A few years ago several Cannonballers were reading Intisar Khanani’s self published YA fantasy books. Khanani writes the kind of book that grabs you and doesn’t let go featuring teen girls who are chronically underestimated. Khanani is rereleasing her Sunbolt Chronicles, and I am brushing off my YA reading hat. I haven’t read YA since the pandemic started, and that’s no slight to the genre, it’s just where my head has been. Shadow Thief and Sunbolt are a great re-entry point.
Hitomi is an immigrant in a nation that doesn’t make room for immigrants, an orphan in a culture where family is everything, and a secret magic user. She would rather not steal, but she will to feed herself when she can’t get enough work to buy food for the day. She is canny but not infallible. Karolene is a nation of islands ruled by a Sultan, but really ruled by the Arch Mage Blackflame. Hitomi is a part of a secret resistance network, the Shadow League. Blackflame is the series villain, though we don’t spend a lot of time with him. We don’t need to, because we see the evidence of his evil, the disappearances, the mercenaries who destroy without accountability, and the fear. Karolene is drenched in fear.
Shadow Thief is a short novella covering how Hitomi comes to be involved with the Shadow League. Hitomi has been in her own for a while and every day is a struggle to earn enough to feed herself and pay for a safe place to sleep for the night. The head of the Shadow League has been kind to her, but doesn’t want her involved. She involves herself anyway when she learns that he has been arrested by the Sultan. Her familiarity with the Sultan’s prison grants her access to the rescue planning. She is familiar with the prison because the Sultan helps orphans by putting them in jail for a week to scare them out of taking up a life of crime. Things go badly, but Hitomi demonstrates her value, and her desire to be involved.
Sunbolt starts with a fortune teller telling Hitomi to run, and then it doesn’t let up. It’s a short and quick read, and so engaging. The Shadow League is trying to rescue a family targeted by the Arch Mage when they are betrayed. It’s so hard to talk about Sunbolt without getting into spoilers. Hitomi is resourceful and principled. The stakes are high and the world is not safe. Even so, I think it would be a great read for teens.
If you like fantasy and strong female protagonists, you should be reading Intisar Khanani. She writes beautifully. She builds interesting and diverse worlds. Her protagonists are wonderful, believable girls.
CW: state sponsored violence, violence, threats of violence, children in danger, allusions to rape, physical evidence of torture, death on page and in past, injury to animal, betrayal, death of parent from illness in past. Memory loss.
I received Shadow Thief as an advance reader copy from the author, and Sunbolt from NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.