Stone and Steel

Once upon a time there were two girls who grew up together - almost like sisters, although they were a lot more. They defeated the bad old king and one of them, Odessa, became the Queen and the other one, Aaliyah, became her general who defended the country and attacked most of the neighbors (or so it looks like).

But all that is in the past - now Aaliyah is coming back from war and all she wants is to get to a bed (with Odessa in it). Except that things are not as they look. When Odessa took the throne she promised to change everything to the better but it looks like she is worse than the old king. And when Aaliyah decides to mention something about it, things don't go as expected. Cue a war between the two of them.

The plot is almost show more cliched. The world it happens in is fascinating - there is magic everywhere, there are different types of mages (each controlling an element - fire, air, iron, bone, water or stone) and there are people with no magical power (such as Aaliyah; Odessa is a powerful stone mage). Some of the details of the rebellion and the past story are interesting enough. But the whole novella feels like a sketch - with a lot of hand-waving where the plot needs to take a leap. I can accept some of it and I don't mind that much about the lack of polish in the prose but... it feels a bit too thin in places. And not in the usual way for a novella - I wish there was more story in there but I don't want another story to fill in the missing places.

At the end I did not really dislike the story - it had its moments. But it could have been so much better. show less

This tiny novella was a quick fun read for a readathon. There always needs to be more fantasy filled wall-to-wall with Black characters and queer characters and badass women running the show!

CW for incest-adjacent? relationship? (characters not related by blood but raised as siblings from a young age)

Also, it makes me feel just a little dizzy that the text in this book is not justified at all.

This review and others posted over at Milliebot Reads.

Thank you to Neon Hemlock for sending me this book for free in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Stone and Steel covers a lot of ground fantasy novel readers will be familiar with. Would I love to see the world, especially the magic system, and the characters fleshed out more? Of course! This is yet another book that I easily could have read a full-length novel of.

I’m a dingus and didn’t make a note of the different types of mages in this world, but I believe there are six. I know there’s steel, bone, and stone; I also know that if you’re a bone mage you can literally manipulate bones, which is badass and scary as hell. I would have gladly read many chapters about the show more different types of magic and what the mages could do with it.

But the story focuses on Aaliyah, her relationship with Odessa, and her dedication to the people of her city. She finds herself fighting to end the suffering of the poorer citizens, of which Aaliyah was raised, and who she thought would be cared for when Odessa came to power. Aaliyah’s return is complicated by both her family and romantic dynamic with Odessa, making her mission to save her city all the harder.

Again, I won’t really talk about the plot, but I’d also recommend this if you’re looking for a quick, magical fantasy with a couple female/female relationships. Of note, I did notice several typos throughout, which kept taking me out of the story – but don’t let that stop you from checking this one out!

This novella also has a stunning cover design. show less

Good ideas cobbled together with occasionally stilted dialogue and hand-wavy background politics ("and then they travelled THREE WHOLE DAYS to reach the capital of the neighbouring kingdom"). The prose is mediocre and the characters written like I should already know a ton of things about them - like they should feel familiar to me, but don't.

I'm of no particular opinion re: the controversial relationship between General Aaliyah and Odessa (her adopted sister), but the author does a fine job showing us just why it might not have been a good idea to leave Odessa behind to become Queen. Aaliyah and Odessa's story alone needed another hundred pages to breathe, never mind that I'm still not clear on why and how they ended up taking over the show more kingdom.

Also, the other King randomly taking off with Aaliyah to help her defeat Odessa is very... Like, the traditional fantasy quest elements are all there, right? But as another reviewer on Goodreads said, the scale is all wrong. show less