I enjoyed this so much! I did not like the author’s YA novel bc the characters were horrible but his fantasy book is loads better. He needs to stick to this genre.

I loved the court politics and the romance with the two other love interests :)

this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and i am so disappointed with this. an.... attempt was made at adult fantasy. the expansive world, political intrigue, and blend of scifi and fantasy are there, but it was too ambitious and too messy in my opinion.

let me start with the writing. it is so dry, and it's too weak for adult fantasy. just because you can write words in sentences doesn't mean you can tell stories. forming coherent sentences does not equal to having the ability to tell a story. as a result, a lot of information and events are crammed in uneven chunks very ungracefully. the storytelling is not smooth and the narrative voice is sloppy and, quite frankly exhausting to read. the worldbuilding, while very detailed, is all over the place. it needs some extensive cleaning because it is so convoluted i could not picture the setting at all. the political intrigue has potential and may be intriguing at times, but the execution is too rough and messy. the main character is too dramatic and takes himself too seriously. he's too callow despite the "experiences" that supposedly changed his life. i lost count of the number of times i rolled my eyes or huffed out an incredulous laugh because of the dumb shit he does and says. he and everybody around him are ridiculous, and in a very irritating way! speaking of everybody around him, i'm not convinced with the love interests and i find them lukewarm.

despite all that, there are a few good aspects to the story: while the narration is messy, at least it's consistent(ly annoying). and writing sex into every other chapter sure is entertaining too, though i can't say it's quality writing. the author obviously put too much into describing the food and the sex, so naturally other aspects of the book (like the politics, the worldbuilding, the magic system) are done half-assedly because the author failed to balance the intended "fun". personally, my confusion far outweighed the fun i was supposed to have.

i think the problem with this book is that the author fails to convince us how cool the world is. it's chock-full of SFF elements i usually enjoy, but my reading experience was actually so painful because it tries too hard to be different. the blend of scifi and fantasy is too crude, like the author just carelessly picked which elements from each genre to include in the book, not explaining how or why. anyway, the author has a lot of improving to do. i understand that this is a debut adult fantasy novel, but this was absolutely too ambitious! it wanted to do a lot of things, that it failed to do everything.

Thanks for giving giving me the opportunity to read this book. But unfortunately I have to dnf it.

"Silk Fire" is a sff novel set in a planet-sized matriarchal city where magic and technology freely bleed together. In this story, we join Koré ,a male courtesan, on his quest for vengeance against his aristocrat father. "Silk Fire" is a genre bending sci-fi book. It has queer main characters, fascinating technologies, magic, dragons, necromancers and it also features a polyamorous relationship. Sounds really nice, right? I agree. From the gorgeous book cover to its intriguing blurb - everything intrigued me. But alas! It didn't deliver according to the potential it showed.

Trust me, I tried. I tried a lot. No one is more upset than me for not being able to finish the book. The writing is very dry and hard to follow. The characters are dull and two dimensional. The book is eventful but I literally had no idea about what was going on. Everything started happening all at once.

The thing which bothered me most was the names. All the characters, cities, places and traditions have really really difficult names. The author provides a list of the character names in the beginning of the book. But it didn't help me much. I faced lots of difficulties to remember all these names. Even when someone got murdered at chapter 4, I was clueless about who murdered whom. You can't expect me to continue reading when I don't even know who's who.

The world Zabé Ellor has created is super interesting and fascinating. I really loved the idea of it but the author fails to execute. The world building could have been much more acute and done with patience.

The author basically has rushed every single aspect of the story which turned the book into a hot mess. I had high hopes for it. So, I am extremely disappointed.

3 stars is because of my enjoyment of the book but in terms of quality, it's between 3 and four stars.

Silk Fire has a rich and complex world with a matriarchal society. The main character, Koré, is a sex worker (and yes there are multiple explicit sex scenes) who wants to stop his father from gaining political power. He's a fascinating main character who uses his charms to get what he wants but is full of self-loathing and doesn't believe that he deserves anything. I felt like the narration was a bit heavy-handed with his internal dialogue being "I'm a monster" all the time. It was interesting at first to see what kind of development we would get from this but 80% into the book he was still going on every chapter about being a monster.

