Review: The Salt King, by Natasha Pulley

 

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, isolated salt town in England. At 16, after a mining disaster killed his family, he fled. When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent to investigate. When he arrives, the town’s doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures—and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.”
As Avelyn and Jericho team up to protect the Hreodwater from salt light, strange happenings occur at mines around the world. At an archaeological dig on the Dead Sea, electrical devices froth salt, while at a huge salt works in Poland, communication is lost, and rumors circulate of total annihilation. As salt light devastates cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what to believe—and whether his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

​“Seeing is believing and believing is true.”

Natasha Pulley's The Salt King is so different from the author's usual formula, and yet it feels undeniably hers in the use of the language and clever turns of phrase, in the quirky worldbuilding, and in the profound reflections on language, memory, myth, and organized religion. This crowded contemporary apocalyptic/disaster novel starts out quiet and subdued, with a few quasi-horror tropes, and slowly grows in scope as the focus sometimes shifts from the main narrative to show what's happening in the rest of the world, giving it almost the taste of an echological/theological thriller.

At its heart, it's of course the quiet story of longing between an affection-starved priest dealing with a crisis of faith and, in real Pulley fashion, a man that's not what it seems. The world-within-a-world of the Hreod, with their folklore and their customs, their matriarchy and their hauntings, feels very lived in and fascinating, and spotting the occasional nod to previous books is always fun.

The pacing stumbles a bit at the end, with a non-resolution and a maddening time-jump, but the author makes it work. It's also worth noting that Pulley seems to have found a new balance with her female characters, having here a varied array of women not tortured by the narrative.

The Salt King is a treat.

✨ 4.5 stars

 

Review: A Snake Among Swans, by Hannah Kaner

 

Tilde has always heard the whispers of the kithwood, the voices of her ancestors speaking through the mysterious forest of her homeland. But now both the kithwood and her kingdom are in danger. For Tilde is the only surviving heir of a conquered land. To unite the people and finally stop the bloodshed, she marries the aging warlord, King Liran. Her duty is to bind their nations and bear him a son.
But the swan king’s court is dangerous. Tilde is a threat to the claim of Liran’s older sons, who will do whatever it takes to remove her, to the princess Elise who has only ever known loyalty to her family, and to the priests who own them all. Yet none of them know that Tilde is a snake in their midst, with allies on her side and dark, forbidden power of her own. She wants her kingdom back, and she will sacrifice everything to claim it. For the queen to rise, the swans must fall.

​“I was past longing for death. I had chosen power. I was no martyr.”

Hannah Kaner's A Snake Among Swans is a powerful sapphic retelling of the fairytale The Wild Swans, filled with female rage and with reflections on the steep cost of survival and on the danger of organized religion. Brimming with intrigue and ferocious power struggles, this brutal tale doesn't shy away from many betrayals and from the triggering aspects one might expect from the story of a woman whose only expected job is to make a heir.

Tilde is a fantastic protagonist, hellbent on revenge for her conquered kingdom, a grey character in all her choices. The other main character,  Elise, is traumatized by her father's rule and her brothers' whims, who are left mostly unchecked as they vie for power of their own. Their slow dance as they begin to gravitate towards each other feels incredibly believable, and so does the inevitable conclusion of this first installment of what promises to be a great trilogy.

The vast constellation of characters surrounding the two protagonists is varied and well-developed; no one feels like a stand-in just to move the plot along, but each of them has their own reasons to act as they do, be it mosnstrous or not. Out of all the characters, Tilde's warrior handmaiden shines with her loyalty, while Elise's father is a powerful antagonist, utterly unpredictable.

The worldbuilding feels very authentic, aided by the lyrical prose. Tilde's tribe and powers are seemingly inspired by the druids, and the everpresent kithwood is both majestic and terrifying in its allure, a sort of protagonist in its own right. The book takes its time, but the slow pacing allows to really delve into the story.

A Snake Among Swans is an empowering tale.

✨ 5 stars

 

Review: The Chosen, by Ricardo Pinto

 

Young Carnelian has spent his entire life alone with his father, who years ago rejected the savage cruelty of the Masters of Osrakum and was sent into exile. But now a ship has come flying through the winter gales to shatter his quiet world. Three Masters disembark, and as they remove their masks of gold, Carnelian is awed by the light that seems to radiate from their skin. In formal conclave they beg Carnelian's father to return with them to Osrakum to oversee the election of a new God Emperor.
And so Carnelian begins to fulfill his destiny. Along his perilous journey to the Osrakum, he is forced to learn bitter lessons in bloodshed, power, intrigue, love, and treachery--and sets in motion the concluding events in a story four thousand years old.

​“Your bones are my bones.”

Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen is an intense exploration of imperialism and eugenics, set in an Aztec-inspired world. The main character is a young achillean man who has been living outside of the empire due to his father's self-imposed exile. When circumstances call the patriarch back to the capital, a long journey of loss of innocence begins to take place, and the protagonist has to reckon with the cruelty of the ruling class - whom he belongs to - who call all others barbarians and beneath them, treating servants as less than nothing and raping and killing them as punishment for inane transgressions.

Published at the end of the Millennium, this novel is a product of its time, but it's also surprisingly modern. It's a dark reflection on the absolute power and corruption of a caste system that employs every possible means so that the status quo is not threatened. Most of the book is almost a travelogue of horrors, until the capital is reached and a soft romance seems to bloom with another boy, creating also the exploration of the delicate balance of power in a relationship. The two young men's sexual awakening is handled with grace, with no uncomfortable focus due to their youth. The plot is pretty minimal, but the finale cleverly sets up the rest of the trilogy.

The prose is quite simple, but the rich worldbuilding makes up for it. This is a complex, dark world, beautiful and terrible.

The Chosen is an old gem.

✨ 4 stars