The Unspoken Name (The Serpent Gates, #1)

by A. K. Larkwood

'An astounding debut . . . unlike anything I've read before' - Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld

Does she owe her life to those planning her death . . .

Csorwe was raised by a death cult steeped in old magic. And on her fourteenth birthday, she’ll be sacrificed to their god. But as she waits for the end, she’s offered a chance to escape her fate. A sorcerer wants her as his assistant, sword-hand and assassin. As this involves her not dying that day, she accepts.

Csorwe spends years living on a knife-edge, helping her master hunt an artefact which could change many worlds. Then comes the day she's been dreading. They encounter Csorwe’s old cult – seeking the same magical object – and Csorwe is forced to reckon with her past. She also meets Shuthmili, the war-mage who’ll change her future.

If she’s to survive, Csorwe must evade her enemies, claim the artefact and stop the death cult once and for all. As she plunges from one danger to the next, the hunt is on . . .

The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood is the incredible first book in The Unspoken Name duology.

• ISBN10: 1529032741
• ISBN13: 9781529032741
• Publish Date: 20 February 2020 (first published 11 February 2020)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 August 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Tor
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[ross91]

Interesting ideas poorly executed.
I appreciated the world building and the lore, but the characters felt very superficial and I couldn’t care for any of them.
Senthennai could have been a very interesting and complex character but alas the author didn’t really explore his psyche and motivation and at the end of the day he felt like a missing chance.
I’m at least glad that this book has a satisfying ending, so I’m not feeling too bad for not continuing on with this series

[elysium]

Csorwe is an Oshaaru and her people worship the Unspoken One. Csorwe is a Chosen Bride, someone who will be sacrificed to the god on her 14th birthday. But on the day of the sacrifice, a stranger called Belthandros Sethennai makes her an offer that she can’t refuse and helps her to run away.

Sethennai is a wizard in exile and has his own reasons for helping Csorwe; she can help him to return to his land.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It had good things and then the not so good things. But it’s not a bad book by any means, especially for a debut.

I liked the world-building and it’s impressive but there is quite much to take in. The book is divided into several parts and I liked the first part most where it focuses on young Csorwe. But the transitions between parts were somewhat awkward with time-jumps. Fast forward a few years and suddenly she is all trained to fight. Then 5 years have passed, and she has worked with Tal for 5 years and they hate each other. We’re missing huge chunks of her life and I didn’t connect with her, or the others, because so much happens behind the scenes. It just made me detached from the characters.

It dragged a bit in the middle and I felt the book could have been shorter. And if I’m honest, the most boring thing was Csorwe’s love-interest Shuthmili. She’s a super talented wizard who must be kept safe. And who had a non-existing personality. I just couldn’t understand why her?

I realize that I’m making it sound worse than it was because it wasn’t bad. There were lots of good things in it. But I really wanted to like it more. And since this was a debut book, I’m interested to see where the author will go from here.

[Ashley]

Sadly I wasn't head over heels for this book the way I wanted to be. It was a cool story and had some really great side characters. I definitely enjoyed reading a lot of it. But the two biggest disappointments were:

1. I had no feelings for the main character... and she was objectively the most interesting to me! I felt like she just had so little emotion, which made me have so little emotion for her. A lot of really crazy/intense things happened to her but she rarely had a deep response to any of them, which made it hard for me to really get invested.

2. Other than the occasional reminder that the MC had tusks, there was absolutely no reference or purpose to her being an orc. That sucked because it's definitely highlighted and used as a selling point. But frankly, you can completely forget she's supposed to be an orc at all.

It was a good book but it had the potential to be an amazing book and I'm bummed that for me it wasn't.

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Unspoken Name is the first book in a debut series by A.K. Larkwood. Released 11th Feb 2020 by Macmillan on their Tor imprint, it's 464 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Occasionally (but distressingly rarely) a new (to me) author comes along in one of my favorite genres and really blows me away. This is one such happy occasion. This combines epic fantasy, incredibly detailed world building that feels real down to details of social convention and interaction, elements of the best SF, a female protagonist who isn't supergirl and too utterly perfect, overarching themes of honor, building a life which defies external expectations, and does so without feeling like a mash of a million unrelated threads trying to be everything to everyone. I also appreciate that this book didn't devolve into a romance, that Csorwe (the young female orc protagonist) was more realistically rendered (apart from being a badass assassin) than a lot of super-protagonists. Early on in the book, she's being taught languages by a succession of tutors and really does grumble like a kid being forced to do unwanted homework.

