I really want to support and promote more diverse and LGBTQIA+ authors, but in light of recent revelations and actions taken by this author, I will not be reading this book to review. The blatant homophobia, misogyny, and Orientalism is too much.

I appreciate the opportunity to review this book. The premise sounded very interesting, but I will not be supporting or promoting this author.

I no longer want to support this author or their work after hearing about some of the appalling things they have said and done.

I'd describe this best as a super ambitious novel that sounds fantastically great on paper, but falls short on many levels of storytelling (also, it was hella unconfortable to read). It's like the book wanted to prove to the reader it was more clever than them, which ended up frustrating me. Don't judge a book by its cover, they say...

No longer interested in reading. This book has been critiqued by many for its decent ideas, but poor execution, and the author’s response was to this was to call them “not smart enough” or claim they “didn’t get it,” instead of perhaps taking it as possible advice to improve in the future.

No longer want to read this book after the appalling things Zabé Ellor has done and his lesbiphobic ways.

I was really into this book at first and flew through the first 30ish percent. I thought the writing was accessible and I was enjoying the plot. The intricacies of the world were a bit confusing but I didn't think it any worse than many other high fantasy worlds.

But I just found myself caring less and less about the characters and the plot and the world and DNF'd at 48%. I love dinosaurs but they just didn't seem to fit the world to me (which I know is a ridiculous thing to say about a made up world but it just didn't *feel* right). There were also some weirdly modern concepts that were thrown in (the one that stands out most to me for some reason was sock puppet) that were sort of jarring and took me out of the story.

I can see why some people are enjoying this but it just wasn't for me. The author is sort of annoying and defensive on Twitter which was a big turn off (though that's not factored into my review, I just wanted to mention it).

After reading a couple of reviews for this,
I decided to go in with low expectations. I read about three chapters of this book and hated it. The reviews were right, nothing about this is good.

I went into Silk Fire with no expectations hoping to find a compelling new epic fantasy with an interesting world and memorable characters , but It hurts to say, I decided to DNF this book at 14%. Five stars for the cover, though.

DNF @ 55%
I loved the idea of a high scale SFF book with a scheming polyam sexworker protagonist and dragons, but unfortunately I ended up not being quiet as engaged as I hoped to me.

The worldbuilding of Silk Fire was rich and fascinating, and it's one of those books that just throws you right in without explaining all too much. I have to say, even halfway through the book, I still struggled with following all the different people, their allegiances, or how the political system and connections all really worked.
This wasn't helped by how I found the writing confusing at times. Even when there weren't any schemes or specific worldbuilding intensive scenes, I couldn't always follow entirely what was happening from one sentence to the next. This happened during all sorts of scenes, action ones, conversations, and even sex scenes.

I also would generally have appreciated a bit more details surrounding some of the core concepts of the world, like the matriarchy, or who some of the big players in the power structures are and where they came from, and what their power truly entails. Of course, a lot could be gathered from context while reading, but I do like a bit of telling occasionally.

Koré was a protagonist that I both appreciated and... not. I like characters that are unlikeable and have glaring flaws and do mistakes and fuck up... in theory. Koré didn't bother me, but just like I couldn't always follow the plot, I also couldn't always follow why he was doing what he was doing or how his feelings and thoughts evolved.
That said, there was something interesting, and relateable, in his fast switches between confidence and competence, and moments of weakness. At the same time, that lead to situations and the plot developing in ways I didn't like.
Unfortunately, none of the main characters really were my type. I wasn't excited about getting to know any of them, really, and as I like character-driven books, this lowered my engagement with the book quite a bit. This, however, is down purely to personal taste, and I think many readers would find plenty of the characters interesting.

Overall this had a lot of potential, but I think I picked it up at the wrong time. I couldn't read more than a chapter or two at a time, partially due to outside circumstances, and it wasn't always easy to get back into the book. I originally wanted to finish this, but when I realized I had no interest in picking the book back up, I had to admit to myself I better put it aside from now. I would love to reread at some point in the future and find out how it all ends, but for now, this is it.

⭐️⭐️ BOLD, POLITICAL, MAGICAL, SEDUCTIVE ⭐️⭐️

❤️ Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

** Welcome to Jadzia **

When I first saw the introductory list of all the pronunciations and characters, I admit I felt intimidated. But after reading the first few pages a couple of times, I began to feel very engaged with the story.

This isn’t your typical fantasy novel with overused tropes and a predictable series of events. This story is totally unique, and I love that you have to give the story all of your focus and attention to truly become immersed into the plot. I read each page slowly, savouring each new word and concept.

Silkfire gives me Malazan vibes in the sense that it is not an easy read that you can simply skim through and be done with. Aspects I did not understand at first were slowly explained to me throughout the course of the story.

This world is so incredible. It would be so easy to simply tell us all this information, but Zabe Ellor SHOWS us all the intricate details. We learn about the ruling class, the politics, the history, the money, the culinary delights (breaded snake fillets!), the technology and the elemental magic all through the eyes of our protagonist.

The excerpts given at the beginning of the chapters were really effective in deepening the reader’s understanding of the world.

I LOVED how gender and LGBT themes was explored throughout the story, and the defiance of traditional norms.

Our protagonist, Koreshiza Brightstar, wishes to rise above a courtesan to become a campaign strategist in the War District. It was refreshing to read about a male courtesan as this is rarely seen in fantasy novels. His character had so much depth - you could see his desires and his struggles, his ambition and his self-doubt. I felt so much attachment and love for him!!

Zabe Ellor truly understands human nature and this is evident in the depth of all the characters in the story. The plot lines just kept getting better and better as I progressed through the book, so imaginative, original and clever!

