Will this slowly become a blog of reviews on magically themed books? Yeahhhh, maybe. I have a type, and if you haven't noticed by now you've not been paying attention! This one is from a cluster of recommendations I got earlier in the year and am starting to get to now. I've been loading things up for conveniences sake on my Kindle, I mean, travel ease is the main reason but also because I don't always want to expand my library if I'm not going to read the books again. Having an e-reader certainly makes it easier to avoid wasting money and time on something I'll have no use for after reading and that leaves me with the option to buy a physical copy of it should it prove to be something I'd pick up again or lend out to friends. Imagine if you will, the elements that make up the aesthetic of this novel... think magical geisha? Who's that character from Final Fantasy...? Lulu. A mage character who dresses in a vaguely geisha-centric style, various hair pins and belts, big ole sleeves and the like. The brand of magic in this medieval age is mostly elemental, though non-specific - most people gifted with magic tend to be able to utilise the various elements to their advantage in a variety of ways. The most talented and powerful have their skills developed by Asha houses. Like the traditional geisha culture, young apprentices are taken and trained in magic and music, deportment and hosting, their particular skills setting them on loftier work paths. There does however, exist another kind of asha, a way cooler kind. *rubbing my hands together with glee* NECROMANCERS YOU GUYS. Dark Asha are known by a particular slur - bone witches. Asha in this universe seem to be mostly women, though many magically gifted have varying degrees of ability and this does include men. Some are healers, some infuse magic into clothing and accessories that anyone can buy, some fight magical creatures who come back from the dead again and again. Dark asha are in a unique position to get banish these beasties as they are able to command the dead. Daeva are already known in our own Earthly mythologies as traditionally supernatural entities with rather disagreeable characteristics. Daeva rise again and again and must be harvested of their bezoars, (masses that accumulate in the digestive tract made from indigestible materials), the source of the animals magic and strength. These can be used for magical purposes by asha. Daeva are dangerous to the general population and are responsible for a lot of death and destruction. Once harvested of their bezoars they are put to rest, but different daeva only stay down for a certain amount of time, thus needing to be harvested again. Only dark asha can perform these tasks, so although they are generally shunned and mistrusted because of the confusing mystery and perceived evilness of their talents, they are tolerated for the safety of the population, barely. Asha and the magically gifted are not rare, but Dark asha are almost impossible to find. There are maybe five in the known world and at the beginning of the book we come across a village girl with nothing magical to her name who discovers that her brother has fallen in his duties within the army. His body is returned to the family and during the funeral Tea freaks out and accidentally raises him from the dead. Death magic comes to her as easily as breathing, but because she has no idea what's happening, she lets the magic burn through her and ends up practically comatose. The thing about magic is that to other users, it's simple to sense unless heavily and purposefully warded so within days another bone witch strides into town to take over. She nurses Tea back to relative health and takes her as a prospective apprentice because to leave her unchecked could mean raising an entire grave yard when she becomes upset... For Tea, there is no other option but to learn how to control it and in using this power she discovers it feels as good you might imagine ecstasy would, powerful and utterly breathtaking. Chupeco writes this in a time-jump, back and forth format. We open up on future flashes, but most of the story takes place in Tea's past. Running these two story paths is proving tantalising and the constant allusions to new possibilities and old reasoning keeps the reader forging on to figure out how she has become the strange young woman of the future, or rather, the present.. At the end of the first book we have only the leg work laid for the blossoming story, we understand Tea's motivations and foster an interest in just how dangerously she is going to achieve her goals... I'm a bit annoyed that there's only one book out and that the next won't be available until next year some time. Surely this is one of the great banes of book worms and serial readers alike. UGH. GIVE ME MORE BONE WITCHES. They're a dying breed.
I loved this. It was rich in imagery, had new and old concepts twisted in imaginative ways, a compelling story and very diverse characters. Brilliant. 8 out of 10. It still lacks the horrifying grittiness I like in a fantasy or medieval story, but still very good nonetheless.
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