Endless betrayal. [The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood]
I have so many things to say about this book and more than likely, because of the urgency of each, I will forget several of them. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The first part of the book, and there are five, was really smoothly told. We saw the protagonist, Csorwe, in her youth. We saw her life-changing decision and were strapping in the ride. Even if her motivations were trash, even if the obvious parallel of changing one emotional prison for another were bright as day from the onset, we were invested. The pacing was smooth and character development was strong. But as the first part ended, so did all that greatness.What followed for the rest of the book was ludicrous pacing, increasingly dull character motivations, and endless betrayals of those motivations as relationships were formed for the sake of plot.
The last book that similarly betrayed the lure that had caught me was Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches. Proposing a fantastical world of supernatural beings and intricacies of storyweaving, it all got reduced to a romance-driven action plot. We are presented with the actually of multiple divinities and their cemented existence. Csorwe abandoned her duties as priestess, her religion, her posting, primarily because she didn't want to die. It only makes sense. But I don't understand how, after feeling the divinity work through you, knowing it is real, how a character could supposedly abandon their connection to it like that, all fast and loose.
Never is it the case of the priestly characters abandoning their post because of a doubting of connection to the divine, but for entirely selfish reasons. Then the rest of the book is a complete dismissal of that faith that had so defined her. Towards the end there's some retconning if you will, where Csorwe admits she wasn't even sure of what was expected to happen. And throughout the book she prays to the deity she claims no longer to serve in her times of exceeding need. But I guess that's how a lot of people deal with their faith or would-be lack of it? Maybe?
That's not even the major point that bothered. Knowing how easily the character jumped from the service of her deity into the service of some stranger she hardly knew, and then lent that stranger her near unyielding support and fealty - and yes, I get that's a point also being made - was incredibly annoying. As I said, that parallel was obvious from too early on in the book. Over 400 pages long, the early allusions to that parallel took all tension out from the relationship between the two characters.
And here's what hurts the most, the romance plotline. In a world of orcs, and essentially elves, and how many other humanoid creatures, in this world where the mechanisms of traveling alone held so much potential as a point of the plot, the story was driven by a forced romance. I will say that without making a fuss about it, many characters can be perceived (given that we don't have explicitly human characters) as being LGBTQIA+ representative. So kudos for that. But the instalust at first sight that turns to love, the a girl kissed me when I was younger and therefore my character line is romantically set without any further exploration," the I'll burn the world down for the person I've known for five minutes," and the weirdly toxic relationship between the mentor character and his other mentee - all of these tropes each and collectively serve as examples of how trash the romances were. And if the romances are trash then the story shouldn't be driven by it.
If I had read just the first part I might have given this book 4 or 5 stars. But no, I read the whole thing. At some point I thought I'd give this 4 stars even though at that point it was realistically a 3.5 star read for me. Towards the end I thought we'd see the two older, wiser female characters, both who have agency and yet are made out to be at most schemers, I thought we'd see both of them win in their schemes, if not at least one of them. At the end a promise was made that I thought we'd see enforced, but it wasn't.
What happened here was a great pace got rushed and the fantastical world that was built was reduced to tropes. I generally would like to see what happens in subsequent stories as this does seem to be the first book in a seemingly planned series, The Serpent Gates, but I don't know that I'd recommend it. What's funny is that I'd been eager to read and see what happens next each time I'd paused and resumed my reading. On the one hand there are some who would really enjoy the same-sex relationships in the book. Besides that I don't think there's much that I wasn't eventually disappointed with. Going with my gut I'm giving this 2 stars.
