Asexual robot romance? [This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria]

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

Emily Victoria's This Golden Flame is an interesting story. Let's start with that. We've got automatons, we've got ancient Greek clothing, architecture, social structure. Slavery, warring nations, and a diverse cast of characters. Mostly that physical diversity is in the background, but still. And then we've also got pirates? And when I say pirates, I'm saying (imagining, thinking) swashbuckling pirates. For some reason.

Siblings with no other family, separated at a young age, follow separate paths, only to find themselves brought back together by the plot of the novel. It's a tried and true plotline. They're both different, they're grown in their own ways and have their respective found families. We have a magical, magic-adjacent theme. I really can't say this story is new.

What I did appreciate however was the asexual representation. At least that's what I understood it to be. Karis, the main character, laments how she wishes she could be "normal," like those around her, in experiencing sexual attraction. Or maybe even romantic attraction. And I say asexual representation because she seemed to be having romantic feelings for Alix, an automaton and her story counterpart. Alix, again, an automaton, while technically not a robot still gives much the same inanimate robot vibes, questions his identity and how valid it is. Alix feels intense kinship for Karis and Karis, not only the same, but protective closeness as well. So I question if Karis was meant to come off as both asexual and aromantic, but it still was an interesting pairing.

So overall, did I like the story? It wasn't offensive and I wasn't turned off by any plot points, so it was a fine story. But was I excited? I mean, sure. Just only for Dane and Zara. Otherwise the plot was formulaic. We had this ongoing tease about these secrets of an ancient civilization that went nowhere. The villain felt flat, as did the histories of motivating struggle. Karis' brother, Matthias, also had a strong plot point about his sexuality. So, yes, a plus for the additional LGBTQIA representation, but boo because it took away from the siblings reconnecting storyline. He was her motivation and essentially became an afterthought. But still, the asexual/aromantic coming-of-age story plus the found family trope was a solid entry in the YA genre. So 3 stars from me.

This Golden Flame (ISBN:9781335080271) was published February 2021.