This is a book that focuses on the plot rather than on the characters and that was a shame because I couldn't follow the plot at all. I'm used to complex fantasy plots, but I felt stupid reading this because sometimes a thing would happen and I had no idea how we got from point A to point B. I had a hard time tracking who was everyone because I was reading on my phone so I didn't feel like flipping to the glossary every time I couldn't remember a side character. I'm not often thrown off by confusing books, I actually enjoy piecing together the worldbuilding but it felt like this time the fault lied with the book rather than with my own understanding of the story.

However, the writing was gorgeous and the description so lush.

This is a common complaint for me but Koré and another character confess their love about 60% into the book and act all in love during the rest of the book (this is about one of the love interest, the main character ends up in a poly relationship) and at no point I knew why they had feelings to each other. I understand Koré falling for the first person who shows him attention but the other way around? Since this is a very plot-heavy book, I couldn't connect to their relationship at all. because I felt like they almost had none (and the book was long).

One last thing, I do not know about the author's intentions and therefore it's not a judgment of values but I strongly dislike seeing a matriarchal society that is just our sexist society but man swapped for woman. every insults used against Koré is a misogynistic insult which made me super uncomfortable to read given how the writing reminds you all the time that he is a man oppressed by society.

I just saw that the author tweeted this:

"Gentle reminder: if you do not like reading sex scenes, SILK FIRE is probably not the book for you"

And this:

"The main character is a sex worker and a lot of the magic is sex-based! Many pivotal character scenes involve conversations people have while f***ing!"

And I no longer feel able to read and review this book. I'm asexual and while I don't mind a book having one or two 'fade to black' sex scenes, I'm not comfortable reading something with lots of explicit sex. I just wish I'd known this *before* I requested an ARC.

I'm just going to give it 3 stars because I don't want to give it a bad rating (3 stars is decent in my opinion - or at least slightly better than average) and I know that Ellor is a good writer. I look forward to reading more YA from this author in the future but will not attempt any more of Ellor's adult books unless I know beforehand how much sexual content there will be.

I was fortunate enough to be given an ARC of this, but unfortunately after giving it a good 24% I’m putting it down. <b>This is only a partial review so take it with a grain of salt! There’s some wonderful things here but it just isn’t for me. </b>

Pros:

Dinosaurs (I did not expect them).

The main character we follow is a compelling one. Kore, a sex worker, has a personality I’m immediately drawn to — and watching his desperation to hide feelings beneath calluses whilst attempting to put a hand in politics pulls on my heartstrings. From what I’ve been able to glean this is a revenge story and I love those.

You can tell the author put a lot of thought and heart into the world and it’s characters — its not only fleshed out but a level one can drown in without an author’s guiding hand. Which brings me to…

The cons:

Silk Fire has an interesting premise with a lot going on.
It shows.
The narrative is hard to follow and the writing — while gorgeous on the surface — was super hard for me to follow. It feels like reading a literary fantasy with a lot of purple prose and never knowing what sentences <i>mean</i>.
In short, it reads like the author loves and wants to tell this story, but there’s not enough guidance to find footing as a reader.
I wanted to love this but it’s not meant to be. I hope it works for someone out there! I do believe its an unpolished, hidden gem.

I’m slightly disappointed
this book sounded amazing, it had many things I know I could love, and while I loved the world building, I really couldn’t connect to the characters.

On top of that, most of the sex scenes made me quite uncomfortable, but that might just be on me!

Maybe the pacing was too slow for me, I don’t know, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

The rep was pretty good tho, I didn’t have any problem with how it was represented and the fact that it was there made me quite happy (:

I think some people might like this more than I did, which is why I would still recommend it, to people who love to read a heavy book with many fantasy aspects.

Big thanks to NetGalley + Rebellion Publishing for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Really interesting premise with a beautiful cover (dragons + dinosaurs + spaceships? + matrilineal/matriarchal society + political intrigue + polyamory + trans folk + sex work + magic of a sort + lots more) and interesting universe. Unfortunately, this is a DNF (22%) for me due to pacing + muddled narrative (some chapters kept me on the line/made me turn the page, but then I'd stumble into one that felt chaotic and incredibly difficult to follow). This is an ambitious book whose execution felt lacking for me and/or could benefit from intensive editing for greater clarity for the reader.

