Goodreads Project, Part 5: Romantasy
I’m still working on my project to read a book from each of the fifteen categories in Goodreads’ Best Book of the Year contest. As I’ve been reading, voting has proceeded, and the winners have now been chosen. You can see of list of them here.
Today’s category is Romantasy, a combination of Romance and Fantasy. The category is new this year. I’ve read that Goodreads created it because so many submissions combined these two genres. They’d have dominated either category, crowding everything else out.
I had already read the winner in this category, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. For my new book, I chose The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem. Fantasy readers typically like world building. The handling of world building meant I enjoyed Fourth Wing more than The Jasad Heir.
Fourth Wing
This is the story of characters training in a fantasy battle school that, among other things, requires them to bond with a dragon. The central character is Violet, whose brittle bones were supposed to send her to train as a scribe rather than as a combatant. But plans have gone awry.
I was engaged enough in this book that I picked it up whenever I had a free moment. I wanted to find out what happened. So that’s a good sign about the plotting. I’m also a sucker for found family stories and that comes into play here, as the cadets at the battle academy form friendships and struggle through trials together. There are some action scenes, including a long battle scene at the climax, and a couple of hot sex scenes. So, if those are your jam, they’re here.
Battle scenes kind of bore me, though, so I was more engaged in the way Violet dealt with split loyalties. Also, she originally intended to be a scribe, and it turned out that her intelligence and learning were essential to her success. She’s physically weak and we see her grow stronger and, where she can’t strengthen enough, learn to compensate.
I was, however, skeptical about the world building, and remained so throughout. I was never sure exactly why they were at war or even who they were at war with. There’s an acceptance not only of death but of murder prosecuted not against external enemies, but against member of their own tribe. People witness death over and over, and seem to suffer no trauma. The powers-that-be are callous and encourage the students to be too. Generally, societies don’t act that way. They might murder groups they see as “Other,” but not their own kind, at least not routinely as something they see as good.
All that being said, I bought the sequel, Iron Flame, the day it came out and have already read it. That tells you I mostly enjoyed this book.
The Jasad Heir
This is the story of a fractured kingdom. The heir of a destroyed part is hiding out in a village, hoping her magic will not betray her. Eventually, the heir of another part comes along and chooses her to act as champion in a tournament.
This book and I did not do well together.
As I say above, world building is a big part of many fantasy books. Fantasy readers like being dropped into a new world and figuring out how it works as they read. It’s part of the pleasure of the genre. The reader learns the meanings of new words from the context. The trick is for the writer to support the reader as they enter the world. For me, this book failed to do that.
Here’s a sample passage from about the 5% mark:
“I hummed a jaunty Lukubi tune I’d overheard in the Dunn and reviewed my tasks for the next day. Preparations for the waleema had spun Mahair into a frenzy. Celebrating the Alcalah was no small affair.”
Of the unusual words there, I knew “Mahair” because it was the name of her village. I could guess the nature of the other words from context, but the unknown terms were so thickly gathered they slowed my reading down. And the book did feel slow to me. The first quarter consisted mainly of flashbacks, world building, and Sylvia worrying that her magic would be revealed.
Comparing the Two Books
In some ways, these books are alike. Both are set in worlds of ridiculous violence. The male leads are similar: both domineering, strong, powerful, and very good looking. In that, they’re also like the male lead in my romance read, Love, Theoretically.
For me, both books had confusing world building. But The Jasad Heir spends much more space on it. For me, that may be a mistake, because from my reading, the world building isn’t the point in these books. They’re not even really about their plot. The plot and world building are background for the slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romances.
So, ironically, Fourth Wing’s weaker world building may be one reason I liked it more. Also, I’d say its romance is supplemented by the found family story, and the day-to-day plot is clearer and more interesting to me.
The next category is Fantasy. We’ll see how that goes.
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The Wysman
Born with a crooked foot, Jarka is granted the chance of a lifetime to get off the streets and apprentice to the king’s advisor. This glorious opportunity turns sour, however, when Jarka starts suspecting that the kingdom is responsible for the unnerving disappearances of his fellow street kids.
Bookshop (alliance of independent bookstores)
Inspired Quill (UK small press, operating as a social enterprise)
