The bottom line - strong, well written fantasy. Author Emily Gee’s debut novel tells the story of Melke, a woman able to become invisible at will. This gift runs in her family, and when her brother, Hantje is caught by the magical salamanders whilst using his power to steal from them, Melke has no choice but to do bargain for her brother’s life. The bargain involves stealing a necklace from a local farm, owned by the once proud sal Vere family.
The story is mainly told from the viewpoints of Melke and Bastian, and although they come off as a little two dimensional at first, Gee builds them up to become interesting characters who you can actually cheer for. The supporting cast consists of Melke’s brother Hantje, Lianna, Bastian’s sister, and Endal, Bastian’s hound, as well as a host of minor characters. As a sidenote, Bastian’s magical gift is the ability to talk to dogs, and the conversations between him and Endal are actually quite funny. Endal quickly became my favourite character in the book.
You won’t find sprawling epic fantasy here with character numbers running into the hundreds - this is a well written, self contained tale.
-- The Darkness that Comes After
Pleasingly standalone, gorgeously indulgent and hopelessly romantic.
-- SFX
An inventive... character-driven fantasy... One particular scene features an encounter with the psaaron, a horrifying creature that makes the dragons of most fantasy fiction seem tame by comparison... Intelligent plotting delivers the goods for fantasy fans.
-- Kirkus Reviews
Asked to define good fantasy fiction, most people will imagine tales of kings and princes and the subtle affairs of wizards in lofty towers, all embellished with rich culture, language and myth that's frequently established by way of lengthy preliminaries to the main tale. Emily Gee's excellent debut novel is proof that turning this template on its head can be superbly effective.
-- SFRevu