Some additional that had me struggling with this read included:
- lots of info dumping that didn't end up providing clarity about the universe or setting (as a reader I want to know the things I need to know, and am happy with unfamiliar/universe-specific words for things that I'll figure out with context but that balance was off with this one)
- execution of the gender role reversal bit (love the concept here, but the execution felt like a simple 180 of clichéd understandings of gender roles for this reader)

Also note: not for the faint of heart (please read TWs before picking this one up), but potentially the right fit for folks who enjoy heavier SFF and are comfortable with the type of content covered by TWs.

Two stars for beautiful cover, ambitious content, but execution and editing work that is yet to be done for this one to feel polished and accessible, even for readers of intense SFF like myself.

I was SO excited for the premise of this book. A male cortesan, dragons, political intrigue and polyamory? Sign me up! However, this book felt short of my, admittedly very high, expectations and to try and sort out what went wrong (and what went right) I'm going to go through the pros and cons.

Pro: The world building
It's extremely clear a lot of work went into the world of this story. There are so many elements, such as the political system, society, the food, the culture. I applaud the author in how detailed they were.

Con:...The worldbuilding
Unfortunately, beyond a brief pronunciation guide (which still left me confused on how to pronounce names) and a couple of buildings, we are quite literally thrown into this world with very little explanation. I wasn't sure what was going on a lot of the time, especially in the beginning, and just trusted that it would make sense later. Which, it mostly did, but it was difficult to get there.

Pro: The subject matter
This book deals with a lot of heavy subjects such as sex work, misogyny, abuse and I think they're all pretty well handled and explored.

Con: Kore
Most of the time, I didn't mind Kore as an MC. What I could have done without, and what would have shortened this pretty hefty book, was cutting out a lot of his repetitive internal dialogue. It made him annoying, even when his thoughts were valid.

Pro: The pacing
Ignoring the internal dialogue issue, the pacing is quick, which is strange considering the length of the book. Scenes change quickly enough that you do want to find out what happens next.

Con: The romance
I'm sorry, I didn't see any chemistry between the trio that justified their declarations of love, at least so soon. There was so much potential there but the pay off wasn't quite there unfortunately. I liked the love interests in their own right, but more work needed to be done developing the relationships.

Con: The sex scenes
My primary issue with the sex scenes is that there wasn't a distinction between them for when Kore was working and when he was with those he loved. They all felt the same to me. If a sex scene is going to be there, I want it to have a real purpose. Having the ones with clients be quite clinical and quick in description makes sense. I want more exploration when it's a more romantic setting.

Pro: Dragons (and dinosaurs)

Con: The writing
More than once, I couldn't follow what people were doing. It felt to me as if lines had been omitted. I'd think people were on the other side of the room and suddenly they're close enough to talk to. Overall, there could have been more connectives. I wasn't in love with the writing style.

While there are more cons than pros, I give this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because the premise and pacing kept me hooked throughout, despite the failings in other areas.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book early.
Unfortunately it is a DNF for me. I wasn't gripped at the start and ended up quite confused. I also don't think I am in the right mood for this book right now. I am still interested and will look at purchasing when it officially comes out and give it another go.
I loved that it has a pronunciation guide at the start and found that to be extremely useful.
Popped it as a 1 star as didn't want to give a rating because I didn't finish but I had to put one.

I remember reading the blurb and squealing with great joy.
This was an amazing read!
Silk Fire is brimming with imaginative ideas, as evidenced by the literal worldbuilding, which includes magic, technology, and even dinosaurs, as well as the reshuffling and reimagining of gender and sexual politics.
Great book!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC of Silk Fire. I can't wait until my own physical copy arrives in July!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

Unfortunately this is going to be a DNF for me which is a shame. The cover is stunning, the world seems vivid but it just seems overall complicated and I became confused very fast with what was going on.