The plot is wonderfully rich and detailed, the narrative arc is beautifully engineered and for a book of nearly 500 pages, it moves along at a good clip. I never felt that the story dragged or lost my interest. In fact, I stayed up way too late on a couple occasions reading and almost missed my bus stop on my morning commute because I was so absorbed in the story.

I heartily recommend this author and this debut unreservedly. Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of The Unspoken Name through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name is the first novel in a new epic fantasy series by A.K. Larkwood. It’s also a novel that I’ve been hearing nonstop chatter about – all gushing reviews and commentary. So naturally, I knew that this was going to be a piece worth checking out.

Csorwe has lived her entire life knowing when and where she would die. She grew up knowing that she was the Chosen Bride of the Unspoken One. And that meant that on the day of her fourteenth birthday, she would become a sacrifice to him.

Her birthday came, but the sacrifice did not. For one wonderful wizard walked into her life and offered her a choice. It was the first real choice ever offered to her, and it changed her life forever. Literally.

“The Chosen Bride of the Unspoken One was set apart by protocol, but also by pragmatism. There was no point cultivating the friendship of a Chosen Bride.”

Oh my goodness. I officially understand why everyone was gushing so much about The Unspoken Name. This novel has a lot to offer, not least of which being how unique and thrilling it is! This is a novel unlike any other fantasy series out there, at least not that I’ve seen.

The Serpent’s Gates is the name of the series, and I can already tell that this is going to be an epic fantasy series worth keeping an eye on. If The Unspoken Name is anything to go by (which it is), Larkwood is going to have many more surprises up her sleeves.

The entire premise of this novel is choice. Csorwe had that taken away from her as a child. Only to be handed it back by the hands of a stranger. From that moment onward, her tale was a series of choices. She chose to be free. She chose to follow the wizard who saved her life. She chose to fight.

There’s a powerful message to be found there. And it’s not the only message Larkwood wove into her tale. I think that is why this is such a powerful tale, and why it is speaking to so many readers. This novel (and series) cover a lot of intensely human elements.

The worldbuilding showcased in this novel is extremely impressive. I know that this is A.K. Larkwood’s debut novel – but seriously, keep an eye on her. Her worlds are outstanding, so lush and full of detail. There’s plenty of religions, politics, alliances, lore, and plotting to be found in her works.

Another noteworthy part of this book? It really reads as more of two books blended together. The first half of the book are the scenes I’ve described above; the life Csorwe lived when she intended to be a sacrifice, and then her choice to flee with the wizard and everything that entailed. The second half of the novel jumps forward five years after Csorwe has trained and learned confidence in herself. She is still very much keep on making her own choices, and that leads her to the fray – and to choose her own destiny in regards to love as well.

I’m honestly blown away from The Unspoken One and am already finding myself anxiously looking forward to the sequel in this series because it’s clearly going to be a good one. At least I know I’m waiting in good company.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Kate (Blogging with Dragons)]

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Actual rating: 3.5 stars

The Unspoken Name is a promising debut fantasy novel, which excels at lore, world-building, relationships, and its themes. I was immediately sucked into this novel by its dark depiction of the Shrine of the Unspoken One and its Chosen Bride, main character, Csorwe. 

 

“The girl leads the calf to the altar and they cut its throat. The blood runs black in the dim spring light. It splashes on the frozen stone and flows into the vessel. She takes the bowl of blood. She climbs the steps to the Shrine. She is never seen again.”

 

I was invested in Csorwe, an orc priestess, from the get go. As the Chosen Bride and vessel to the Unspoken One, she has been marked for death her whole life. I was floored when she bravely decided to cast aside the indoctrinations of the Unspoken One that called for her to become a sacrifice and bravely set out into the world to live her stolen life. Leaving behind the Unspoken One, Csorwe finds herself a new god in the mysterious wizard of Belthandros Sethennai. He trains her to become his assassin and spy as he seeks to not only reclaim his city from an usurper, but also to locate a mythical item known as the Reliquary of Pentravesse. 

 

“The secret of greatness is to know when you should risk the wrath of god.”

 

Disappointingly, we do not see much of Csorwe’s growth as a character during these years of training. The Unspoken Name is regrettably filled with time-skips and whole years go by with only mentions of what Cswore endured to become Sethennai’s feared right hand man and shadow. The author tells us she joined a band of mercenaries and found belonging and strength there, but we are sadly not invited along for this or other moments of Csorwe’s growth as not only as an assassin, but also as a character. 

