This was such an interesting book! I was drawn in by all the concepts it lays out: a gender reversal of roles with a matriarchal society, a bi MC who is a courtesan, lots of political intrigue, high fantasy. Unfortunately, I think this book could have used a little more work to flesh out what the author was trying to do. The world-building was interesting but overly confusing. I read lots of fantasy and most are usually a little confusing but we quickly get knowledge that helps us understand everything as we go.

I will also say, the reversal of gender roles felt.... heavy-handed. The author was very obvious in what he was trying to say but I don't think it made a lot of sense. Would the world be the exact same if women were in charge instead of men? I think in ways yes, but in even more ways, no. This felt like a weird indictment of women with no real reason. I think it could have been done better if there was more nuance to the issues with the power structure.

I did love that this book has a bi main character (thank you representation!) and that instead of a love triangle the romance turned to polyamory! I adore that "fix" especially because I hate love triangles.

Overall, I am enjoyed parts of this book but I think it could use some more work!

Would recommend if you enjoy high fantasy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

Look, I've been struggling to get into this book for months. I had no idea about the controversy surrounding the author's behavior until 10 minutes before writing this review, but this book just isn't good.

It was one of my most anticipated reads and I was so ecstatic when I got the arc because my god that blurb sounds freaking amazing. So when I started to read it ages ago and kept hitting a wall, I thought nothing of it. It just wasn't the right time. But I've been trying for months and it never got any better. The writing style is clunky and not at all appealing and the characters might as well have been paper cutouts. The worldbuilding makes no sense, information is just randomly and messily dumped on you and I'm genuinely confused at some of the paragraph structures. It was painful to read.

I'm devastated that this book isn't what I expected and I ended up DNFing at about 28%. I usually give books I haven't made it halfway through 3*, as I feel it isn't fair to judge just in case it was my own specific tastes. I'm making an exception this time.

DNF

I was interested because i loved this authors last book. welp, i think hes better at contemperary writing than sci fi. the world building was messy and convoluted. there was so much just info dumping on the reader that made no sense.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is an instance where a book had a really interesting premise with far too many ideas crammed into 500ish pages. I am a reader who loves strong, complex worldbuilding. However, the world in this book was never fully explained. There didn't seem to be anything actually explored in it. The author would mention various things that have happened in the city-world's history, people, wars, and bits of religion, but nothing is ever explored. I read primarily adult fantasy, and I love good worldbuilding, this book simply fell short. The ideas were definitely present, but perhaps if the ideas were widdled down a bit the world could have actually felt lived in rather than surface level.

I did like that the author flipped the political system. Rather than having men in power and female courtesans, it was the opposite. However, this was hammered into readers heads again and again without saying anything new. I understand that sexism may very well be present in a matriarchal society, like it is today in our patriarchy. But this was so heavy handed that it lost all subtly. Rather than exploring an idea that is refreshing, it was plastered onto every page very blatantly.

Another thing that I read fantasy for are the characters. I love main characters that seem like real people, even if I can't fully relate to them. Some of my favorite characters are completely different than me, which is why reading fantasy is so exciting. The main character in this book, Koré, is insufferably and acts like a child for much of it. He wasn't a bad character, per say, he just never seemed to evolve as a character. I actually really liked that there was a pronunciation guide to all the names. My main issue with the Koré is that he spends the whole book telling people what a monster he is but we don't really see it reflected in his actions.

Overall, while I do think this book had a lot of good ideas that could have generated thoughtful conversation on the topics explored, it needed so much editing.

DNF at 25%

Based on the blurb, I thought this would be right up my alley. It sounded brilliant, and I think there are some good ideas in it. I love the idea of magic and tech mixed together, and anything involving dragons grabs my interest. Unfortunately, those good ideas were buried beneath a writing style I could not get on with, and too much extraneous information about the world that did not add to my understanding, only confused me.

I was going to keep pushing, but then I reached a part with some sexual violence, and I realised life is too short to read books I'm not enjoying.

I have mixed feelings about Silk Fire. On the one hand I loved the idea, the plot, the cast of diverse characters. On the other hand, I was oftentimes confused, the writing was a liiiiitle clunky sometimes and I found myself drifting off...

DNF @ 6%. Based on tone/style of writing, poor "hook," and further research into other reviews + author's behavior online.

DNF at 10%

The premise of this book held a lot of promise, especially at how it had a mix of science fiction and fantasy woven into its story that would definitely appeal to a fantasy reader such as myself. It was described as a mix of Kushiel's Dart with the storytelling of Brandon Sanderson. I absolutely adore Brandon Sanderson's work, and have yet to read Kushiel's Dart, so I was really expecting something outstanding.