Whilst there is a pronunciation guide at the start, it didn’t help much as I found myself going back and forth and the names were just too long winded for me to grasp.

A few chapters in I found I knew barely nothing about Koré apart from the fact that he hated his father.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for giving me an e-ARC of Silk Fire in exchange for an honest review!

Sadly this book will be a DNF for me.

I can usually tell if a book is to my taste after reading only a few pages, Silk Fire was no exception. Whilst I loved the pictures it put in my head, how the scenes came to life in my minds eye, I find myself struggling to connect to the story.

Usually I can bypass my confusion at foreign words, in this case the native language of the world the book is set in, however the lack of explanations to the meanings of these words bother me. Being thrown into such a vast, unfamiliar world and then being expected to understand how it functions without enough time to get used to it, was a bit difficult for me.

I wish I'd read more reviews on NetGalley beforehand because I was not expecting sex to be such a big part of the story. After only 5 chapters I'd already witnessed several sex scenes, none of which I'd describe as blatantly consensual (our main character is a courtesan/sex worker). Personally this is not my cup up of tea, I prefer not to read about traumatic and harsh experiences as I tend to read as a joyous escape.

What drew me in was the promise of magic and dragons, but their introduction fell flat and just confused me. I also saw a few reviewers call this "Avatar The Last Airbender - for adults", a statement that had me curious, as an avid ATLA fan, but left me oh so disappointed.

If you are a fan of "heavier" fantasy books that deal with difficult topics, this book may do for you what it didn't for me. The premise of this book gives off so much potential and if you are willing to power through and embrace what I couldn't then I'm sure this can be the book for you!

Since I feel confident this book isn't for me, I sadly won't be finishing my read through of Silk Fire. I had hoped to do a thorough review on my YouTube channel but since I haven't read the whole book it would't feel fair and I won't be doing that.

All opinions are my own.

2 stars

I was really excited being able to read this via Netgalley but unfortunately it was kind of a let down. I didn't find myself very invested but I think when this one releases a lot of people are going to love this one, but I think for the time being it's a 2 star read for me.

Thankyou Netgalley for allowing me to read this

I think the idea was great but I will not be finishing this book. It is a purely personal taste and I don’t think the book is bad, I just could not get into it.

3 star rating because the idea of this book is cool and I was very excited but this is just not for me.

A rarity for me to read about a new style of fantasy world, but this worldbuilding and character development in particular is very strong. Please check content warnings before reading

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Rebellion and Solaris, for the chance to read and review this book in exchange of an honest review.

TW: dubious consent, rape, attempted rape, abusive relationship, torture, violence, murder

Set in a planet-sized sexist and matriarchal city, where magic and technology intertwined, Koré is a male courtesan and his quest for vengeance against his aristocratic father, who hurt and abandoned as a child, draws him into a complex plot of political schemes, necromancers, dragons and violence, in a war that could destroy everything and everyone Koré holds dear.
When by accident he's imbued by a dying god's power, Koré finds himself not only as a political player, but as someone to use and hurt, a product to take advantage of. But the corruption doesn't stop to only a man, it runs deeper and deeper and Koré will have to trust himself and the woman and man he loves to save everything and everyone.

I loved reading Silk Fire, it was definitely one of my most anticipated reads in 2022 and it didn't disappointed me at all. The story is told by Koré, a male courtesan, an intricated and well rounded character, determined to undermine his aristocratic father, avoiding his climb to success. He's sought-after and, at the same time, used and abused, for his "brightness", his essence, in a complex matriarchal society where men are used for procreation or as objects. It was really interesting reading about a matriarchal society in a fantasy book, where usually the society is patriarchal, and the author was able to underline the sexism and injustice in this system, through Koré's POV. It's disheartening reading how the men in this book are mistreated, abused and hurt, almost like the women in our modern society.
Silk Fire can be seen almost as a sociopolitical commentary, showing, in fantasy world with a matriarchal society, not only the deep divide between rich and poor, but also that some people would go to any length to get what they want, usually power (essence, brightness in Silk Fire), disregarding others' lives or pain.


