Jerry Cooke
4.5⭐️ - A land built on stories, a couple fated to kill each other over and over again - a beguiling sapphic romance!
The tale has been repeated so many times, the witch ensures the knight, they fall in love for real, then the knight kills the witch. It's immutable and integral to the Isle itself, where these reincarnations and reoccurrences control the shape of the land itself.
Simran is the latest witch, living a secretive life working as a scribe, passing powers of tales to people through magical ink. Vina is the knight who will be her destiny, sequestered in the Queen's court, the daughter of a minister, she bucks against the chains of expectations upon her. When the two meet by fate, they deny their tale for as long as they can, but the forces are too great to resist and soon they are falling for each other hard.
Determined to break this cycle and not be forced to end each other's lives, the two must do the unthinkable - re-write the tale itself to ensure a future for themselves together and to free everyone from this forced repetition of suffering.
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This was an utterly beautiful story with such sumptuous world building. The exploration of the power of stories was really well done, a curious mix of anthropomorphism, apotheosis, and metamorphoses - a world in which these tales can literally shape the world, empower individuals with gifts, change them physically, and force them to fill rolls.
Simran and Vina are complex characters with a lot of trauma informing their behaviours - profoundly human in their feelings, in this very fantastical world. The larger cast is similarly well written, from Simran's long time companion Hari, to the antagonistic assassin stalking these 'Incarnates'.
It was one of those wonderful cases where the story really didn't go the direction I thought it would and it was all the more rewarding for it!
4.5⭐️ - A land built on stories, a couple fated to kill each other over and over again - a beguiling sapphic romance!
The tale has been repeated so many times, the witch ensures the knight, they fall in love for real, then the knight kills the witch. It's immutable and integral to the Isle itself, where these reincarnations and reoccurrences control the shape of the land itself.
Simran is the latest witch, living a secretive life working as a scribe, passing powers of tales to people through magical ink. Vina is the knight who will be her destiny, sequestered in the Queen's court, the daughter of a minister, she bucks against the chains of expectations upon her. When the two meet by fate, they deny their tale for as long as they can, but the forces are too great to resist and soon they are falling for each other hard.
Determined to break this cycle and not be forced to end each other's lives, the two must do the unthinkable - re-write the tale itself to ensure a future for themselves together and to free everyone from this forced repetition of suffering.
---------------
This was an utterly beautiful story with such sumptuous world building. The exploration of the power of stories was really well done, a curious mix of anthropomorphism, apotheosis, and metamorphoses - a world in which these tales can literally shape the world, empower individuals with gifts, change them physically, and force them to fill rolls.
Simran and Vina are complex characters with a lot of trauma informing their behaviours - profoundly human in their feelings, in this very fantastical world. The larger cast is similarly well written, from Simran's long time companion Hari, to the antagonistic assassin stalking these 'Incarnates'.
It was one of those wonderful cases where the story really didn't go the direction I thought it would and it was all the more rewarding for it!