Unfortunately, the first few chapters of the book had a lot of information being dumped on the reader, and there were a ton of very clunky dialogue. I don't mind a very complex world-building, but it should at least be given the chance to fully develop into the minds of the readers as to not overwhelm them. It was really easy to forget things about the world and the surrounding after a couple of pages because there was so much going on.

Aside from that, I heard a lot of negative words from the author himself towards his early readers' reviews and that there had been a lot of Orientalist slurs in this book. As part of the Asian community, I refuse to read and engage in books that make mockery of a culture that I grew up with, and I encourage the others to do the same.

DNF @ 34%

No one is sadder about this than I am. On paper, this had everything that would make it a new favorite: queer political fantasy with sci-fi elements, dragons, returning magic, and DINOSAURS! But I put this on pause while traveling over a week ago and have zero desire to pick it back up, partially because I could not tell you a single thing about it.

The author has described this book as Kushiel's Dart but written by Brandon Sanderson. I have not yet read Kushiel's Dart but there was nothing reminiscent in what I read of this book of Brandon Sanderson. Do I think Sanderson is the end all be all of adult epic fantasy? Absolutely not. But I can always count on him for straightforward prose and an over explanation of the magic system and this was the exact opposite on both counts.

There are a plethora of negative reviews with specific grievances and to some extent I can agree with them so I will not go into detail with what wasn't working for me but I think what finally pushed my to DNF was my utter confusion over the scope of the world. Like the city was also a planet and somehow there was a district that had been lost for thousands of years but was still up to date on "modern" language and technology when they arrived at Koré's city and the city politics/Koré's family dynamics seemed to contradict each other.

I might try again when the audiobook is released but for now this is a DNF which really pains me because I hate to DNF books, especially review copies.

This book had such an interesting premise, I really thought I would like it. But, I’ve tried to get into this book a half dozen times, and it just isn’t for me. The things that tripped me up a lot were the names of people, places, food, social standings, etc. This felt like a complex world, but there wasn’t any worldbuilding in the moment. While the glossary at the beginning is helpful, memorizing it out of context is difficult to do as a reader. The conversations felt disjointed and sometimes it was hard to distinguish who was speaking to whom. While I can understand having unique, fantastical names, they were all very similar and it was hard to keep track of who was who. As for the plot, I didn’t get far enough into it to really get a sense of where the book was going to go.

Dnf @30%
Unfortunately this book was not for me. The world building was confused, the characters lacked any redeeming features which would have been fine if there was something interesting happening. Alas I dear all the intrigue and allure of this book was spent on the elevator pitch and not the writing itself. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an arc copy.

This is political fantasy, our main character is a courtesan slash sex worker who has never been acknowledged by his father and wants to prevent him from becoming a judge - the most senior position in their district.

I didn't enjoy this book. The world is an 'everything including the kitchen sink' situation. We have dinosaurs that pull hovercrafts, dragons and direwolves. We have a planet sized city with 500 storey buildings and yet somehow it doesn't feel like there are that many people present. This giant city is split into districts and yet somehow there are domestic and international treaties - I'm not sure what constitutes international in this scenario?

The main character is called both a courtesan and a sex worker- I don't think courtesan is used correctly as the character is not smart or subtle enough at seduction. He's just about sex. I'm also not clear on why he's so hands on when he's also the equivalent of the brothel madam? While there are a fair number of sex scenes in this, none of them are what I would class as sexy as they're all fairly grim

No one in this book is particularly clever, which is a downside when it comes to political intrigue!

The dialogue is both too formal and contains too many modern 2020s colloquialisms which don't fit.

Nobody seems particularly surprised when a mythical creature that hasn't been seen for 10000 years appears. In fact, people are generally much too informed about things that happened 10000 years ago.

It is a completely matriarchal society but that position mostly seems to be used to out women down. And it's not clear how given all the apparent limitations men have, and the unacceptable things the father has done, several of the most senior positions are filled by men.

Also, the author doesn't know any clothing other than skirts. Skirts are mentioned an unbelievable number of times in this book!

This was a very slow read, and neither the characters or the plot worked for me.

**I was provided an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

DNF at 29%

Silk Fire by Zabe Ellor was marketed as Kushiel's Dart as written by Brandon Sanderson. Readers follow Kore, a disgraced bastard son turned prosperous courtesan as he attempts to influence the political landscape and seek revenge on the father who never supported him.

