Wednesday, February 22, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

 



Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC Audiobook (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via NetGalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 24, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Spice Road is the debut of Australian author Maiya Ibrahim, and the first in an young adult epic fantasy trilogy inspired by Arabian Myth (for example, Djinn) and seemingly the history of Arabic states in the Middle East that faced colonization from European/White outsiders. The novel features a City blessed with magic that is hidden from the outside world - and which teaches that the outside world does not exist - all the while facing occasional attacks from djinn and other magical monsters. But when the novel's protagonist Imani discovers that not only does the outside world exist, but that her disappeared brother went to it with the secrets of their magic, she embarks with a group of others on a mission to bring him back...only to discover the world isn't what she thought.

It's a setup that wouldn't really be unique in a Western form, and while the shift to Arabian Myth and themes of the horrors of colonization (inspired by real life) give life to this book, it really still struggles to be much more than the collection of tropes and plot points the book tries to hit. The book struggles to really setup each plot point, such that its lead character Imani seems to do things or believe things just because that's what you'd expect in a book like this, rather than because of earnest character development. And the book's use of these themes and issues is so unsubtle (particularly its literal use of the word "colonizer") so as to strain credibility. The book isn't bad, and its themes are generally fine if a bit muddled, but after a decent early start, it just never really gets to the point where it feels like something interesting on its own, instead of just another of many books using similar themes and plot points (like its incredibly perfunctory romance). As such I'm unlikely to continue this trilogy from here.

More specifics after the jump:

----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
16 year old Imani grew up as one of the latest members in one of the powerful families that has helped lead the city of Qalia, a desert city possessing the secrets of magic from the spice of its Misra Tea. Her own magic allows her to control her blade like no other, shifting its form from dagger to sword to spear at her whim, and she has become known as the Djinni Slayer for her skill in using it as part of Qalia's defensive force, the Shields. But Imani is still haunted by the disappearance and presumed death of her beloved older brother Atheer, who seemed to be going spice mad in his last few days and then was discovered to have been stealing Misra from the Qalia counsel.

But when Imani's younger sister Amira leads Imani on a wild goose chase following Atheer's horse, Imani discovers that Atheer might be alive after all...and that he may have taken the magic to help outsiders in the Kingdom of Alqibah, a land Imani never knew actually existed. Imani is desperate to bring him back but to do so requires her to make some dangerous sacrficies...for only a mysterious djinn named Qayn knows the way that Atheer traveled, and the only way to secure his help is to undergo a forbidden ritual to bind Qayn to Imani's beloved blade itself. Even worse, the Counsel only gives her permission to bring Atheer back with the aid of several other shields led by her most irritating rival, Taha, a Beastseer whose father was installed by the people on the Counsel against the Counsel's, and Imani's family's, wishes.

To get to Atheer and the outside world, Imani, Taha and the others will have to brave incredible dangers...but the worst dangers may be in Alqibah itself, where an outside force of Colonizers has invaded and oppressed the native peoples, peoples who looks like Imani and her own people, and demand absolute subservience. Seeing what she sees, Imani may soon discover what it was about these outsiders that drove her brother to his mad quest, and her kind heart may result in her getting them all killed...if Taha and Qayn don't get her killed first.....
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Spice Road follows Imani's first person perspective as the story takes her from a privileged insider in an insular society to someone who has her eyes opened to the injustice in the surrounding world that she finds herself unable to ignore. YA Readers will recognize her type here in this story in that she fits a number of archetypes: she's the member of a noble family who doesn't recognize her privilege and that other people in what she thinks is a perfect city may struggle due to inequity she doesn't even realize exists; she's the part of a special magical city that doesn't realize that outsiders exist or are no different in quality than them (aren't chosen by the "Great Spirit") and thus deserve help; she fails to recognize others who don't have these experiences and the difficult choices they face, etc. At the same time, Spice Road makes Imani so privileged in so many ways that it doesn't have time to interrogate all of these ideas: for example, the conflict between her and Taha over her belonging to a noble family while his awful father having to work his way up from nothing and Taha being shamed for it is brought up and never really explored since so much of the book takes place outside of Qalia. Similarly, the potential struggles others have in Qalia who aren't born to one of the noble families, an idea brought up by Imani's sister Amira who goes out of her way to steal things for the poorer folks she befriends, is never really explored here.

This is a common theme with Spice Road for all aspects of the plot. The plot takes Imani from Qalia to the Arabian/Middle-Eastern esque lands outside of the hidden city, where she discovers all the oppression from the colonizing White invaders (the "Harrowlanders", or who are literally called "Colonizers" in the actual dialogue of this book, which just seems a bizarre word choice that threw me out of the narrative). Her reaction to them and her need to do something are relatable and something we can empathize with, and perhaps the book draws an interesting contrast between her naivete and need to help with her rival Taha's need to stay to the mission and protect the hidden city at all costs...after all he and his family have had to work their way up from nothing just to get status in that city, so for him perhaps such compassion is impossibly dangerous. But this is a contrast that the book never really draws, and in fact the book suggests an alternate pretty weak motive for Taha's actions later. So instead we just get a generic privileged girl realizes that she needs to help outsiders and that burying their hands in the sand is impossible plotline. There's no depth to this, even if the setting being based in the historical colonization of Arabia by White Outsiders does give some originality.

The same comes from the book's attempt at romance, with Imani seeming to fall for Taha just because...well that's what a YA protagonist is supposed to do with their rival, but there's little spark between them despite supposed suppressed attraction...and the book just assumes that the relationship is deeper than it ever shows because it is supposed to be in such a book - for example, at one point Imani expresses outrage at Taha's actions because she thought he felt something for her, and well...the book has done nothing to give her a reason to really feel that betrayed in this manner. It's also true with some of the background and themes - again there's the questions of nobility and democratic rabble rousers and who really is good or bad and whether Imani's biases are deceiving her, but we rarely see any exploration of this. So Taha's father might be justified as a democratic leader or just an evil demagogue taking the place of nobility (turns out its the latter) and the djinn Qayn might not be a monster but might actually be a misunderstood noble of magical power....not that it matters one bit towards the plot. We get Imani's sister tagging along as a surprise that should surprise no other readers because of course she would come along, etc. etc.

There's nothing bad about Spice Road to be clear. The book uses a bunch of YA tropes that are typical because they work, and they form a coherent story in framework. But there's no depth or internal development between them, and too often things happen seemingly because well, that's what is supposed to happen in a YA Fantasy book of this type, rather than due to natural development, and it just made it hard to care about anything. I got through the first half of this book really quickly, but the final third I found a slog due to my lack of caring, and while newer YA readers might not have the same feeling, older ones will find too much of this old hat here. The result is a book I don't care enough to recommend too highly and will not be continuing on in the series.

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