This was a very heavy read. Throughout it, I didn't feel a connection to the characters, maybe because of how complicated their names were to remember, or simply because there wasn't something that hooked me to them. The plot was very interesting, and I was eager to know this world, but the truth is that I was about 20% into the book and I still didn't understand/enjoy many aspects of it. There were a lot of elements, and perhaps that was one of the mistakes; so much was attempted to be covered that nothing ever came to fruition, and so it all feels half-baked. Hopefully I can pick up this read again in the future, but for now it strikes me as a book with great potential that wasn't fully tapped.

Stunning. In every sense of the word. The world building feels natural and the characters explosively 3D. It is a brilliant premise to have a sex worker introduce one to the world of a sci-fi novel. Not only was this incredibly written, it was a wonderful journey to take and I cannot recommend it more.

First of all, thank you so much for providing me with an ARC of this! I was really looking forward to reading this so getting it before release was so great!

Unfortunately I can not finish this book at this time. I just can't read further right now. Maybe if I'm in the exactly right mood for it I might pick it up again.

Heres a few things I like: I love how queer this book is, absoutely adore it. I also think the world has real potential. Ohm and I like that it starts with a pronunciation guide, that's pretty cool!
But these unfortunately overshadowed by negative points. First of all, the writing in the beginning is just not good. In the first 25 pages we get about 5 scene changes, way to many characters and plot points, there's not a second to breath. It's really hard to read. The worldbuilding is not well woven into the story so that the whole thing is also incredibly confusing. Like, I think theere are dinosaurs? And the fact that that is a question and I'm not sure is just a bad sign. It slows down a bit around page 70 wich is greatly appreciated but it's still very confusing.
The incredibly sexist matriarchal society is well developed but I never really got the sense why there is a sexist matriarchal society. What's its point? If it is to demonstrate how rediculus and harmful the patriarchy we live in is then I applaud it. But that never really becomes clear in the way the society is written. So the possibility that it is meant as a warning about 'what feminism will lead to' is always there (although I really don't think that's the point) and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So in conclusion: I was really excited for this book but I personally could not get into it at this point. I have seen reviews of readers who really loved it and I can definetely see that some people will like this book a lot, I'm just not one of them.

You know, it all sounded so promising... this book had a great cover, a stunning premise and then, when it came to actually reading it, I felt so let down by it all. Maybe it's just one of those books where the author in question wasn't ready to write it yet? Maybe it was just a case of biting off more than they could chew? We'll never know...

The basic premise of Silk Fire is that it's set in a matriarchal society and features the plans of Kore, a sex worker, as he attempts to get his revenge on the father who tricked his mother into getting pregnant and then subsequently disowned both of them. There's also dragons involved, not to mention various forms of magic, and it sounded almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, it was.

Our 'matriarchal society' is just a pretty ham-fisted direct reversal of a patriarchal one, with little to no nuance at all. I appreciate an unreliable narrator at the best of times but our protagonist frequently tipped over into whiny and self-pitying, not helped by the time jumps in the writing which might have him scheming with his love interests in one moment and then plying his trade with a local magistrate the next. The world-building was very much on the kitchen sink and all approach, with multi-syllabic names that all started to blur into one after a while. In all, there was just too much shoved into the plot and what seems like insufficient skill to make it work.

All in all, this book was a big disappointment after the blurb made it sound right up my street. I'm resigned to things not working for me that other people love but somehow, this feels different. I hadn't read any of this author's previous work and I can't say it makes me want to take a chance in the future either.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of that book.

I hated this book. The plot made no sense at any point and every single person was annoying and frustrating. Additionally, for the sheer number of sex scenes in this book, Ellor should be able to write smut. I'm glad I finished this book so I never have to read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Silk Fire was. An experience, to put it lightly. It was chaotic and all over the place and half the time I didn't really know what was going on. I don't mind being confused by a book, and everything that was happening was very interesting, with a very weird combo of fantasy and sci fi and the reverse society of men who are in the "traditional roles" of women in our society i.e seen to be the ones to raise kids, the ones to be weaker. As a women it was nice to read a fantasy set in a world that changed things up a bit since it can get very boring when you're reading fantasies where the hierarchy is basically the same, if not worse, than it is in our own world.

I've rated this book 3 stars because aspects of it, like those mentioned above, were really cool to see, and the writing itself was well done. My issue is that I didn't really like any of the characters - I got on well with the protagonist at first but his low self esteem and self hatred got so repetitive after a while.

If you want to experience a sci fi fantasy tale that is like nothing you've ever read before, this is the one to go for, but for me it just didn't quite get there.