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys intelligent, detailed, lore-rich fantasy!

❤️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The synopsis intrigued me, but this was such a painful read. The world building was all over the place and author tried to do too much, too fast, and presented it poorly. I can't imagine anyone I would recommend this to.

The moment I first heard about "Silk Fire" I knew I had to read it ASAP. A male courtesan out for revenge in a fantasy setting with a poly romance? I. Needed. This. Book. I honestly expected to devour it in a single sitting but I will admit that I was a little thrown off guard at the start. The world building is extensive and rather than hold your hand, guiding you through it, the author throws the reader in and you learn the world as you go. Once I was able to adjust my expectations, however, I was able to truly enjoy this story.

(Not gonna lie though I did stumble over so many of the names but so glad there was a pronunciation guide at the beginning but if you are someone who struggles with difficult fantasy type names then I would possible recommend the audiobook when it releases!)

All in all, though, I adored Koré as a MC - not to mention my love for his two romantic interests. This book is absolutely the most unique story I have ever read and I truly recommend giving it a chance!

I ended up DNFing. I wanted to enjoy and was intrigued by the synopsis and cover but over all just found the story to be all over the place.

This was a huge DNF for me i got to about 50 pages in and just couldnt read anymore.

I wouldnt say i won't try to read it again but right now i just wasn't enjoying it.

Unfortunately I couldn't recommend this book. I don't like to give negative feedback, but I just couldn't finish this book. I often had to re-read entire pages multiple times to try and understand the point being made, which was frustrating. The characters were annoying and repetitive, and half of them were confusing, with an abundance of names to remember that was beyond me. I do think it was a creative and original story, but it needs extensive editing and work on the world building, pacing, characters and accessibility.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC. This honest review was based off my experience reading an ARC, which in no way biased me.

Silk fire is an adult fantasy debut that seemed great in theory but the execution was a bit flat. One of the reasons that I wanted to read this book was for the BEAUTIFUL cover, I will say that was the main draw to this book. The synopsis was intriguing enough to have me request it. I was curious to see what a matriarchal city looked like, with an interesting blend of tech and magic.

Unfortunately this did not deliver what I was expecting. The writing was hard to piece together at times. The world building felt almost like it there was TOO much going on, between all the magic and the creatures, it felt a bit all over the place. As someone who doesn’t need much descriptions to understand the point this felt very poorly explained.

No one is a fan of info dumping, and this felt more of the author “telling” the reader rather than showing. Speaking of telling, the repetition in internal monologues is one of my biggest pet peeves when reading. When I am told for the hundredth time something that I understood the first time, its quite frustrating.

Things I did like, the fact that we had a male bisexual sex worker as a main character of a high fantasy series. This was one of my favorite things but unfortunately this gets overlooked by everything else.

This gets a generous 2 stars for me.

DNF at 7%. I tried. I really did, but absolutely nothing about this book drew me in. I might try again at a later date but from the rest of the reviews and snippets I read ahead to, I'm not sure if I want to.

Thank you NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF
Silk Fire is a very ambitious piece of work that could have done well with a little less ambition or a lot more polishing . Its one of the messiest worlds I've ever seen with a steampunk fantasy blend, dragons, dinosaurs, gods, planet sized cities, magical energy and some other things that I'm missing because I couldn't keep track.

The book also promises a matriachy but instead, writes one of those flipside patriarchy worlds where women commit the same atrocities as men to men. Not to say a matriarchy wouldn't be harmful at points but it doesn't entirely copy the patriarchy.

I tried hard but no. Silk Fire is a mess that should have been edited way more comprehensively because it could have been good if it had focused on any one or two of the many convoluted threads it creates. Instead, ot felt like the author tried to compress every idea that's in fantasy/scifi into one book and the discord shows.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the review arc

𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴.

I rarely DNF a book, even if I'm not enjoying it. But every now and again, a book comes along and you really struggle with it. I got about a third of the way with this one but kept getting distracted because I was losing focus and struggling to concentrate.

I think the author made a valiant attempt at an interesting story. But there are just too many things that are lacklustre for me.

Koré is a courtesan on a planet-sized city called War. It's a matriarchal society that often discriminates against boys and men. Koré has strong ambitions driven by revenge and hatred – he wants to destroy his father, a magistrate who wishes to become War's first male judge — the city's ruler. His father had rejected Koré and his mother, to whom he wasn't married. Koré wants to ensure his father's downfall and begins to build alliances against him.

Many reviewers have criticised the world-building and I tend to agree that there are things I just didn't get. Perhaps I'm at fault but some aspects were completely left unexplained. When Koré becomes a dragon I struggled to figure out exactly how (this isn't a spoiler as it happens at the beginning of the book). The incident is glossed over even though it's a significant moment.

Then there is the main character himself. Koré's constant self-deprecating inner monologue becomes tedious. He constantly refers to himself as a monster, a whore etc. and his single-minded focus on his love/hatred for his father becomes laborious to read. It basically felt like I was reading the same thing over and over.

I think this story has potential, with an interesting premise that aims to comment on gender by reversing roles and setting up a matriarchal society. I just think the book needs a really good edit. I do love the cover though!

I struggled with the start of this book a little as the world was interesting but a little overwhelming. It was beautifully described and had a lot going on all at once and quite quickly within the first part of the book. As the story progressed I really enjoyed the world that was created and the diverse characters that were present. The story took a little while to get going as it was intercut with the MCs backstory but I did find it interesting none the less. I think the story could have benefited from some more in-depth world building and a little bit more story pacing but I loved reading it. It was an enjoyable read and I can’t wait to see what comes from this author next!