A generations-long monarchy overthrown by collectivist revolutionaries, whose idealism evaporates in the wake of paranoia of counter-revolutionaries. Some scenes were so dark and depressing I had to take frequent breaks from it.Ī lot of the names of both people and places in the Sunset Lands sound Russian, and its history is similar too. That's the main reason it took me longer to read than it should have. It's no wonder, since parts of the story were inspired by the Holodomor, the genocide by starvation in the Ukraine by the Stalin regime in the 1930s. It has been described as falling within the Grimdark sub-genre of fantasy, of which I'm not that familiar, but based on what that term sounds like to me I'd say it's an apt categorization. But be warned, it is very dark, very violent, very disturbing, even while it is compelling and immersive. Seraphina's Lament is an impressive debut, with well developed, uniquely different characters, and the action is well paced. She may have to recuse herself from the next round since her debut novel is likely to be entered into the competition. She also offers editing services to other writers, and over the past few years she has assisted Mark Lawrence in judging the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off entries. Sarah Chorn is one of the first book reviewers I followed when I got on Twitter.
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