron was p cool. None of these have been bad. They have been good, maybe great and some shocking. But not extreme hype, and excitement and amazing feeling that I would have otherwise gotten from books I consider really great at this point in their story. The evading sequence was also pretty fun. Morthil was good conceptually, but it needed more horrifying description than it got. Saeris helping them flee towards Quicksilver by sensing it was p cool. This was what I meant earlier by subtle actions having importance later, which while isn't anything surprising, was nice to see in this. And yes, one amazing portion of this part would be reveal of “Carrion Daianthus”. This had earned a genuine “WTF” reaction from me, and was something that I should have figured out earlier. At this point I am wondering if the reason the author wrote the firs 40% of the book bad is so that we can't connect the dots and figure out the reveals. But yeah, really shocking, great stuff.

What followed was pretty standard stuff. Good but nothing that noteworthy. Conversation with Quicksilver, finding the right coin. Her keeping the coin while giving the pouch away to Malcolm - finally we got something for her thieving skills after 500 chapters. That was pretty nice. Had expected coinflip but was still cool. Her cutting off Malcolm's head was p cool.

Her turning into Vampire, a way to save the near dying human FMC, was reminiscent of what had happened in end of ACOTAR book 1. I preferred how it occurred here much more than how it had occurred in ACOTAR. There it had been a dues exmachine, something which we didn't even know existed was used to save her. Here atleast the methodology with which saving her was initiated was something which was already established, and hence not an asspull. The portion with the God, I didn't really care for the context of the story, but I did enjoy it in a vaccum. Conceptually, it was pretty fun to read. The place where Gods resided being similar to just Earth had taken me out of it. One wouldn't expect multiple worlds to be similar but with just different climates. And moreover, with climate and ecology being very Earthly. So this was disappointing, but the worldbuilding in this book had been disappointing in general. Although it was fun to see the relationship between Quicksilver and the gods. And a genocide on the scale of billions by a simple swiping action from a God while being nonchalant, really sets the atmosphere of the situation. The concept of free will is something which has been over explored a lot already, but this one managed to tell it in a way that didn't feel outright cliche or generic. If only the worldbuilding and the plot and this reveal had properly integrated with other elements of the story, and properly paced, this concept would have worked tremendously. While the reveal of Belikon, Madra and Malcolm working together had made it seem that the plot would be rushed to completely defeat them all, I like how the outcome managed to be a less contrived and a manageable one. It wasn't rushed and contrived as much as I had expected it to be, given that reveal. It ends on a pretty good enough point as well, Saeris becoming the Queen of Sanasroth. I still consider it p weak, while not disliking it. A more personal thing between Saeris and Kingfisher would have been much better to end this book on.

And well, that's it. Got some more complaints, but this is already too long. Thanks for reading this mammoth of a review.

This book is a short story collection in which I found all to be wonderful, to varying degrees of course, except one. It provided good insight to Tchaikovsky's writing style as I am looking to enter the rabbithole of his works. The last story “Reading between the Lines” felt very Doctor who-esque and I would definitely recommend any Doctor Who fan to try that. All in all, it's a wonderful short story collection, even the 4 page ones were really amazing despite that length.