This wasn’t quite the novel I was expecting – there isn’t anything inaccurate about the novel’s description but I was expecting a fun, fast paced fantasy/adventure novel and instead got more of dense road trip novel that was so slow paced it would almost be cozy if not for the dark subject matter.
Elen is a courier in a sleepy town at the edge of the empire. Elen and her recently deceased sister Aoving settled there over a decade ago, along with Aoving’s son Kem, after escaping from an abusive situation. The Lotus Empire is a rigid society, defined by class and social structure. People are expected to declare for their careers at 17, a deadline fast approaching for Kem, a curious and capable teen, with only limited options due to his family standing.
Additionally, this land is dangerous. Years and years ago, nature turned on people, leading to the Pall overtaking large parts of the landscape, and the Spores – infections that sucks out life and turn animals and humans into monstrous figures. An infection could break out at any time. Part of a courier’s job is to watch for new Spore outbreaks and serve as an early warning sign – which is why couriers will travel the same path for years and years to increase their familiarity with their areas. Of course, Elen has a secret power that helps defend her against Spores and makes her more aware of them but this society has a complicated history with magic and sorcery so this power could easily see her executed if others became aware of it.
As the novel begins, a few different events come together to trigger the story. While completing her most recent route with Kem, they visited an ancient site, the Spires, and Elen has a conversation with a haunt. An ancient guardian, forgotten by time, something is stirring and the haunt needs to possess someone to travel and investigate. Unfortunately no one living seems to remember this pact, the existence of the guardians or their purpose. Part of Elen’s past catches up with her, causing friction in her relationship with Kem while also putting her life at risk. At the same time, a Prince of the Third Court travels through the village on a mission to a northern outpost, but the road he needs has been blocked for two years. Volunteering to serve as his guide through an undocumented path is the only way Elen sees to buy herself time.
Of course the back-way takes them past the Spires, and no one can tell a prince no, so he ends up possessed – after all both he and the haunt are heading north so why not hitch a ride?
Over the course of the novel, Elen gets a crash course on court politics and the challenges of the current succession as obstacles come up during their trek north. She also bonds with the haunt, aiding him in hiding his identity and posing as the prince. There are also some oddities about the prince’s guard/party, with questions about the presence of some of the companions and what other motives they might have.
There are breadcrumbs and foreshadowing throughout but ultimately I was surprised by how few answers we truly got – about the haunt’s mission and what is causing the disturbance, about the true history of the pall and spores, about Elen’s power and how it connects to the past. I know that this is the first book in a duology so I wasn’t expecting everything to be resolved but usually, I would expect a major revelation about the world towards the end. The one revelation we got was something that had been hinted at throughout the novel, and the major upset that sets up the cliffhanger was more around a personal development for Elen than some change in her understanding of the world.
I liked it enough to read the sequel but I also am not in a rush to read it because I want something a bit more fast paced now. But I am sure I’ll get to it sooner than later if only to prevent the details from getting too fuzzy.