At the Table of Wolves
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Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets X-Men in a classic British espionage story. A young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plat and stop an invasion of England. In 1936, there are paranormal abilities that have slowly seeped into the world, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. The research to weaponize these abilities in England has lagged behind Germany, but now it's underway at an ultra-secret site called Monkton Hall. Kim Tavistock, a woman with the talent of the spill--drawing out truths that people most wish to hide--is among the test subjects at the facility. When she wins the confidence of caseworker Owen Cherwell, she is recruited to a mission to expose the head of Monkton Hall--who is believed to be a German spy. As she infiltrates the upper-crust circles of some of England's fascist sympathizers, she encounters dangerous opponents, including the charismatic Nazi officer Erich von Ritter, and discovers a plan to invade England. No one believes an invasion of the island nation is possible, not Whitehall, not even England's Secret Intelligence Service. Unfortunately, they are wrong, and only one woman, without connections or training, wielding her talent of the spill and her gift for espionage, can stop it"--
"In 1936, paranormal abilities of the bloom have broken through in the world as a slow, subconscious tide, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. While Germany has worked for over a decade to weaponize these abilities, in England, research lags behind. It's now underway at an ultra-secret site, Monkton Hall. Among the test subjects is Kim Tavistock, a woman with the Talent of the spill--drawing out truths that people most wish to hide. When she wins the confidence of caseworker Owen Cherwell, he recruits her into an effort to expose the head of Monkton Hall as a German spy. Kim infiltrates the upper-crust circles of some of the country's fascist sympathizers. There she encounters dangerous opponents, including a charismatic Nazi officer in the intelligence arm of the SS, Erich von Ritter. Playing a perilous game of cat and mouse with him, she uncovers a Nazi plan that she is convinced involves an invasion of England. Eluding von Ritter, traitorous English aristocrats, and at times her fascist-leaning father, Kim hunts a deeply undercover individual with a mysterious power over cold and ice. No one believes an invasion of the island nation is possible, not Whitehall, not even England's Secret Intelligence Service. Unfortunately they are wrong, and only one woman, without connections or training, wielding her Talent of the spill and her gift for espionage, can stop it"--
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The worldbuilding and the characterisation also have their own issues. The concept behind the emergence of Talents, in particular, gives me pause. The idea is that the bloom occurred because World War I was so violent and traumatic that it basically forced an emergence of Talents in an entire generation of people. The logic here is that if an event is sufficiently violent, tragic, and traumatic enough, it can cause Talents to come out in people who were involved in it. Which now raises an interesting question: why are Talents only discussed after World War I? If all that is needed is a violent, traumatic event, then surely many people ought to have Talents already. Should not colonised countries like the Central American countries, India, and many others across the world be teeming with Talented people, given how violent colonisation efforts were in those places? What about the American Civil War? Surely that was tragic and violent enough to cause the necessary trauma needed for the emergence of Talents, so why doesn???t Kim, who lived in the United States for a while, make mention of any Talented people there? This strikes me as a rather large hole in the worldbuilding, one that needs to be filled in as quickly as possible ??? preferably in the next book of the series.
Unfortunately, the above situation means that the novel is not able to explore themes like colonialism and racism. While tackling Nazism is all well and good, especially in today???s cultural and political climate, the world could have been given so much more depth ??? and a much stronger thematic scaffolding ??? if the worldbuilding had been more carefully constructed.
Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-Gh
Series
2 primary booksDark Talents is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by Kay Kenyon.
