I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood Series: The Serpent Gates #1
Published by Tor Books on February 11 2020
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 464
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An exciting, fast-paced fantasy debut that will leave readers clamoring for the next book.
Wow, this was fun! I believe this is A.K. Larkwood’s debut novel, and I was very impressed. The Unspoken Name is set in a fantastical world where dying cities, sleeping gods, airships, magical portals and more set the stage for a tale about an epic power struggle. I’m glad this is the first in a series because by the end of the book, I was terribly sad to be leaving these characters behind. I did have a couple of issues with pacing, which I’ll go into more below, but overall I think readers who are looking for a new epic fantasy series with well-developed characters—especially the female characters—should check this out.
Csorwe is an Oshaaru, a worshiper of the Unspoken One. She lives in the House of Silence and was chosen at birth to be honored with the title of Chosen Bride. Upon turning fourteen, Csorwe will be led up the mountain to the lair of the Unspoken One, where she will sacrifice herself to the god. But on the day of her sacrifice, fate intervenes in the form of Belthandros Sethennai, a wizard who just happens to be visiting the House of Silence and is searching for something important. Sethennai rescues Csorwe from the temple of the Unspoken One, telling her he needs her help to take back his home of Tlaanthothe, where a brute named Olthaaros Charossa has overthrown him and cast him out of the city. Csorwe reluctantly agrees to leave with him, thus betraying her god and setting off a chain of events that will have lasting repercussions throughout the land.
Csorwe also discovers that Sethennai is looking for a mythical artifact of great power called the Reliquary of Pentravesse, and wanting to gain his favor, she embarks on the dangerous task of finding it for him. But Sethennai, it turns out, isn’t the only one looking for the Reliquary, and so begins the race to find it.
The story is broken up into four parts, and here’s where some readers are having trouble with this book. The first part introduces Csorwe as a young girl of fourteen years old as she’s preparing to face her death. By the end of this section, Csorwe has gone through eight years of training, and Sethennai has taken back the city of Tlaanthothe. Larkwood skips over the details of most of those years, and I’ll admit I felt cheated at first. But when we get to the second section, that’s where the real story kicks in. Larkwood has set up all the major things that need to be explained in this first part, and her story takes off like a rocket after that. The last three quarters of the story are perfectly paced and kept me on the edge of my seat, so don’t let the time jumps in the beginning steer you away from reading this book.
As much as I loved the world-building, my favorite part of this book is the way Larkwood handled the characters and their relationships. If you’re looking for strong female characters, then look no further. Csorwe starts out as a meek girl who is determined to follow through with her horrible destiny, but she grows and changes over the course of the story and ends up as a woman willing to stand up for herself and her friends. Her strange relationship with Sethennai was tough to swallow at first. He’s a controlling asshole who certainly doesn’t appreciate everything that Csorwe does for him, and at times her devotion to his cause seemed ridiculously self defeating. But eventually she wises up, and one scene in particular made me extremely happy.
There are two other important female characters in The Unspoken Name: Oraana is the librarian at the House of Silence and acts as a villain for most of the story. And Qanwa Shuthmili is an Adept, a powerful mage who has been groomed since childhood to eventually join a select group of five Adepts who act as magical protection for the Qarsazh people. Like Csorwe, Shuthmili starts the story as a duty-bound slave, but she eventually realizes that she can change her fate with the help of some friends and a bit of bravery. Csorwe and Shuthmili have a very complicated relationship that grows and changes in delightful and unexpected ways, including a very slow burn romance that I loved very much, although it is not the focus of this story. I was surprised how much I ended up loving Oraana’s character as well, even though I couldn’t stand her in the beginning. Larkwood did a fantastic job of surprising me with her characters, something that I don’t get to experience that often.
And I realize I haven’t even mentioned Talasseres Charossa, who acts as the comic relief in this story and seems to be a favorite with many readers. I didn’t love Tal as much as other reviewers, although he’s got some hysterically funny lines. But overall, I found him to be a Dick with a capital D (although he does have a very sad love story of his own, and for that reason alone I felt sorry for him).
As far as minor complaints go, I only have one. Although I absolutely loved the world-building in The Unspoken Name, there is a lot of information to absorb, and some of the best elements act as mere stops along the way, so to speak, rather than being integrated into the story as a whole. It’s sort of like walking through a museum and seeing a painting you love, but once you walk away, another painting has caught your eye and attention, and you forget about the first one. There is one scene that takes place in the dead city of Echentyr, where the serpent goddess Iriskavaal the Thousand-Eyed has destroyed the entire city of serpents because they betrayed her. Csorwe and Sethennai wander through streets filled with the dust of dead serpents, and I wanted to know so much more about what happened. Larkwood could have written a story just about Iriskavaal and her followers and I think I would have loved it! I also wanted to know more about the Maze and the Gates, two fascinating elements that have so much potential. The Maze is an interesting idea that’s hard to explain, but it acts as both a place to hide and a way to get from world to world. I’m hoping in future books we get to spend more time there.
