"I wanted to push against the world and feel it push back."
My Rating: ★★★
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy
Publication: September 5, 2017 (Balzer + Bray)
Synopsis:
The first in a sweeping and action-packed debut fantasy duology loosely inspired by the early climbers of Mt. Everest -- perfect for fans of Cindy Pon and Alison Goodman.
Kamzin has always dreamed of becoming one of the Emperor's royal explorers, the elite climbers tasked with mapping the wintry, mountainous Empire and spying on its enemies. She knows she could be the best in the world, if only someone would give her a chance.
But everything changes when the mysterious and eccentric River Shara, the greatest explorer ever known, arrives in her village and demands to hire Kamzin -- not her older sister Lusha, as everyone had expected -- for his next expedition. This is Kamzin's chance to prove herself -- even though River's mission to retrieve a rare talisman for the emperor means climbing Raksha, the tallest and deadliest mountain in the Aryas. Then Lusha sets off on her own mission to Raksha with a rival explorer who is determined to best River, and Kamzin must decide what's most important to her: protecting her sister from the countless perils of the climb or beating her to the summit.
The challenges of climbing Raksha are unlike anything Kamzin expected -- or prepared for -- with avalanches, ice chasms, ghosts, and even worse at every turn. And as dark secrets are revealed, Kamzin must unravel the truth of their mission and of her companions -- while surviving the deadliest climb she has ever faced.
Review:
A perilous race to the tallest mountain peak in the world, shamanic magic, ghosts, witches, a mysterious and possibly magical love interest, miniature dragons, familiars, and fire demons -- this book has it all. If we're talking high stakes and complex world building, Even the Darkest Stars exceeds expectations. Sadly, though, it falls quite short in terms of character development, pacing, and a consistently engaging plot. Though Fawcett's world building is incredibly imaginative and unique, the stunning setting and culture she created were not enough to carry the rest of the story, which was pretty disappointing given the awesome premise -- two sisters racing to reach the summit of Raksha, inspired by the early climbers of Mt. Everest.
The story begins with Kamzin, a terrible shaman-in-training but an excellent climber, and her magically gifted friend Tem, a shepherd who is forbidden from practicing shamanic magic. Both are desperate to escape their small village -- Kamzin to seek adventure, and Tem to protect the girl he loves -- and both yearn to discover their place in the world. Kamzin dreams of becoming one of the empire's royal explorers like her late mother, who travelled far and wide to carry out dangerous quests on behalf of the empire -- a dream that finally seems to be within reach when the legendary royal explorer, River Shara, arrives seeking a guide to the summit of Raksha, the tallest mountain in the world.
Legend says that, atop Raksha, there is a weapon which may be used against the witches, a wild and hateful forest-dwelling people and a looming threat against the safety of the empire. Thanks to knowledge passed down from their mother, Kamzin and her sister Lusha are the only ones alive who know the way to safely reach the top of Raksha. The synopsis lies a bit here to make things sound more interesting, which I found a tad bit annoying, as River never has any intention of asking Kamzin to be his guide -- instead, he means to ask Lusha, who is older than Kamzin and a gifted seer. But when Lusha unexpectedly runs off with River's cartographer, Mara, determined to be the first ones who reach Raksha's summit, River has no choice but to choose Kamzin as his guide.
“'It's a dangerous path you're following.'
I gave a short laugh. 'There are no safe ones, where we're going.'
He gave me another look. 'But that doesn't trouble you, does it? . . . When you get to be as old as me, you start to recognize certain kinds of people.'
'Kinds of people?' I repeated, nonplussed. 'What kind of person am I?'
'The kind that seeks out danger.'”
While one might assume the pace would pick up here, at the start of this perilous journey, it actually screeches to a halt. There are very few moments of real excitement on the journey to Raksha. From terrifying birdmen and ghosts to fire demons and the truth of what lies at the top of Raksha, you'd think that there would be more tension and fast-paced action. I can't say that there wasn't anything that piqued my interest along Kamzin's journey to Raksha, but the majority of it felt terribly boring, which is such a shame given the unique premise and fascinating world building.
And, as far as characters go, I found them all to be very flat and unlikable. River is the only character with any dimension to him, but he still seems like he could be more fleshed out. Kamzin's only traits are that she is stubborn and determined (like most protagonists), Tem seems entirely pointless as a character (except to create a love triangle and be the shaman of the group), Mara is jealous and arrogant without a compelling reason for being those things, and Lusha is mean and arrogant without a compelling reason for being those things. River is only interesting because he is a bit of a wild card, and it is clear that he is hiding something important from Kamzin and the rest of their group, something that creates a clear internal conflict for him. My main reason for reading ended up being to figure out what was going on with River, and it ended up being easy to guess what it was when it was too early in the story to be truly satisfying, making the reveal less exciting than it could have been.
“He has an unusual way of looking at the world. He does not divide everything into tidy halves the way most people do. Right and wrong, good and evil - he sees beyond absolutes, like all great leaders.”
When the reveal does come, though, things start to pick up quite a bit. Finally, there is some interesting character conflict, as the conflict between Kamzin and Lusha falls flat due to the fact that the sisters do not have any good reasons to be pitted against one another. The global conflict that exists between the empire and the witches comes to the forefront of the story, and the resolution satisfies while also creating a lot of new questions -- a perfect way to end the first book in a duology.
I had high hopes for this book, but I have to say that I was pretty disappointed. I did listen to the audiobook, which had very unaffected and toneless narration that perhaps influenced some of my feelings about the book, but I think it's likely that my opinions wouldn't change much had I read the physical book. As far as debut novels go, Even the Darkest Stars is not bad, but it could have been better. I think that Fawcett is quite promising as an author of fantasy, as her world building is excellent -- it's her characters and her ability to construct engaging conflict that fall short for me. Even so, once you've climbed Raksha with Kamzin, you've got to climb down with her. Despite its shortcomings, Fawcett's debut is good enough for me to want to read book two -- if only to see whether it gets any better.
Content Warnings: Death, attempted murder, violence
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