I was so excited for this book. The pitch sounded like it had so much potential to be everything I really like. The book features queerness and is by a trans author, and I was certain I would have a new favorite to recommend. Then, I admit, I got nervous after hearing that this book was receiving negative reviews and that the author was behaving poorly about them. I have never let author behavior impact my enjoyment of a book, nor did it impact my enjoyment this time. I allow the work to stand for itself, and so proceeded with the book in good faith.

Unfortunately, every complaint that has been brought by reviewers is entirely valid. The anachronistic alignment of the tone of the writing with the speech of the characters. The lack of establishing... well, any kind of solidity for time period, world-building, even forms of dress. I will give that the author provided a pronunciation guide for the names, but I honestly don't know how much that helped given all of the fantasy words that were never explained regarding clothing items. The writing in and of itself was ham-fisted and clunky without any identifiable flow. Scene changes were abrupt and the pacing was positively unfortunate with giving no room for key events to breathe or be processed.

I do believe there are pieces and glimmers of potential. What was introduced regarding essence and the transfer of it was interesting. There is some work that has been done to build the different political groups. The general concept of the book obviously drew me in to begin with. But this work needs to be utterly reworked and edited to make it at the very least consistent within its own parameters, which do not appear to have been established.

Very sad to have this experience and I do hope that there is an opportunity for this work to get the edits that it needs. Perhaps there is an audience that exists for the work in its current state, but I am at a loss of a readership to whom I can recommend this as it stands.

Unfortunately this book was not my cup of tea. I had to dnf it in order to not to hate it, since i wasn't liking the writing style. I'm so disappointed not in the book itself, but in my own hype I had for it.

Unfortunately this one is a DNF since it’s confusing and also since readers of color have been pointing out the ways in which it’s racist and problematic

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

DNF at 12 %:

I was intrigued by the cover and the description of this book, but I had only started this, when things got confusing in the story. The writing felt very overwhelming to me, since things started happening out of nowhere, and you didn't even get the time to understand what was actually happening. I would have pushed through if I had a feeling that I would enjoy this book further on, but everything from the difficult character names to the way the book started by throwing you into the complicated world-building gave me reason to believe that I will only dislike it even more. So I'm deciding to put it away and pick up something more to my liking.

DNF this info-dumping at the very beginning of the story made this really hard to get into. And the "matriarchy" present in this book is just the misogyny of our world and flipped but personally I thought the execution was done poorly (from the little I read) and wasn't really explained that well.

This book was just... wildly disappointing. No words. It was one of my top anticipated reads of the year and it just... reeked a misogyny.

bad.

tried to read and just couldn't. the writing was complicated in a bad way and the characters were bad and the author's attitude seems bad.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion for an e-copy of this book.

DNF’ed at 48%.

On a normal day, I would have already given up at 9%, but I decided to push myself a bit more to see if this story was going somewhere and if it had just a slow beginning. It turns out, it wasn’t. It was just bad writing.

I’m actually scared to write this review, considering the whole backlash on Twitter and Goodreads, which I don’t really care for and want to be involved with.

I’m not a writer, I’m simply a common, humble reader. From time to time I dream about writing my own book, but to tell you the truth, this book crushed my dream and presumption I could do such a thing. This is how bad it was.

I’m so sorry, I hope I don’t get attacked by fans of the writer or anyone else (and I’m genuinely glad this book has its own supporters), however, to me it felt incredibly amateurish in every aspect. As it is, this story is incomprehensible.

It’s not just the frantic prose that makes it difficult to read, but it’s also the absolute absence of a world-building and rules around it. This story had so much potential and an intriguing premise. A male courtesan on a heavily matriarchal planet (Was it a planet? Even that is not so clear), in pursuit of revenge and trying to stop his father from getting the highest position in judgeship. It’s the gods, men who become dragons, the essence, the bright, and the dinosaurs… (the random dinosaurs, lmao)... all these things that completely ruin the execution of what would have been a great concept.

There are no descriptions of anything, what is this world, where the story takes place, what is this essence, how does it work and most importantly why are there dinosaurs? Without any description, the plot was just a series of uncorrelated, disjointed dialogues and random fantasy/sci-fi tropes, which made it hard to discern what genre this book wanted to be. The world language sounded more like randomly typed characters on a keyboard, sometimes they sounded too oriental for my taste. All of this weird stuff just made it impossible to get what was happening. You can add sex scenes in between fighting scenes, and the dinosaurs and you have the weirdest book ever (do I remember a scene where the characters were going to eat triceratops meat???) but it just doesn’t work.

I am aware that I read an uncorrected proof, so I hope that this story will go under the right expert hands of an editor before its official release. This book just wants to be provocative but doesn’t know how to. There is too much stuff, it feels like the writer just crammed in all the possible ideas he had in one unique story and it lacks clear structure and direction.