The last quarter of the book is a flurry of non-stop, exciting action, and Larkwood ends her story perfectly, with no cliffhangers, I might add. I can hardly wait to see what comes next, and I’ll be anxiously stalking the internet for information about the next book.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
I usually have trouble with books split into parts where the parts can be very different from each other because I feel like I tend to like one or two parts more than the others and the others don’t compare as much? But the world building in this one sounds so good and I really like the sound of the developed female characters especially 😉
Olivia Roach recently posted…A Curse So Dark and Lonely [Book Review]
I think she did a really good job splitting the book up. The parts definitely made the story feel easier to keep track of everything that was going on.
I will be picking this up very soon so it’s great to read such an enthusiastic review. Can’t wait.
Lynn 😀
Hope you enjoy, Lynn!
Fantastic review Tammy! I honestly don’t mind skipping the training scenes. Training tropes are really not my favorite anyway- so I don’t think that would be an issue for me. The heavily detailed lack of focus would bother me though. Sounds like debut novel problems.
Maybe that’s why the author decided to skip the training scenes, plus the book would have been another 100 pages so I definitely don’t mind getting to the heart of the story.
The more I read I kept thinking this was the book with the city of dead snakes. I remember reading Sammie’s review. I think I’ll be skipping this one but you know, I could see where that would be an interesting tale in and of itself. Glad you enjoyed this one and great review.
Ha ha oops I forgot about your snake phobia. You should probably skip this then. there is another scene with a huge snake that was pretty scary:-/
Tammy!! Such an amazing review, I’m glad you enjoyed it, as well ❤️✨
Loved it, and I can’t wait for the next one:-) Thanks Sofii:-)
“dying cities, sleeping gods, airships, magical portals” reading that I was like dang that sounds so good already! I really think I would love this fantasy. It sounds like something I’d pick up right away so gonna add it to my wishlist now! 😀
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It’s a bunch of fun, hope you enjoy:-)
I’ve seen this book mentioned several times in the past few weeks, and I think yours is the first review I’ve read of it – and it totally blew me away 🙂 If the premise is an interesting one, your mention of the complex world-building and of the strong female characters are the elements that just made me add it at the top of my “wanted” list.
Thanks for sharing!!!
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It was such a great surprise! Enjoy if you get the chance to pick it up:-)
Excellent review! I can’t wait to pick this up for myself. 🙂
Lauren @ Always Me
It’s definitely worth getting:-)
Haven’t had a chance to start this one yet, but I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hoping to read it soon 🙂
Hope you enjoy!
Everything I hear about this book just convinces me more and more that I really need to read it. What you said about the worldbuilding feeling like a museum in that way makes it sound like exactly the kind of fantasy I love.
Great review!
Acqua recently posted…Review: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar
Thanks Acqua, I hope you get the chance to read it:-)
Sounds like a great book, and a series with a lot of potential. Definately on my TBR and one I’ll keep an eye out for when I’m wandering through any book stores. Great review, Tammy!
todd recently posted…Circe by Madeline Miller
I think it would be a fun series to start, and get in on the ground floor:-)
This sounds pretty good to me. Airships, portals, plus the whole dead cities and serpent goddess thing… I kept nodding my head as I read your review, thinking yeah this sounds good haha!
Greg recently posted…Tuesday Tagline #177
It has so many cool elements, and surprisingly, they work very well together:-)
I’m about 2/3s through this right now, and I’m enjoying it though I’m finding this middle section to be a bit slow and not as interesting as Csorwe’s origins. Glad to hear the ending is a flurry of action though, hoping to finish this tonight!
I’m so curious to read your review:-)
I didn’t enjoy Tal at first, but by the end, I just felt like the embodiment of the gif of Mal from Firefly looking utterly perplexed. “No Tal, don’t, why, okay, that’s what you did, cool.” He tries so very hard and it always goes SPECTACULARLY wrong. Great review!
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Ha ha I can see the Mal resemblance now:-)
What a great review. I’m excited to read this now. And what an achievement for a debut.
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This looks quite good not going to lie… I love a good in depth fantasy novel and this one sounds like it has a deeply layered plot and great characters! I love character focused books so I think I would really enjoy this one! Fabulous review 🙂
This is one of those books I wasn’t that interested in but I keep seeing such glowing reviews that I kind of want to read it now LOL. Great review!
I’m so glad that you ended up enjoying this book! I was so disappointed that I just couldn’t love it, but it seems like a lot of people do, and that’s great. 🙂 I definitely agree that it ramped up, especially in the last two parts, and I’ll probably read book two, because if it’s like the last two parts for the entire book, then I’m sure I’ll love it!
Tal is 100% a grade A Dick (with a capital D), and that’s what I loved about him. xD And I definitely want more written about Iriskavaal!
The strong female characters and the plot sound really appealing. Thanks.
This sounds awesome 😀 I especially love the tagline, it sounds right up my alley
I honestly know I can’t wait to get my hands on this one! Thanks for the review!
Great review (I just finished writing my review so I re-read yours) We had the same issue with the passing and feeling cheated after the first part. But I also agree the characters are what made the story great! I did actually like Tal and if it wasn’t for Shuthmili I would have wanted Tal and Coswre to end up together. (Tho I am a sucker for enemies-to-lovers so thats probably why)
Brittany recently posted…Review: The Unspoken Name