I unfortunately did not finish this book; I struggled to follow both the plot and world-building, and did feel that there was a lot of orientalism that made me uncomfortable reading. There was definitely a premise that I was intrigued by, and I felt like the characters all had distinct personalities, I just couldn't get into what the book had going on and the writing style felt confusing to me. I still look forward to seeing what this author writes next, this just wasn't the book for me.

A little overwhelming all the invented words and concepts, so, is a big DNF for me. I love idea of the main character and the matriarcal world was a good concept, one that made me ask for this read. However, is TOO MUCH of a mess. Not only you cannot remember or pronunce almost any of the names, but also the writing is confusing and in the purpose of doing some high fantasy, it all ended just like a gather of bad-made thing that doesn't lead you anywhere. What a shame.

I feel always squichy when I review something I DNF but I didnt stop reading cause it was bad, I stop reading cause I wasnt into it.
Here the thing, I am not a huge world building fantasy fan. I am more into a light fantasy touch kind of person so this book was a LOT for me. I love the MC so I was forcing myself but I wasnt enjoying it. Anyway, I have seen a lot of people DNF it and I think it's because a lot of people come to fantasy by YA and this isnt YA. This is complicated fantasy with a slow plot and yes it goes everywhere and nobody is holding your hand and explaining the politics with a powerpoint montage but that doesnt make it a bad book.
For me the issue is that I didnt care about any of it. But I am sure this will please people who loves more heavy fantasy stories.
I think this book should be marketed more obviously for adult reader.

I DNFd this title as I personally found it quite a difficult experience to read. While I totally respect what the author was attempting with this novel it was a little bit of a mess.

The world building was quite hard to decipher and bland and the characters were just not very well developed at all.

As I only read a small amount I don't want to rate it low as that is extremely unfair. I'm sure there will be people who vibe with Silk Fire, in fact I hope there are. Perhaps fans of Zabe Ellor's previous book? It just really wasn't for me.

This is a hard review to write. I went into Silk Fire with no expectations hoping to find a compelling new epic fantasy with an interesting world and memorable characters. Epic Fantasy is perhaps my favorite genre; I keep coming back to it and I genuinely enjoy a lot of its aspects that many people find tedious or excessive. I like complicated worldbuilding and I like complicated politics and messy characters, so I had assumed that Silk Fire would surely entertain me. I’m afraid I was wrong.
Silk fire is an ambitious attempt at an Epic Fantasy of large scale, but it fails to deliver on most aspects that make Epic Fantasy great, while featuring almost all the elements that usually deter the readers from the genre. I’m not sure I can speak of the themes or even the plot of the novel beyond the basic premise—it feels overly convoluted and like something in need of a better editor.
I’m a big fan of revenge stories. In fact, fantasy or not, a good revenge arc is always an aspect of a story I can enjoy. And while it was entertaining seeing Kore try to undermine his father, it ended up falling rather flat for me. The narrative on its own doesn’t feel cohesive or interesting to follow—there were too many times where I just got frustrated and wanted to close the book for good.
What annoyed me to no end was the worldbuilding and how it was woven into the narrative. From page one the reader is bombarded with terms and names and concepts that are completely unfamiliar and stay that way for a while. One every page something new is abruptly introduced with few and rather inadequate explanations and the reader is simply supposed to follow along while having a very vague idea about the world, the hierarchy and the magic system.
Now about worldbuilding elements I hated. I am absolutely not a fan of how gender roles were reversed here. It felt on the nose and was completely uncompelling. The whole “men are oppressed in this society” read like satire and I had to take a step back to remember it is all unironic. Frankly, it felt like another excuse for the author to use the word “slut” when referring to men one too many times. Speaking of sluts, this is a matter of personal preference, but I usually steer clear of stories with an abundance of sexual content. I don’t find them entertaining so I usually skip those elements in any story. And usually I can overlook it and it doesn’t affect my experience with books, but in the case of Silk Fire I found myself irritated. This isn’t the book’s fault, but rather my taste, but it certainly distracted me and didn’t let me enjoy the book.
None of the characters felt compelling. Kore’s inner monolog quickly becomes repetitive and he himself isn’t a particularly likable character. I like anti-heroes and misfits and protagonists one would consider a villain, but Kore fell completely flat for me. His politicking, his thirst for revenge, his authority—none of it felt believable or compelling.
The prose was rather lackluster. When it wasn’t littered with completely unfamiliar terms that the reader would get no explanation about, the prose became infodump-y, releasing too much information all at once, creating very uneven pacing and leaving questions that ended up making the reading experience more frustrating. The dialogue at times felt on the nose and over the top, while the humor didn’t quite strike the chords it should have.
Overall, I’m very disappointed.

