Thursday, April 21, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood

 




The Thousand Eyes is the second (and probably final) book in A.K. Larkwood's The Serpent Gates series, which began with 2020's The Unspoken Name (my review here).  I really liked The Unspoken Name, which took a very generic tagline - following an "Orc Priestess" who becomes a "Wizard's Assassin" - and did far more than that tagline suggests, as its fusion SciFi/Fantasy multiverse follows Orc girl Csorwe as she grows up, is taken from her cult by a dangerous wizard, discovers love and who she herself is, until she's ready and able to make a stand for herself and her own chosen "destiny".  The characters were a lot of fun with some really amusing as hell banter and relationships, the romance was excellent, the world was fascinating (a multiverse with cults, dead and living gods, Empires and more), and some really strong themes of love (both platonic and romantic, and almost always very very queer) and choosing one's own path instead of having it dictated for you by another.  

And The Thousand Eyes is another winner, even if it doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor.  The story follows Csorwe and her friends mostly through the eyes of her companions, Tal Charossa and Shuthmili, as they stumble upon a power that threatens to consume them, and the sacrifices they each make for the ones they care about and what that means for them and each other.  The characters remain truly fantastic, and Tal's sarcastic relationships with everyone (especially Csorwe) as he tries desperately not to care and to believe that his crush might truly love him but can't quite do it really is so so good (and Shuthmili and Csorwe's sacrifices for each other are not bad too).  The only thing lacking here from the last book is a little sense of wonder over everything since we've seen most of this world before, but even without it this is still really good and should encourage you to read the first book if you haven't already.  

Some spoilers for The Unspoken Name are inevitable below:

----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
Two years have passed since Csorwe defied Belthandros Sethennai - secret incarnation of the serpent goddess Iriskavaal - and extorted him to gain freedom for both herself and her love, Qanwa Shuthmili.  Since then, the two of them, along with Tal, have made a living for themselves traveling the worlds and discovering things to sell amongst the ruins of Iriskavaal's snake empire. 


But things aren't quite as great as Csorwe thinks, as Shuthmili's has secretly begun hearing the voice of Zinandour, her patron goddess...a being known for committing atrocities and being imprisoned in the void, and who wants Shuthmili to let her back into the world.  And so Shuthmili is desperately searching the ruins for something that will let her wield the magic without the risk of losing control to her goddess.  

And so when the three of them discover an ancient warrior of Iriskivaal, asleep for a thousand years, they follow her to a long lost place that might contain answers.  But their search leads them back into the path of Sethennai, as well as into the power of a being who will consume their very selves, and force Csorwe, and Shuthmili to figure out how much they're willing to sacrifice of themselves for the sake of those they care about....

And then there's Tal, who never wanted any responsibility, who just wanted his crush in Sethennai to love him, but who just can't fully run away, and who will finally decide to take one more act of self-harm for the sake of making things right.....
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The Unspoken Name was largely Csorwe's story, as she grew up, discovered who she could be despite her first being groomed by the cult and then sort of being groomed by Sethennai, and decided to take a stand for herself and for the girl she loved, Shuthmili, to allow the two of them to be together in defiance of their own people's rules.   And The Thousand Eyes still has a bit of Csorwe's journey in it (especially in the final act), but it is very much the story of the two people who have grown closest to her: Shuthmili, the girl she loves (and who loves her back), who she rescued from a fate of subsuming her mind into a hive mind; and Tal, the boy who is basically her brother (even if not in blood), who worked with her under Sethennai and who finally helped Csorwe break away when he realized Sethennai would not love him back.  

And their stories are tremendous as the book deals with a setting where everything has gone to hell and required each of these characters to make serious choices or face the loss of everything they care about.  For Shuthmili, what she cares about primarily is being there for Csorwe, and if that's not possible, for Csorwe herself to be alright.  And so she starts off hiding the fact that she may be losing her grip due to her goddess, and then, when Csorwe finds herself taken by an unfathomable power, she makes a bargain with that same destructive goddess to try and save Csorwe, because what good is her life if Csorwe isn't there?  Of course she doesn't quite think about how Csorwe would feel to be saved only to find Shutmili not there, because love doesn't work one way....

And then there's Tal, who in the last book was largely a complementary character, but here takes center stage for a good bit.  Tal's always been a bit of a coward and a reckless idiot - always pursuing his crush on Sethennai until it became clear that he would never love him back really emotionally, but even then keeping the flame alive in his heart, running for his life when things get dangerous, etc.  And yet Tal still has a good heart, and is pretty much predisposed to doing things that will get himself hurt (the more reckless the better) if he thinks it's right.  So when things go to absolute hell, and the best thing he could do is to run, well, he so badly wants to and does to some extent, but as things pull him back in, he can't help caring for those he encounters, leading to him doing some dangerous shit.  And when he's finally reunited with Csorwe, who is just as passionately reckless in her caring, well the two of them are just a perfect couple on a platonic essentially brother-sister level.  And so his recklessness leads him in the end to take charge of his own life against that crush and to do shit with the help of his friends to try and make things right.  

There's a lot else here besides those two characters of course - the emptiness of just living for oneself without any caring - romantic or otherwise - for others is a major theme; as is, through the new character of Cherenthisse, the longing for a home well lost no matter the cost, for both oneself and a people, and even more.  Really the only part that was a bit of a miss for me was the other major new character, an enby Orc named Tsereg, who Tal comes to care for in the book's second half, whose character is basically just something for Tal and others (who I haven't even talked about) to play off of, rather than a character in and of his own right (and his acceptance of a birth given destiny is kind of a contrast with the rest of this series that I don't think works.  

But in the end, The Thousand Eyes is another winner, and I heavily recommend this epic fantasy duology if you want really interesting well done queer fantasy, and given how much of that there is these days, that these stand out is even more impressive.  

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