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| This is a really eye-catching cover. |
A. K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name is a stunning debut fantasy about an orc priestess turned wizard's assassin. What if you knew how and when you will die? Csorwe does—she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power. But Csorwe will soon learn—gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.Generally speaking I don't really re-read descriptions once I've set upon reading a book. If I have a general sense of book description, even just a general sense of genre, I'll just go with the flow. At some point, for whatever reason or reasons, the book I chose to read appealed to me so it must have seemed like it would be a sure hit. So when got into my read of A.K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name and I came upon the subtle indicators that we were not dealing with human characters (a fact now I see is, again, plainly obvious from the description), I was really impressed with the subtleties of the world-build. Not only were we seeing an array of humanoid creatures and their respective civilizations, but some sort of fantastical, possibly interstellar or interdimensional transportation system was also a part of the universe A.K. Larkwood was building.
The first part of the book, and there are five, was really smoothly told. We saw the protagonist, Csorwe, in her youth. We saw her life-changing decision and were strapping in the ride. Even if her motivations were trash, even if the obvious parallel of changing one emotional prison for another were bright as day from the onset, we were invested. The pacing was smooth and character development was strong. But as the first part ended, so did all that greatness.What followed for the rest of the book was ludicrous pacing, increasingly dull character motivations, and endless betrayals of those motivations as relationships were formed for the sake of plot.
The last book that similarly betrayed the lure that had caught me was Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches. Proposing a fantastical world of supernatural beings and intricacies of storyweaving, it all got reduced to a romance-driven action plot. We are presented with the actually of multiple divinities and their cemented existence. Csorwe abandoned her duties as priestess, her religion, her posting, primarily because she didn't want to die. It only makes sense. But I don't understand how, after feeling the divinity work through you, knowing it is real, how a character could supposedly abandon their connection to it like that, all fast and loose.
Never is it the case of the priestly characters abandoning their post because of a doubting of connection to the divine, but for entirely selfish reasons. Then the rest of the book is a complete dismissal of that faith that had so defined her. Towards the end there's some retconning if you will, where Csorwe admits she wasn't even sure of what was expected to happen. And throughout the book she prays to the deity she claims no longer to serve in her times of exceeding need. But I guess that's how a lot of people deal with their faith or would-be lack of it? Maybe?
That's not even the major point that bothered. Knowing how easily the character jumped from the service of her deity into the service of some stranger she hardly knew, and then lent that stranger her near unyielding support and fealty - and yes, I get that's a point also being made - was incredibly annoying. As I said, that parallel was obvious from too early on in the book. Over 400 pages long, the early allusions to that parallel took all tension out from the relationship between the two characters.
And here's what hurts the most, the romance plotline. In a world of orcs, and essentially elves, and how many other humanoid creatures, in this world where the mechanisms of traveling alone held so much potential as a point of the plot, the story was driven by a forced romance. I will say that without making a fuss about it, many characters can be perceived (given that we don't have explicitly human characters) as being LGBTQIA+ representative. So kudos for that. But the instalust at first sight that turns to love, the a girl kissed me when I was younger and therefore my character line is romantically set without any further exploration," the I'll burn the world down for the person I've known for five minutes," and the weirdly toxic relationship between the mentor character and his other mentee - all of these tropes each and collectively serve as examples of how trash the romances were. And if the romances are trash then the story shouldn't be driven by it.
If I had read just the first part I might have given this book 4 or 5 stars. But no, I read the whole thing. At some point I thought I'd give this 4 stars even though at that point it was realistically a 3.5 star read for me. Towards the end I thought we'd see the two older, wiser female characters, both who have agency and yet are made out to be at most schemers, I thought we'd see both of them win in their schemes, if not at least one of them. At the end a promise was made that I thought we'd see enforced, but it wasn't.
What happened here was a great pace got rushed and the fantastical world that was built was reduced to tropes. I generally would like to see what happens in subsequent stories as this does seem to be the first book in a seemingly planned series, The Serpent Gates, but I don't know that I'd recommend it. What's funny is that I'd been eager to read and see what happens next each time I'd paused and resumed my reading. On the one hand there are some who would really enjoy the same-sex relationships in the book. Besides that I don't think there's much that I wasn't eventually disappointed with. Going with my gut I'm giving this 2 stars.
The Unspoken Name was published earlier this month and is currently available for purchase.
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