Blurb

Kavi is a Taemu. Her people, once feared berserkers and the spearhead of a continent-spanning invasion, are the dregs of Raayan society. Their spirits crushed. Their swords broken. Their history erased.

But Kavi has a dream and a plan. She will do whatever it takes to earn a place at the secretive mage academy, face the Jinn within its walls, and gain the power to rise above her station and drag her people out of the darkness.

Except power and knowledge come at a cost, and the world no longer needs a Taemu who can fight. So they will break her. Beat her down to her knees. And make her bleed.

But if blood is what they want, Kavi will give them blood. She will give them violence. She will show them a berserker’s fury.

And she will make them remember her name.

Review

This is a debut dark fantasy novel that pulls no punches. The world building is assured and confident, the characters full and vibrant and the story deep and intriguing. It is also gruesome in parts.

There is a lot of back story, both for the main characters and the politics of the world, but this is divulged by different characters at various points in the story, so no long info dumps.

Kavi is an orphan, a Taemu (the lowest of the low in this world’s caste system) and has no one. She doesn’t even trust her own memory about where she comes from and what happened to her family. A chance encounter when she helps someone unexpectedly opens up her world in a way she could not have hoped for, despite it being her goal.

Whilst feeling Kavi’s disappointment, I was pleased that the “expected” ending to the first set of tests in her attempt to become a Mage did not happen and this story took Kavi in a less anticipated direction towards her ultimate goal.

On the way, Kavi meets a wide variety of people who bring their own baggage and history, linked in both good and bad ways to Kavi’s. There are things she will find out that will not make sense to her and will shake her beliefs and what she thought she knew.

Kavi is a loner, an underdog and an outcast who has been treated abominably by society but she is determined in her search for her family. The learned helplessness and capitulation that the Taemu employ to survive is something else she needs to get her head around if she is to make any progress towards becoming a Mage, so her struggle is mental and physical. Years of being kind and not hurting anyone, the fear that if she does she will let out the inner berserker of her ancestors and not get able to control it is to the forefront of her mind and the biggest hurdle to her success.

Warning: The final third of the story is extremely violent and brutal. There are gladiator style confrontations, one on one combats, battles and a gruesome torture. If you liked Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, then you will like this. I am now waiting excitedly for the next part of Kavi’s story.

Thanks to the publishers, Gollancz, and @The_WriteReads for the ARC for me to read and review.

About the Author

Aman was born in Mysore, India. He grew up in Vizag, studied in Bangalore, lived in Bangkok,  completed a PhD in experimental psychology at the University of Canterbury, and has settled (for now) in Melbourne, Australia. His writing draws from modern Indian history and is influenced by writers and artists like David Gemmell, Brandon Sanderson, Takehiko Inoue, and Kentaro Miura.