This book is a dnf for me. It was difficult to read. It was needlessly convoluted and tried too hard. It does not have to be so dense to be considered high fantasy, and as much as I understand that sex work is a big part of the character’s life and story, it did not need to be sex scene after sex scene for us to understand. I was looking forward to this book much, and I’m incredibly disappointed by what we were given.

To be honest, i just really didn’t enjoy this book. I got what the author what trying to do but it just didn’t quite happen as i think was intended. The instant information dump in the first few pages was an immediate issue for me. Especially in this genre, information needs to be fully described and written well to hook the reader in, not info dumped during 5 seconds. I don’t know what else to write about this book as the start sets the mood for the rest of the novel. There were some parts i really enjoyed, the sex was entertaining and the cover was so beautiful it made me want to pick this up asap but the writing didn’t work for me.

This was one of my anticipated books of the year and unfortunately, I am going to DNF it at 20%.
This book has a lot of really wonderful things that work in its favor. The world of the book is large and intricate with lots of magical creatures and political intrigue. It's also very queer and the cover is AMAZING.
There are a couple main reasons I'm not going to finish this that I want to explain because I'd like for this book to end up with a reader who will love it and the same reasons I'm not finishing something may be the same things that make someone else pick it up!
First, even though this book is set in a matriarchal society, it still felt sexist to me. It seemed like it was just flipped entirely with men being degraded and treated poorly. I started to feel pretty bad while reading it.
Second, I did not have any idea what was going on. I understand that this is normal for fantasy, which is why I continued reading for longer than I wanted to, but it was just very unclear. Maybe some readers will like the challenge of untangling this complicated worldbuilding!
Finally, if you're going to read this, please note there's a lot of sexual content (something the author has been quite transparent about in content warnings, but worth mentioning again here).
I really wanted this to be a new queer fantasy favorite but it wasn't a good fit for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had some interesting concepts--dragons, a matriarchal society, a bisexual protagonist who is also a sex worker, political intrigue--but unfortunately there was so much going on that nothing ended up landing particularly well for me. The world-building (especially all the names) felt unnecessarily confusing, the world's matriarchy was far too heavy-handed in its critique of traditional gender roles and the length of the novel meant that the pacing felt off at times. I did appreciate that the love triangle trope was avoided with polyamory, and I really enjoyed the character of Ria. The book's cover is also stunning!

(Many thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion for the eARC.)

I am going to be very blunt: Zabe Ellor was not ready to write this book.

I don't like saying it, but that’s it. That’s the truth. His writing skills are not yet at the point where he could take the (genuinely fabulous) ideas in his head and do them justice on the page. That’s what all the problems with Silk Fire come down to.

Silk Fire‘s premise is easily the kind that an author would – should – spend years training for. That doesn’t mean a big complex queer-as-fuck science-fantasy novel can’t be your debut; plenty of storytellers come out of the gate with something incredible. But they spent years getting to the gate. They spent years building the idea, working out the worldbuilding, writing and rewriting scenes and chapters and entire plotlines – rewriting the whole book from scratch, if necessary. Sometimes multiple times. Their debuts look incredibly polished because those authors have put blood, sweat, tears and years into polishing them.

This isn’t Ellor’s debut, but he still wasn’t ready. He should have waited, spent longer working on this, working up to this. Because all the problems with Silk Fire are really one problem: plain bad writing. This is a case of someone jumping into the Olympics before they were ready for a triathlon.

I sympathise: if I had a story idea this cool, I know I would have an incredibly hard time holding myself back from sharing it with the world. But at this stage? It just wasn’t ready. Silk Fire reads like an enthusiastic Nanonovel, minus the ubiquitous Nanonovel typos – and the ruthless editing and rewriting required to turn a Nanonovel into the masterpiece this deserved to be.

DNF at 62% (1.5ish rounded down)
I tried SO HARD, but I can’t do it anymore.
First of all, I have read MAY THE BEST MAN WIN. I liked it, but didn’t love the toxicity and a couple of smaller elements. I love flawed characters, but I just didn’t love the book. For SILK FIRE, I did know a loose summary going it, and it was as it was pitched.
However, I just really didn’t like a lot of elements. I’ve read a lot of adult fantasy novels recently and I’d like to think I’ve gotten accustomed to info dumping and keeping track of worldbuilding, but I just couldn’t do it here. Again, I gave it it’s fair chance, 62%! I just couldn’t keep track of so much after hundreds of pages, and it bothered me.
Second of all, I didn’t like the writing style very much. Everything always seemed so abrupt, which was partially due to there being indistinct paragraph breaks (the trouble with ARCs sometimes), but also just how the author wrote. I found myself skimming a lot, and I just didn’t like the experience of reading it. Lastly, although I can see so many reasons to use this concept, especially in this book, I just don’t love reverse sexism in books. For one thing, it caught me off guard, and I won’t really elaborate much, but men being treated like how women are treated in real life to make a point doesn’t sit right with me.
I would say that the overall quality of the book is good, but I just didn’t like it.
Maybe I’ll come back to this book, but I wouldn’t really consider myself a fan. I’m sure there are a million people who’d love this book, but I’m not one of them.

