Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Spice Gate is a new high fantasy that pulls you into a vibrant world of rare spices, ancient myths, and strange mysteries. I greatly expected to love this as the premise is intriguing and there is plenty of relevant commentary on class divisions, economic trade, and social customs. However, the narrative suffered from info-dumping, lackluster character work, and target-audience overlap.

The world building, though ambitious, is rough in the beginning and locations seem derivative of pre-existing South-Asian fantasy epics. That said, some aspects were highly imaginative, such as the concept of portal travel that has a high cost: physical pain that worsens over time. Or the Hanging Market-- literally, a market built over open space-- that is sprawling with rare goods the other kingdoms covet. And, of course, spices, the flavors of life, of food, of culture. Everything from cardamom to turmeric are the worth more than their weight in gold; and as long as each kingdom has a spice to trade, and carriers to deliver them between spice gates, the world enjoys ongoing peace and stability.

Still, this was not enough to fully engage me. I prefer character-driven stories and Amir, the story's MC, didn't stand out. In fact, no one character did. They all felt stuck in development, and fell flat on the page. Also, dialogue sounded stilted rather than natural. This made character exchanges difficult to read through and emotional moments unbelievable. Worse, though, it took me out of the story many times. But, back to my disappointment in the MC. He was honestly not one to root for, even though I did sympathize with his family's plight.

Amir, knowing he can never rise above his station, wants to flee the Eight Kingdoms with his family to a sanctuary in the Black Cove, rumored to be safeguarded by the notorious pirate Ilangoven. But to do this, he needs to acquire a poison that will allow them to pass through the Spice Gate without being harmed. But, of course, this is easier said than done. Despite the fact that he is an expert thief, Amir ends up in one scrap after another due to piss-poor decision-making and an extra impulsive personality. He doesn't often listen to sound advice and is quick to judge. Not to mention, he manages to evade danger far too easily. So, tense moments never amounted to anything.

So, while I wanted to enjoy this book and love Amir, I just couldn't connect well with either the narrative or its main cast. And while the prose did flow smoothly, I wasn't ever sure if I was reading a story intended for adults versus young adults. It just wasn't elevated enough to convince me to take it seriously.

Nevertheless, I think this debut has potential to promote its author to fantasy readers new and old. It's light fun if nothing else, and I was grateful that the book distract my brain for a bit. And that some of what I read did click for me. I just wish the whole book had.

Final rating: 2.5-3.0 stars

This book is really beautifully written and I loved the detail in the world building, although some of the delivery was a bit tricky to follow. Unfortunately the characters and the plot itself let the book down somewhat, making it difficult to stay engaged because I just didn't care about either enough to keep picking the book back up. Pushing through to the end was not easy!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This book had many elements that i usually enjoy in a book, including detailed world building with a rich lore behind it. However for some reason I just could not engage with the characters and at some point the conflicting thoughts of the main character began to feel quite repetitive. The plot was fine, but I did struggle to finish. My only other thought - not one to read if you are squeamish about poop!

3.5 ⭐

“The Spice Gate” is an adult fantasy novel written by Prashanth Srivatsa, here at his debut. A book with a fascinating premise and a beautiful cover, which unfortunately did not fully convince me. I appreciated the evocative and lyrical prose, the extremely large, complex and well described world building, and the powerful story with a decidedly epic atmosphere. The narration proceeds slowly, with sometimes long chapters, taking its time to explore and set events in motion. What left me rather lukewarm were the characters, in my opinion superficially and coldly drawn. I could not bond with them, they conveyed nothing to me, and this made me indifferent to their events. I'm very sorry for this feeling, because otherwise I enjoyed the novel very much.

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<i>The Spice Gate</i> has a lot going for it: A really unique world and lore, solid commentary on class and intriguing characters. I was initially very intrigued, but I admit I had some trouble with this book.

It's a world built on spices: There are eight kingdoms, each one specialized on the production and trade of one particular spice. Travel, and as such trade, between these kingdoms is only possible through the mysterious spice gates, which allow almost instantaneous but also very painful jumps through space, basically. They're magic portals provided by a godlike creature called the Mouth. Apart from these gates, there's no way to get from one kingdom to the next because of the hellish outerlands surrounding them, which noone can survive.
Our protagonist, Amir, is one of the people who can actually travel the spice gates, because not everyone can. This ability makes him a carrier, one who travels constantly in order to allow the trade of spices - even if it hurts every single time. He's also in love with the princess of one of the kingdoms, and his desire to visit her is what kicks of the plot of this book: His princess clearly has some secrets, and then there's a dying man sending him on a quest into a mysterious ninth kingdom, which is said to be nothing but a myth.

The unique setting is what's really interesting about Prashanth Srivatsa's debut novel. The lore is just fascinating. Sadly, the world building is rather rough. There is a lot of info dumping especially in the beginning chapters of the book, and a lot of it told in a not very engaging way (for example: One character telling the other character something both of them already know, you know that one). There is so much information thrown at the reader that I was just confused at some point. It took me a while to really understand what was going on.
The writing is generally solid, but the dialogues especially felt very wooden, stilted and lifeless. Srivatsa uses some exclamations and expletives that feel not only very repetetive but almost disruptive (and sometimes don't make sense, i.e. the use of "Gates!", which are just objects and not ones this society worships either).
The characters are interesting on paper, but I never really felt emotionally attached to any of them, not even Amir. I thought him inconsistently written at times, and the characters in general don't feel fleshed out. Their relationships aren't written in an engaging way either. The romance between Amir and his princess felt fake to me until the end because I felt nothing between them and Harini barely has a personality. There is a lot of tell as we are told he loves her, but there's no actual show. I probably would have preferred there to just not be a romance. I also felt like there was so much potential to explore interesting character dynamics - Ilangovan, for example, has been talked about so much it's close to hero worship on Amir's part, and then when we finally meet the big pirate king, he's just.... kind of a dude who's there.

So yes, this novel has a really great premise, an amazing world and great commentary. But I sadly didn't care about the characters nor particularly engaged with the plot, so I found myself skim reading at some point because I did want to find out the conclusion.
2,5 stars, rounding up because of the unique setting.

My thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and Harper Fiction for a free eARC of "The Spice Gate" - a High Fantasy standalone debut by Prashanth Srivatsa.
"The Spice Gate" has an immersive start and it has the ability to transport the reader into its vibrant Indian-inspired setting.
In this world spice has such a prominent importance as form of payment, medicine, religion, trade and the seasoning of food, but it can also as an addiction. The spices are also cleverly linked to the magic system of this world. They can be used by the carriers of spice in order to be able to pass through the mystical spice gates. These carriers instead of being appreciated for their service of transporting spices from one kingdom to another, are actually the lowest caste, fated to a life of poverty, forced service and oppression.
Amir, the main character of this story had his fate sealed when he was born with the spice mark on his neck. He dreams of escaping his fate and saving his family from their situation.
As with other similar underdog stories, the hero gets swept in bigger plots that would ultimately force him to grow, adapt and try to change the world around him.
Up to the 40% mark “The Spice Gate” was close to become a new favorite reading experience, but then some pacing issues made the story drag, ideas were being constantly repeated, the once mesmerizing descriptions started feel tiresome and I just wanted the plot to move forward.
While I understood all the conflicting feelings that our hero went through, I started to feel stuck in his confusing ever-shifting thoughts.
With all that said, I would still recommend “The Spice Gate” to Fantasy readers that love a strong focus on character development and a rich and diverse worldbuilding that moves away from the same old Medieval Europe settings.
I am excited for Prashanth Srivatsa’s writing career as there is a certain growth ahead.