One of the things I loved the most in Silk Fire is the worldbuilding, where magic and technology blends, where hovercrafts and dinosaurs coexist, where gods and dragons are real and not only tales. The reader is right away thrust into a unknown world, where the author created everything anew, from traditions to rules, from past histories and traumas, clothes, weapons, political games and strifes, animals, powers, gods, dates, ages and languages. At first it can be a bit disorienting and confusing, but slowly the reader is able to settle into this new world and to understand its rules, with Koré as companion.
As a violent and cruel society where being "bright" grants power, having "essence" that can be share, hoard, heal and so much more, Koré climbs the social ladder and tries to protect himself and his loved ones as a brothel owner, in a world where backstabbing and betrayals are ordinary.

If the worldbuilding is magnificent, lush and rich, the plot is no less engaging and full of twists, surprises and discoveries. The political games, the backstabbing and endorsements, the districts and allies, everything was intriguing and it was interesting reading how Koré moves, or tries to, among them all, forging alliances, using people, letting being used, hurting, betraying and trying to get what he wants, meeting captivating characters, like Ria, Faziz, Akizeké, with their own agendas and secrets.
I have to admit I was left breathless by the characterization.
Koré is wonderful and complex character, hurt and abused all his life and the reader was able to understand his feelings and actions through chapters swinging from present to past and viceversa, underlining Koré's past, traumas and abuses and how, at the present, he struggles to love and see himself as someone worthy of love and respect, without strings attached. Even with characters as Dzaro and Ria, who showed him love and protection, Koré has trouble to see himself as worthy and to see the truth in front of him.
Koré often dissociated himself from what happened or is happening to him, struggling to call the abuse he's experiencing with its own name and he's convinced to have everything under control, even when he's hurt.
Zabé Ellor did an outstanding job dealing with delicate and important themes, like abuse, rape, sexual assault, sexism and so much more with care and attention, involving the reader in the story and in Koré's feelings and actions.
During the book, as the reader slowly gets to know him, Koré struggles to let people in, convinced he's unlovable and unworthy, almost basking himself in his revenge, bent and obsessed by his father and by what he lost. It was also interesting how, in the beginning, Koré sees his father's defeat as his big achievement, like him losing could repair his losses and traumas, but slowly starts to see the big picture and learn to fight for the people he loves and to love himself first.
Revenge, guilt, self-blame are deeply entrenched in Koré. Even when he meets Ria and Faziz and he starts to feel something for them, Koré fights against intrusive thoughts, past traumas and pain and he has to go through a painful, but necessary journey towards self love, respect and worth.
If Koré stands out as main character in all his complexity, the others are no less and each of them is intricated and, let's be honest, sometimes problematic, with their own agendas and, as Koré, they act out of duty, jealousy, bitterness, rage, guilt and selfishness. Faziz, Ria, Dzaro, are complex and intriguing characters and the reader is able to get to know them through Koré's eyes and to understand their importance in his life.

I appreciated very much the polyamorous relationship in Silk Fire and how it was developed and written, without being weighed down by pettiness, jealousy and love triangles, but, instead, showing the deep love and respect Koré, Faziz and Ria feel for one other. Thanks to them, Koré starts a long and difficult journey of self love, starting to realize his abuse and trauma, to understand his worth and respect as his own person and not as what he can give to others.
The relationship is well rounded and I also loved how they aren't perfect, they make mistakes, they hurt one other out of fear, duty, selfishness, but, at the same time, they are willing to learn, to be better, to support, help and love one other.

The author wrote a brilliant and engaging story, with a captivating and intriguing worldbuilding, breathless plot twists, sweet and tender moments, heartwreching ones, but, mostly, an intense and amazing journey of self love and worth in Koré character.
Three of my favourite quotes (taken from the earc, so they can be changed in the final draft) are:
"I carry so many cages within me. I'd grown used to them, until he pointed out the weight".
"Love meant ripping out my own soul. But I'm sick of believing my abusers. I'm sick of thinking my own self wrong."
"Love hasn't blunted by edges. It's casted me wicked sharp where it matters most."

