Kate Elliott (1) (1958–)

So, Elliott describes this book as an "Afro-Celt post-Roman Icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troodons" and it is. It is also a great adventure about a young woman who discovers that everything she was told about herself by her aunt and uncle mig.ht be a lie and is certainly shaded to their advantage.

Catherine Barahal is the orphaned niece of the Hassi Barahal family which has fallen on hard times. She and her cousin Bess are students show more at the Academy. Bess is an artist who sometimes has visions which she expresses in her drawings. Cat treasures the journals her father Daniel kept and has studied them extensively to learn more about the world and more about her father.

When she is forced to marry a Cold Mage named Andevai Diarisso Haranwy and go with him to his home, most of the things she thought she knew about her family are turned on end. She needs to find a way to survive in a situation that is foreign to her and without the guidance of her new husband. And, when she learns that she is not the daughter of the Hassi Barahal that Andevai was supposed to marry and he is ordered to kill her, she has to survive and find a way to rescue her cousin Bess from her fate too.

I enjoyed the interesting world building in this story which combines magic with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. It even has an analog of Napoleon who has been imprisoned but who might have escaped. With Cold Mages and princes struggling to hold their power against the rising tide of revolution, Cat discovers that she has some magical ability of her own which makes her eager to discover her own heritage.

I liked all the action and I liked the budding romance between Cat and Andevai. I really enjoyed getting to know Cat and I am curious about what she finds out in the next two books of this trilogy. show less

In the sequel to King's Dragon, the primary trio of characters tries to come to grips with their new roles. Alain adjusts to life as a newly legitimized lord, Liath attempts to escape the unchecked abuse of her former owner, and Sanglant tries to retain his sanity while imprisoned by an inhuman enemy. Meanwhile, a full company of clerics, scholars, novices, and orphans witness the complications of war, kinship, and inheritance.

I'm impressed by the entrenched consistency of Prince of Dog's show more medieval milieu. Minus the obvious (and intentional) aspect of gender equality in the novel, Prince of Dogs avoids the common problems of Technicolor serfs and Andrew Lang princesses. Everything is very dirty and very unfair. The novel is not an epic-fantasy spray-paint job, particularly in regards to rigid social castes and how they were read as a divine signal of competence and righteousness.

The plot of Prince of Dogs knits more tightly together than the previous story: Liath and Alain actually meet each other. My favorite character is still Count Lavastine, who is a vulnerable brute. And I can't wait to see the horrors of Alain and Tallia coming together. Prince of Dogs ends with Alain misty-eyed about their upcoming nuptials, but he has no inkling about the strength of Tallia's religious convictions. (It's not clear how Tallia will react to the betrothal: she was approving of Alain in King's Dragon but she had definite non-Alain plans for her future. I predict agony and death.) show less

I do not think that [b:Cold Magic|7114825|Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1)|Kate Elliott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1323994929l/7114825._SY75_.jpg|7374960] is a YA novel, as the protagonist Cat is twenty years old. However, the choice to give Cat sole first person narration duties definitely reminded me of YA in a slightly frustrating way. The novel is set in a fascinating alternate world with ice mages, trolls and goblins, industrial revolution, a show more Napoleon analogue, social upheaval, a parallel spirit world, shapeshifters, counter-colonialism, no channel between England and France, dragons, and Scotland completely shrouded in ice. There is so much going on within the world-building that I really enjoyed. Particularly pleasing details included a substantial West African diaspora in Europe after many fled Mali due to a plague, the fraught legacy of the Roman Empire, and a legal code that integrates magical contracts. The drawback of the first person narration is that the reader only gets Cat's angle on all this and she has pressing survival concerns throughout. Her dramatic escapes and efforts to flee are compelling and exciting, but I would have preferred multiple perspectives on events. There is a great deal of social unrest going on that Cat freely admits to knowing nothing about. Although it impinges upon her life, I would have liked this to be more central. Nonetheless, Cat is an appealing protagonist and I really liked her dynamic with her cousin and best friend Bee.

What took the book down from four to three stars for me was the romance subplot. At the start of the book, Cat is uprooted from her comfortable life and forced to marry a cold mage, Andevai. He kidnaps her while acting in a needlessly harsh manner. Most crucially, he doesn't explain why the sudden forced-marriage and Cat doesn't ask. It subsequently becomes clear that this lack of questioning is for plot twist reasons: Andevai has accidentally kidnapped and married the wrong person. He should have gone for Cat's cousin Bee, so is instructed to kill Cat and marry Bee instead. Much of the book is taken up with Cat trying not to get killed. After making a concerted effort at murdering his new wife, which would have succeeded were she not magic, Andevai is shamed into a change of heart by his family. At the end he instead helps Cat and Bee, as well he should to make some amends for ruining both their lives.