Actual rating: 1.5 (rounded down)

Many thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Right off the bat: even with the prior ‘Names and Pronunciation’ section, I was at a loss. The names are just far too ridiculous to 1. Look at and 2. Pronounce. I’m not saying this in a xenophobic way, mind you. I respect cultures and pronunciations from all over the world (even fantastical made up ones), but when it comes to fantasy literature, I really don’t want to struggle with little things like names and honorifics. I’m also not trying to say that this should be dumbed down for readers, but make it a little less wild and abstract. Faraakshgé and Akizeké Shikishashir Dzaxashigé… ??? It’s needlessly convoluted.

And even after all that, we’re given even more dumps of information. The worldbuilding comes fast, and it comes fully-loaded with confusion. To summarize: I was at a loss before I even began. What I did note was that the gender politics were reversed, which was refreshing, and that there were… dragons and dinosaurs. Like, actual dinosaurs. And everyone in the book talked about the dinos’s presence unironically. It was a little too comical for me to get over it— “brotsaurus burgers” and raptors pulling hover ships like horses and a carriage. It’s not the kind of fantasy I enjoy reading, and I should’ve known better before diving in.

The only redeeming qualities is that there were glimpses of nuance and well-written passages, but they’re overshadowed at every turn by melodrama and inanely perplexing worldbuilding. I didn’t want to jump on the ‘one-star bandwagon’, especially considering this is a debut, but I have to stay true and honest.

Another thing: everyone in this book is so. Horny. There is a lot of sex and crudeness, so readers with an aversion to that sort of content should steer clear. I personally gave up and skimmed the remained of the book after I encountered a BDSM foot play and fisting threesome.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

Review text removed due to feedback from author's fans.

Thank you to Rebellion and Netgalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Polyamorous representation,, dragons and a tale which follows a beautiful courtesan in a matriarchal society as he delves into the world of politics in order to exact vengeance - everything about this story offers intrigue and, in theory, should be a groundbreaking novel in the adult fantasy world. Unfortunately, what is produced is far from this.

Worldbuilding - Everything about the world building is delivered as an info dump, offering vague comments about the political climate while simultaneously throwing details at the reader from page one about the planet-sized setting of the novel. There are so many elements to the world (necromancers, dragons, dinosaurs, forgotten civilisations and tech) which seem forced together for absolutely no reason and, despite the author’s insistence (more on that later) tat this is an epic fantasy and should be read as such, it lacks the world building of the books they compare it to, leaving a confusing world with nonsensical elements.

Plot - truthfully, its hard to understand if there is one at times. As with the worldbuilding there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, a lack of explanation for many plot points which may seem obvious to the author but to the reader no understanding is provided and a complete disregard for pacing. The first couple of chapters are completely rushed, with so much happening and little explanation, something which continues throughout the book. One scene in particular provides a traumatic event, a sex scene and an emotional revelation before completely moving on, with absolutely zero chance to let what has occurred sink in, the for the reader or the characters.

Characters - The main character is a drag to read, constantly reinforcing the idea that they are undeserving of love and a vile monster, so much so that they are offered no depth and the reader struggles to empathise with them. The connections they have with other characters seem forced - with the exception of Ria, though there are many scenes with her which seem gratuitous, an excuse to include a sex scene which adds nothing or diverts the plot needlessly. Minor characters are rarely expanded upon, leaving them two dimensional and superfluous.

The Author - This is not a critique of the author as a person, but rather how they offer a reading of the title. I was intrigued by this title based on comments I had seen them make on social media and this was one of the reasons why I requested the title. However, when struggling with the book, I took to social media again, to see them tell how people were reading it wrong, how readers are not supposed to read it quickly, how their world building makes perfect sense due to massive staircases being designed for bipeds or how the hover carts and extensive tech is needed because they couldn’t possibly have wheels in the terrain.... None of this is explained in the title and as a result, the writing appears chaotic and unfocused, with the author blaming the reader for this.

This title offered many great things and delivered on none of them, other than a beautiful cover.