The Nine Lands

by Marie Brennan

[tylerrosereads]

I really enjoyed this e-book. I appreciated the flexibility in format that the e-book allowed. I’m the type of reader who likes to read the story and then immediately read the authors note on that story before continuing and the e-book suited this reading style perfectly.

Overall, I really enjoyed the world of Nine Lands and this collection just really made me hungry to learn more. I want to know more about the different histories and the religious systems within each culture. You can really tell that Brennan is a natural historian and anthropologist, you could feel the love and care that went into to all these stories. And we just scratched the surface of them, I’m really looking forward to digging deeper and honestly, I hope that Brennan puts out more works from this realm. I would literally love to read like a history textbook from the Nine Lands that goes into culture, history, and the religious systems.

Here are my thoughts and ratings for each individual story, as is natural with anthologies or collections there are some real stand outs and then some that didn’t speak to me.

“Calling into Silence” (4 stars) a coming of age ritual fails but why? I was hooked into this story from the begging. I really wanted to know what was going to happen. Spirit possession and spiritual rituals I find very interesting. Then ending was a twist I did not see coming.

“Kingspeaker” (2 stars) When you speak for another how to handle the responsibility of power. So, this story was hard for me to rate. I enjoyed it, but I feel like I’m left with a lot of questions. This was the only story where I felt like I didn’t really get a lot about the culture. I also felt like our main character didn’t really deliberate, or her internal struggle seemed to be over pretty quick and we didn’t get to witness her thought process too much.

“Sing for Me” (2 stars) A prophetic gift that comes with a price I enjoyed the strong female character the prophet becomes, but I felt like her transition and how she got there wasn’t really explored. The time jumps felt too large and like we were missing too much, I felt like I needed more information to connect with this story.

“Execution Morning” (4 stars) Treason and fear lead to death, but where is the moral line? I felt like the time jumps were handled much better in this story. The moral quandary felt real and the characters exploration of their feelings felt honest and explained. I wanted to learn more about the Kagi.
“The Legend of Anahata” (2 stars) Not all victorious rebellions look the same. This was a cool premise, I like the ending message, but I did not really care about the main character. I was not invested in him at all. I found myself more draw to the gods and goddesses and really want to know more about how the religious system is structured and what they represent.

“Lost Soul” (5 stars) A Musician struggling to connect. My favorite of the entire collection. I love the characters, I felt so connected to them, I loved the premise the exploration of soul and meaning and magic in art, I really loved this story. It was magical and there were so many pull quotes I kept highlighting. This felt like the strongest piece to me and I would honestly say maybe buy this collection for this story and then just enjoy reading the rest. I almost wish there was a bit of romance that happened but honestly the story is just super satisfying as it is that I wasn’t disappointed that there weren’t romantic sparks.

“White Shadow” (3 stars) A Coming of age ritual gone right, if not quite what we expected. The beginning of this dragged a bit. The character was noticing everything which just slowed the story down, maybe she could have noticed just things that were relevant to the story, but part of it is that it’s all relevant soo…. But once I adjusted to the different style of this piece I appreciated all the test and the ending. I really liked this concept of the Kagi naming/choosing right. I want to know more about their culture and the Other. Star

{I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review}