To my annoyance, the narrative makes this forced marriage and deadly conflict into fodder for romance. Cat frequently reflects on how handsome and well-dressed Andevai is; I do not see how this could possibly compensate for his shitty behaviour. I assumed that this romance would be drawn out in subsequent books in the series to give him time to build some trust, but was wrong. At the end Cat thinks they may never meet again (which seems far-fetched given they are still married) so kisses him. Then he makes the astonishing admission that he fell in love with her at first sight, 'as if I were seeing the other half of my soul'. Why act like a complete arsehole and try to kill her then, my guy? Even if you have to kidnap and force-marry a woman, you could at least tell her what's happening then avoid murdering her! I am not morally opposed to enemies-to-lovers or forced-marriage-to-lovers plots, but did not find this one at all convincing. Andevai just isn't likeable. Given my enjoyment of the world-building and dislike of the romance elements, I'm torn as to whether I'll read the next book in the series. show less

Trigger Warning: Rape

This may be my favorite read yet from Kate Elliott, and I have the feeling that this trilogy will become one of my all time epic fantasy series. If non-Western epic fantasy with loads of ladies who do things sounds like something you’d like, then you need to read Black Wolves.

The first hundred pages of Black Wolves introduce many of the central characters, but everything then changes after a forty-four year time skip. King Anjihosh saved the Hundred from demons and show more conquered it in the process. The story starts with Kellas, a captain of the Black Wolves, the king’s elite unit of soldiers and spies. The king’s son, Atani, learns of a family secret and soon after disappears. Kellas is tasked with his retrieval. The first section ends soon after. In the time skip, Atani both became king and was murdered on one fateful night still shrouded in questions and mysteries. Now Atani’s son is king, and he fears that no one around him can be trusted. His aunt Dannarah enlists a now elderly Kellas to return to safeguard her nephew and his kingdom.

However, Kellas is just one of many protagonists, all of whom have their own storylines. Dannarah is a Marshel of the Reeves, an ancient military order who’s members are chosen by and bonded to giant eagles. Under her nephew’s rule, she’s seen her power diminish, and she fears for the Reeves as a whole and their traditions.

Lifka is the adopted daughter of a poor carter, who just wants to help her family survive. But the Hundred’s conquerors have become increasingly oppressive of the native culture as the generations have worn on, and new taxes, religious mandates, and forced labor endangers her family. On top of all that, Lifka might just be one of those orphans who has a secret past…

The last couple of major characters are a couple in fact — Gilaras and Sarai, two young people who end up (from her own design in Sarai’s case) in an arranged marriage. Gilaras’s father betrayed Atani, and the family seeks an alliance with a wealthy merchant clan to stay a float. Sarai’s people usually do not marry outsiders… but Sarai is mixed race and has never been fully accepted by her own family members. She’s spent her entire life inside the family’s rural compound, and she wants out. Her girlfriend’s already left, so there’s not much left for her besides spending her days cataloging plants and growing old. When she sees the chance of an escape, she jumps at it.

I was not expecting the time skip at all. I was pretty confused for the first hundred pages! I kept looking at the back of the book and being like, “This doesn’t fit at all what’s happening?” Of course it didn’t. The back blurb was describing events forty-four years later! It was an unusual choice for Kate Elliott to make, and I don’t know how much I liked it. I think it led to Black Wolves having a slower start than it might have otherwise, and I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. On the other hand, it was interesting to have the characters and my assumptions about them shift so radically from one page to the next. Dannarah went from a naive teenage girl to a mature leader, and Kellas went from a young badass male lead to, well, a badass grandpa.

I actually really liked all of these characters. Plus there were some great supporting cast members as well! There’s so many women doing things and being generally amazing… and they interact with other women doing things. Women doing things and interacting with other women isn’t a high bar, but it’s something a lot of fantasy series fail at. Black Wolves gloriously passes that bar.

And the cast of characters is diverse in many different aspects. The majority of the cast are POC and all of the POV characters are. The culture seems to have been based on East Asia but it’s original enough that I can’t pick out any specific influences. Oh, and Sarai is bisexual! Her culture doesn’t allow women to meet with unrelated men before they’re married, but since she’s bi that doesn’t stop her from having a romantic and sexual relationship before she enters into the arranged marriage with Gil. This had the bonus effect of putting her and Gil on more equal footing since they both came in with some prior relationship experience.

Actually, I think Gil and Sarai’s relationship was one of the best arranged marriage plotlines I’ve seen. I tend to hate these plotlines. You know how they go. There’s some naive young woman who has no experience with men or marriage who is suddenly married off (usually unwillingly) to a handsome and super worldly man who is in a more powerful position than her. Of course, he tends to turn out to be the embodiment of perfection and she falls in love with him. Black Wolves changes the equation. Sarai is in her early twenties, not particularly naive, and arranges the marriage herself. Plus, she retains control of all the financial assets she brings to the marriage, so she’s not helpless in comparison to Gil.

I really enjoyed Black Wolves. It just has so much of what I want from fantasy. A world that feels unique and tangible, characters I love, and a plot I find exciting. And I’m going to reiterate this point: it has loads of ladies doing things and some of them are queer. Basically, Black Wolves is everything I love in the fantasy genre wrapped into one awesome package. I’m sure I’ll be recommending this one a ton in the future, and I can’t wait until Kate Elliott releases the next book. It’s slated for spring 2018 and it can’t come out soon enough!

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less