Some books surprise you, despite knowing of them, seeing publicity about them, or the title or writer continually being promoted. Then you open the book and are pulled into the story, drawn to the character, fascinated by the world that unfolds as you follow the character’s journey. Then you understand why the book and writer are on your radar. That’s what happened to me with A.K. Larkwood’s debut novel, The Unspoken Name.
A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name is a stunning debut fantasy about a young priestess sentenced to die, who at the last-minute escapes her fate; only to become an assassin for the wizard who saved her.
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does—she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learn—gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
Our protagonist is Csorwe, a young sacrifice to the Unspoken Name. In all but name, she (and her people) are Orcs, and their god requires a young woman to walk down to the catacombs and sacrifice herself to him. It isn’t clear what that fully entails because her ritualistic sacrifice is put to an end by a charming, mysterious wizard – Belthandros Sethennai – who emerges from the shadows as she is about to sacrifice herself. Sethennai takes Csorwe under his wing, shows her the wider worlds and basically makes her his “right hand” in his to find a magical item. She murders, thieves and goes on whatever mission he commands. Csorwe isn’t the only “assistant” to the wizard, an equally skilled, though somewhat less kind young man named Talasseres Chaross is par. There’s a great, engaging sense of sibling rivalry between the two characters that helps to fuel a significant amount of narrative tension from the time they are introduced to each other.
Worlds-building rather than world building is the approach Larkwood has taken to the milieu in which her novel takes place. Larkwood has devised a really cool, for lack of a better term, cosmology. Worlds are connected by a cosmic/magical maze known as the Echo Maze. Some of the worlds are aware of each other, which makes this world-building even more interesting. I was reminded of both the Planescape setting from Dungeons and Dragons as well as the warrens of Steven Erikson & Ian Esslemont’s Malazan world. What makes the world(s) so interesting is the balance of details, that is she does not overburden the narrative with how things work or granular details. Rather, the airships on one world are simply accepted as a thing that exists. Larkwood provides the reader with just enough details about the background of the world to make sense of things and not drag the plot. A very nice economy of prose overall that helps keep the narrative moving along at a brisk pace.
Larkwood’s prose and storytelling are very enchanting, as is the work she does with character, especially Csorwe. The novel is broken up into four “books” or sections which is a very effective in that each section provides a solid episode in Csorwe’s life and allows Larkwood to focus on specific relationships Csorwe develops over the course of her short life. The plotting across these blocks of narrative allows for some unexpected turns and plot developments. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Larkwood was a pseudonym for a writer with a half dozen or so novels under their belt. The motivations, humanity, and empathetic vibes from Csorwe are very powerful
It seems fairly clear that The Unspoken Name is the first of a series. Larkwood has only hinted at the world and characters introduced and I for one would be very happy to join Csorwe on her future journeys.
Highly recommended
© 2020 Rob Bedford
February 2020 | Tor Books
Hardcover | 462 pages
https://aklarkwood.com/
Excerpt (First Six Chapters): https://www.tor.com/2020/02/10/read-the-first-six-chapters-of-a-k-larkwoods-the-unspoken-name/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
Her worlds and the connections and movements between them aren’t the only thing that reminds me of Erickson. Her characters do so, as well.