Overall, Silk Fire is one of my favourite books ever and I can't wait to hold and hug a physical copy!

Silk Fire is absolutely bursting with imaginative ideas; that is evident in both the literal worldbuilding, with magic and technology and even dinosaurs, but also in the reshuffling and reimagining of gender and sexual politics. Although the sex scenes are generally too intense for me personally, I appreciate how they always come back to showing us more about Koré; he is a genuinely complex character, loveable, understandable, and frustrating at once. His relationships, both good and bad, add more and more to that portrait of him, and I appreciated his romantic arc (although I was less convinced by one of his love interests). Generally, this book just has so much material that I never quite felt that I grasped everything fully (and yet conversely also saw a major twist coming really early). There was just always this slight sense of confusion that blunted an otherwise brave and brilliant story, but I cannot fault for ideas.

This is one hell of an ambitious book.

SILK FIRE is an intense read from cover-to-cover. The worldbuilding of this city-planet is SO meticulously considered, with complex political systems, customs, and (most importantly) dinosaurs. Themes covered include sexual/physical/emotional abuse, genocide, sexism, homophobia, and murder. And though it might be expected in a book where the protagonist is a courtesan, the sex scenes are certainly *not* fade-to-black. The result left me entranced and frustrated in equal measure.

Thing is, SILK FIRE is not an easy book to follow. I struggled to keep up with the political maneuvering and "rules" of the world, a task made more difficult by the shifting standpoint of our hero, Koreshiza. There was backstabbing and betrayal galore, followed by tearful confessions and proclamations -- that sometimes hit the mark and sometimes felt too contrived. Koreshiza's narration was a little TOO internal imho, often giving us repetitive angst regarding his goals and sense of value.

At a certain point, I think I gave up trying to understand the fine details. Because beyond the intensity, this is simply a really well-written book. Ellor's writing is LUMINOUS, and the world they've creative is fascinating. It made me realize how few stories I'd read set in a matriarchal society, and the conversations sparked around gender and sexuality will stay with me for a long, long time.

In short: SILK FIRE is dazzling, layered, and brave. Although I occasionally found myself skim-reading, at other points I was absolutely enraptured. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for whatever Ellor writes next.

Koreshiza Brightstar is a courtesan on a planet-based matriarchal city where magic and technology work together. He thirsts for revenge against the aristocratic father who betrayed him as a child. But a chance encounter with a dying god leaves him with powers that could change the world, he realises he will need to trust others to pursue his vengeance and keep his secret safe.
I received a copy of the book for a free and unbiased review.
This book has one of the most memorable opening sentences from a character I have ever read!
The world-building in this book is ambitious in its scope and truly amazing- the blend of magic and technology blends together perfectly. In this world, Hovercrafts and Dragons share the sky. The underlying premise is that of essence, something ethereal that only a few people possess which is greatly desired, a commodity to take and hoard is unusual. I love reading about Matriarchal worlds in fantasy as opposed to the usual patriarchy, but this society isn’t perfect and is a good reflection of what sexism and misogyny looks like from the other side.
Koreshiza or Kore is a courtesan, a man who uses his body and brightness (from his essence) to build influence. Now he wants to use this influence to take down the father who betrayed and abandoned him and his mother. The book is written in the first-person from Kore point of view and it took a while for me to get used to the tangential nature of his narration but then this does fit his fragmented and broken personality. He trusts no one and for years has kept his true self hidden but while trying to influence the succession he finds himself falling for a man and a woman who loves him despite his flaws.
The plot is fast and moves quickly with plenty of twists and revelations. The political intrigue is as riveting as the action scenes.
This is definitely a book for adults who are not squeamish about ‘scenes of sexual nature ' as there are many sexual encounters in the book. I admit to skimming through most of them as I just wanted to get back to the story and action (except for the scene in the first part of the book which forms a key part of the book).
Content warning
Physical violence in sexual encounters with dubious consent, sexual abuse,(off-page), domestic violence, threats of sexual violence.
Perfect for fans
I think anyone who likes Kusheil’s Dart would enjoy this
Summary
Four stars- I enjoyed the political intrigue and the world-building.