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Mar. 9th, 2020 08:02 pmA.K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name definitely starts from a point of "what if Tenar in Tombs of Atuan, but that's just chapter one and everything keeps on happening from there," with the fun extra twist of "and what if also the wizard who talks her into leaving is not Ged but, unfortunately, the smoother and more terrible version of Eponymous Clent" and also "and what if she was a lesbian." As you might guess, I enjoyed it extremely!
OK, now to describe the plot in a way that is not actually completely dependent on a knowledge of other books: Csorwe is destined to be sacrificed at fourteen to a creepy death god. She's perfectly braced for this until the wizard Belthandros Sethannai turns up and, for reasons of his own, convinces her to walk away from the sacrificial precipice and instead become his personal-assistant-slash-bodyguard.
The rest of the book functions as Csorwe's coming-of-age story over the course of the next decade, as her personal fealty to Belthandros gets increasingly tested by morally complicated situations, the lost history of various dying worlds, and Belthandros' deeply mediocre parenting. The cast of characters also includes:
- Orenna, the former librarian at Csorwe's cult; Belthandros' possibly-ex and definitely-rival in various magical quests
- Talasseres Charassos, Csorwe's very own personal rival; a consistently inconvenient youth with bad decision-making skills, a terrible personality, and truly awful taste in men
- Shuthmili, a (hot) young magical adept destined for a highly limited future in her country's civil service so that she does not become rapidly corrupted and burned out by the power of her goddess, a situation about which Csorwe might have some Feelings
- the Unspoken Name, Csorwe's god, who has, unfortunately, not forgotten her
- at least one super-intelligent hungry giant snake ( minor spoilers )
I honestly really enjoyed how personal the book felt -- various dramatic magical and divine events are occurring throughout the book and sometimes Csorwe is involved in them, but the point of the story is not whether or not the world-shaking things do or don't happen, but what choices Csorwe is going to make around them. It's a very character-driven fantasy, I guess is what I'm trying to say which is a thing I think one sees more in smaller books than this, but I was very happy to follow Csorwe through 450-odd pages of her personal growth!
OK, now to describe the plot in a way that is not actually completely dependent on a knowledge of other books: Csorwe is destined to be sacrificed at fourteen to a creepy death god. She's perfectly braced for this until the wizard Belthandros Sethannai turns up and, for reasons of his own, convinces her to walk away from the sacrificial precipice and instead become his personal-assistant-slash-bodyguard.
The rest of the book functions as Csorwe's coming-of-age story over the course of the next decade, as her personal fealty to Belthandros gets increasingly tested by morally complicated situations, the lost history of various dying worlds, and Belthandros' deeply mediocre parenting. The cast of characters also includes:
- Orenna, the former librarian at Csorwe's cult; Belthandros' possibly-ex and definitely-rival in various magical quests
- Talasseres Charassos, Csorwe's very own personal rival; a consistently inconvenient youth with bad decision-making skills, a terrible personality, and truly awful taste in men
- Shuthmili, a (hot) young magical adept destined for a highly limited future in her country's civil service so that she does not become rapidly corrupted and burned out by the power of her goddess, a situation about which Csorwe might have some Feelings
- the Unspoken Name, Csorwe's god, who has, unfortunately, not forgotten her
- at least one super-intelligent hungry giant snake ( minor spoilers )
I honestly really enjoyed how personal the book felt -- various dramatic magical and divine events are occurring throughout the book and sometimes Csorwe is involved in them, but the point of the story is not whether or not the world-shaking things do or don't happen, but what choices Csorwe is going to make around them. It's a very character-driven fantasy, I guess is what I'm trying to say which is a thing I think one sees more in smaller books than this, but I was very happy to follow Csorwe through 450-odd pages of her personal growth!
