The story is equally divided between two points of view: Lynesse Fourth Daughter is the wayward scion of the realm of Lannesite, more interested in the lore and legends of her people than in the practical duties of a queen’s daughter, and so she’s always getting into trouble and harshly reprimanded by her mother and elder sisters. But, all in all, this is more a matter of taste and appropriate warnings, and does not detract from the book much.This Adrian Tchaikovsky novella packs several themes in a successful mix between science fiction and fantasy that I found delightfully entertaining. I’m sensitive to it in the first place, it was on the worse end, and took me completely by surprise. The one thing I wasn’t a fan of was the body horror. The characters…aside from Nyr’s struggles with chronic depression (who of us wouldn’t like DCS?), there wasn’t much to them, but at this short of a length, with this good of a concept, it didn’t bother me at all. It was a thoughtful little touch and solved a few potential plot issues nicely. I especially liked the way Tchaikovsky plays with language and language evolution, how the word that, for example, means “science” to Nyr (and its synonyms) are “magic” for Lynesse. Novellas are, in my experience, the hardest length to get the balance right, but Tchaikovsky did it.īesides, I like stories that play with multi-POV ( cough), so the whole “sci-fi from one POV but fantasy from another” gimmick was exactly up my alley.
There’s just enough story and worldbuilding so it doesn’t feel crammed in or stretched out in any way.
The two POVs intertwine and contrast each other perfectly, and there is nothing extraneous, but at the same time, it avoids the common pitfalls of most novellas. Since this is my most common complaint lately, the plot structure was masterful. Except the wizard, Nyr, isn’t a wizard at all, but an anthropologist, the last of a technologically advanced civilisation. When a strange monster threatens the land, and nobody seems to want to do anything to help, she goes out to seek the wizard who made a promise to her grandmother. Lynesse is the fourth daughter of the queen. And after a long string of sub-par reads, a book that actually lived up to its promise was more than welcome. I knew I needed this pretty much as soon as I heard what was it about, doubly so when I saw the cover.
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