Unnatural Magic
May 25, 2020 7:02 AM - by Waggoner, C. M. - Subscribe
Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls before their homeland is torn apart.
I felt that this book was really good but the pacing was all off in a very first book kind of way. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to more books, in this world or not.
posted by jeather at 7:03 PM on May 25, 2020
posted by jeather at 7:03 PM on May 25, 2020
I felt like it was an explorative novel, trying out different storylines almost in a TV-series sort of way - like here's this world and here are various episodes. As I was reading, I kept thinking how great it'd be filmed.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:25 PM on May 28, 2020
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:25 PM on May 28, 2020
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So the main pairing in this is M/F, but all of the main characters are casually bisexual and troll gender is orthogonal to human gender in this (plus Tsira's physique doesn't match what's expected of her gender), so it still felt fairly queer.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:10 AM on May 25, 2020