Publishing Date: January 18, 2022
Synopsis:
Fellion is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.
Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.
But Fellion has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve…
In Kate Elliott’s Servant Mage, a lowly fire mage finds herself entangled in an empire-spanning conspiracy on her way to discovering her true power.
My Review:
This was such an interesting story. It took a conflict with two obvious sides — the Liberationists and the Monarchists — and yet neither side came out of it looking very good.
The Liberationists are obviously corrupt and no-good from the start, in some ways cartoonishly so. And on the surface, the Monarchists seem to be better. But this story peels back some of the surface layers to show that at their heart, the two sides aren’t all that different. They both have some serious class issues.
Fellian is an outcast in both groups and treated as a lower class of citizen, and clearly has no patience with either group. I like that she doesn’t immediately fall in with the Monarchists as her saviors, and I like that they respect her enough to make her own choice.
This story overall was a tough read because a lot of information is left unsaid and readers are left trying to piece together what’s going on for a lot of it. I like stories that don’t give you all the information, but I could have used just a little more.
The magic system was very interesting and I feel like we barely scratched the surface. I’m definitely left intrigued.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for providing an e-arc for review.
Whimsical Dragonette 