Heliotrope

I am continuously being blown away by the quality of writing in the SPFBO 9 competition and Heliotrope is another book that knocks it out the park. This is a wonderfully self contained, slowburn epic fantasy.

We follow the story of Teleo, a retired soldier who has become a stoneworker making elegant mosaics, and the people he gathers around him as he is drawn into a larger conflict going on in the world around him. This is a book that takes time to explore the craftsmanship and development of all its characters, the pace gradually ramping up through the story to its explosive ending. There is a strong sense of found family, with the people that Teleo gathers around him acting to help soothe the previous loss of his own family.

The magic system here is an interesting one, using two different schools - mages and stone guardians. The world is one where magic has largely been forgotten and has been actively repressed by those in power. There is a strong fear from the general public of magic. The rediscovery of that magic is one of the central themes (the name of the book, Heliotrope, is referring to a mages circle in this story).

Whilst there are still threads that can be expanded on the book is also very self contained. There is a complete story arc here. It is epic fantasy so the book is quite chonky, coming in over 700 pages long. For me, the time it takes to build the world is well spent. The prose is very nicely put together and the whole story works. It is slow at the start, but that continuous and inexorable build up of pace ends up driving the story and it would not have worked as well if it had a pacier start!

This is an excellent example of Epic Fantasy and definitely one to keep an eye on!