Wyrd and Wonder is hosted by Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More and questions this week come from Beth of the Fantasy Hive.
Spoilers for Chapters 1 through 11!
What are your initial impressions?
There is so much interesting stuff going on. Lin is competing to be heir but can’t remember a bunch. Jovis is a smuggler, in debt to criminals, and trying to find the people who took his wife. Sand has memories they shouldn’t. An island collapsed into the ocean. I have so many questions.
Impressions of the magic system and world-building?
Oh wow the bone shards are really interesting but also pretty horrible. I find the constructs interesting but that is a terrible price for people to pay. I also find the history interesting. There are ruins on multiple islands of a previous civilization. I feel like the statue is linked to the island sinking somehow. In general I find it very rich and layered so far.
Which character are you particularly drawn to so far?
I am drawn to all of them so far. Jovis is a criminal with a conscience. Lin wants to be the official heir and seems aware of a bunch of the issues with the empire as it is. Sand is the one I have the least impression of but I still want to know more.
Jovis tends to tell lies when faced with truths he doesn’t like, as a first person narrator, how reliable do you feel this makes him?
We may have multiple unreliable narrators. Lin and Sand seem to have memory struggles. Lin has missing memories while Sand has more than she should. I’m not sure I distrust Jovis yet. His heart and his head seem to be at odds though.
Mephi! Any guesses about Jovis’ new furry friend?
I’m guessing they’re a dragon of some kind. They have the beginning of horns and they can breathe hot air. Plus they talk sometimes.
The Green Tea Librarian 
Hallo, Hallo Rachael,
Today, I shared my thoughts about the RAL on my blog as well — it is the first and last discussion I’ll be sharing with everyone as I didn’t finish reading all the chapters myself as this story became a DNF for me. I talked extensively about the reasons why and also about my impressions on the world, the magic and the characters therein. I must say, the least interest I had was in the actual bone shard magic – so I did find that interesting that that is the one part that caught your attention more than anything else. I guess I just couldn’t move past it – the implications of the cost of using that kind of magic and the further implications of what that kind of magic meant overall for this world. In short, it just let me feeling uncomfortable.
I liked how you gave a summary on the characters – how you found their strengths & their weaknesses but also talked to why their character is so interesting for us as readers. I felt you gave a rounded impression of your first readings in this world and having done that – your readers will know if they will want to pick this up for themselves. I wish you well as you continue reading the story. I hope everyone on the RAL enjoys the rest of it and the discussions which shall follow.
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I’m definitely leaning dragon for Mephi too (it’s the horns and the magic breath), which is probably just huge personal bias but I’ll wear that š There’s so much going on, but I love how it’s all coming together and building up gradually (…without answering any questions. It’s all mysteries, so I’m hooked!)
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I remain very curious about Sand but that’s probably because we get a lot less chapters with them.
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