 

“From the old crooks and soldiers who were her tutors, she learned about the hungers that live in the heart of every city, and was educated in the threat, the promise, and the scientific accomplishment of violence.”

 

But worst of all, when the novel final reaches the present day, I felt like I didn’t really know Csorwe or any of the characters. It was like Csorwe was my child that grew up somewhere else and when she returned I was met with a stranger and with nothing but tales of her fearsome reputation and very little of the actual person who committed those deeds.  The Unspoken Name grossly underestimates Csorwe’s value as an actual character and does her and the readers an injustice by developing her “off-screen,” rendering her a pale imitation of her fully-fleshed contemporaries such as Throne of Glass’s Celaena Sardothien. 

 

The Unspoken Name fails to realize that I would have happily read an entire novel on Csorwe’s training and her transformation from priestess marked for death to an actual agent of death in control of her own future Then, I would have loved to see her in action in a sequel dedicated to her search for the mysterious Reliquary of Pentravesse. Instead, the Csorwe we are given is little more than a plot device, and an empty shell. It was disheartening to see a character who had the bravery to cast aside the meaning of her life to become nothing more than the literal tool of the man who spurred her into taking this action. Her quest for the Reliquary and every thing else is just at the behest of Sethennai, so it is hard to feel invested in anything Csorwe does. 

 

“If a man breaks his sword on something it was not made to be cut he can only blame himself….Csorwe, you are my sharpest edge. We will repair you.”

 

That is until she meets Shuthmilii, Qarsazhi mage, who is an absolute boss. Author Larkwood does a great job of creating a natural feeling relationship, which started as nothing more than kindred spirits and sparks into something more. It is this relationship that spurs Csorwe to make her own choices for the first time, finally breathes some much needed life into an otherwise emotionless character--and most importantly--teaches her that there is more to life than death. Csorwe is simply at her best and most lifelike when she is with Shuthmili or doing something for her sake. This is the best representation of LGBT+ romance I have read, perhaps ever, let alone in a high fantasy novel. 

 

'No, but my life is mine,' said Shuthmilli. 'Mine to spend, mine to burn, mine to waste. Mine to give away.' 

 

It does not feel like the LGBT+ romances were thrown into The Unspoken Name simply for the sake of representation or to sell books to an underrepresented audience, but rather these romances enrich not only the characters and our understanding of them, but also the events of the entire novel. These romances just feel authentic. I absolutely loved how Larkwood presented the romances of all of her characters, whether LGBT+ or straight, as completely commonplace and not as an awakening that needed to be explained or justified to either the readers or the rest of the characters--the feelings of all the characters are simply accepted at face value and that’s beautiful. 

 

The author also excels at setting a scene. Throughout the Unspoken Name, I often got chills picturing what she described. Whether Larkwaood was describing the labyrinthian Maze that connected the worlds, the undead that walked the earth again due to the necromancers, magical battles, or the remnants of a world struck by the wrath of a God--it is a striking tableau. All magical battles should read like Larkwood’s:

 

“Csorwe had seen and committed enough violence that she no longer expected to be impressive or exciting, but the two wizards in combat were like nothing she had ever witnessed. Each man moved like a spark, and raised dust in terrible shapes around him: waves and claws and kites of dust, great beasts of dust that warred in the upper air. The whole room crackled, filling with the smell of hot metal. Csorwe’s surviving teeth buzzed in her skull, and blood seeped from the root of the gold tusk.”

 

Similarly, Larkwood manages to weave coherent themes throughout The Unspoken Name. Her characters consistently face their own mortality and their recognition that they are okay with it--they recognize that there are things much worse than death, such as not having a choice. This realization that there are fates much worse than death is a very interesting technique to bond together unlikely characters, creating believable alliances rooted in the singular belief that life, no matter how short, is worth living. 

 

And The Unspoken Name, even with its lacking character development and iffy pacing, is worth reading for not only these beautiful themes, but also its vibrant descriptions of its world and the  magic romances within it. I would happily return to this world again and await the next entry in the series.


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My Book Review Policy

[smartflutist661]

Reminiscent of some fantasy of yore, the world (especially) and the characters (somewhat) take a back seat to a significant amount of plot for a single book. Definitely not going in the mental “favorite books” pile, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.