I think this book had a lot of potential, but with no chapter division and a bit of a confusing timeline, it got kind of lost in translation to some degree. The characters have a great setup for them that goes seemingly nowhere and while it has potential to be a great story, a few adjustments need to be made in order to provide the reader with a smoother experience.

Karin Lowachee's “The Mountain Crown” delivers a gripping and immersive fantasy adventure!

The story is captivating, filled with an intriguing plot and interesting characters (my favourite was for sure Méka, loved her determination and her strength!).

The world-building is rich and immersive, making it really easy to get lost in the book and its story.

While there are moments where the pacing slows down a bit, the twists and turns keep you hooked and always longing for more.

Overall, it's a great fantasy novel that I thoroughly enjoyed and I’m sure that, if you are looking for a short fantasy with a great FMC and dragons you’ll love it too!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this captivating story!

Overall I loved the story so very much. Stories of colonization are close to my heart and I believe should be told more I actually think this book could use MORE. I want to know all the details and history of the Ba’Suon and their connection to the heavens. I want to know more about how the Suon and Ba’Suon speak to each other. All of these details I felt like I could have dived into more because it’s so unique and interesting to me. I could have happily read hundreds of pages of the lore of this world.
The beginning of the story took getting used to, and I was (and still am) a tad bit confused on how the Suon communicate. The speech pattern really confused me and I felt like I missed out on the intension of what was being said.
Besides that, like I said the story was tantalizing and I can’t wait to hear more from Mèka and her journey.

a fast-paced dragon fantasy about radical pacifism in the face of violence and colonialism. méka is of a nomadic people, the ba'suon, caught between two adversarial nations that don't care who gets caught in the crossfire. she travels from mazemoor to kattaka to complete a rite for her people, gathering a king suon (dragon), and gets caught in a larger political game she refuses to play. connections are a central theme in the mountain crown, connections to the earth, to the suon, to each other, and to themselves. the connections that the ba'suon have to the world around them and the suon that they are kind of stewards of makes an interesting magic system, if you could call it that. it's less like magic and more like a spiritual connection.

the vibe of the book is almost like a frontier western. méka actually travels to a gold rush town at the beginning of the story. it's VERY atmospheric and i ate it up. i read an interview where the author talks about having a family history rooted in colonialism, and the ba'suon people reminded me of indigenous north americans. i said radical pacifism, which i believe is part of méka's character, but i'd say her attitude is more like a violence version of the paradox of intolerance, where a little violence must happen to prevent greater violence. she wants peace and in the choice between lesser evils, decides not to choose, but will use violence or the threat of violence to maintain that peace. this is a reading of indigenous attitude to violent colonialism that isn't always seen or is poorly executed (cough james cameron's avatar cough) but feels more grounded and real. overall, the commentary about reacting to colonialism between méka, who wants to prevent war and maintain peace and her people with only necessary violence (and adapt to occupation for the sake of survival), and raka, who believes that violent resistance is the only choice for the ba'suon or they'll go extinct, is the most raw and complex that i've read. neither one is treated as wrong by the narrative. (i'm a white US citizen, so i hope i'm interpreting these beliefs correctly). i think raka's position would have been more sympathetic if we could see more of his character and motives, but karin lowachee is clearly talented enough to properly execute these concepts. the personal connections that are made along the way really pull it all together, too.

this novella helped pull me out of a reading slump, and i can't wait to see where miss lowachee and méka go with the rest of the trilogy. this is definitely not an entry-level fantasy, so don't go into it thinking it'll be like fourth wing (it's not). the mountain crown is definitely a great addition to the fantasy genre and dragon subgenre, and i've seen others compare it to untethered sky by fonda lee. the suon (dragons, as the occupiers call them) are definitely in the vein of less anthropomorphic dragons. they are intelligent, but more like animals than people, which is refreshing in the current climate. i loved this novella. the pacing, the writing, the storytelling, and the messaging were fantastic. if you're interested in the mountain crown (please please please read it), it drops on october 8th of this year.

thank you netgalley and solaris for the eARC!

‘Méka must capture a king dragon, or die trying.’

This was my first read by Karin Lowachee, but definitely not my last. This tale was peculiar and so very unique with a lovely, lyrical writing style that I truly enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion | Solaris for this arc in exchange for review.

Pub date: 10.8.24.

Really cool idea, loved how there were important themes about colonization, how capitalism and greed impact nature and its abitants.
The problem is that I really struggled to follow what the author was narrating. Some lines written in italics were not clear - was the protagonist mind? Was it a poem, a Song? Could not tell.
I also expected more, more world building and plot: I could really not see it like a book, but also not like a Short story or novella

'The Mountain Crown' is a book has a unique setting's vibe. Nearly wester, which disturbed me a little bit, with Central Asia elements too. The world is well build and crafted, central to the story in a way that highlights the past of each characters and of this particular region, heavy with the loss and pain created by colonisation. It's interesting to see how authors can focus on different aspects of a story in various ways.

Apart from the world itself and its history, the story is carried by Méka, of course, but also two other "main" characters, creating a nice depth in the story with multiple focus points. I can't really say I cared for them but they worked as characters to tell this story. There is love, loss, non violent and violent resistance and tinny bit of hope in this story.

All in all, an enjoyable story for which I don't have a lot to say except for its quality and the heavy themes it treats over the span of 150 pages.

For such a short book (150 pages) this was actually pretty solid and overall I enjoyed it but honestly I personally would have preferred it if it had been longer to make room for more world building

3⭐️
There has to be more right?
There is no other way to describe how I'm feeling other than I am absolutely captivated by this world.
I must admit as a non-English native speaker it was a little hard to catch on the world building, because let me tell you, it was INTENSE, but in the best way possible.
I had to re-read some passages to fully grasp some concepts, but once you understand you only want to know more.
The general feeling I had while reading was absolutely magical, which is a testament of how skillfully the story is written since there are no obvious magic shows.
The power that is described is something born from connection with nature and the cosmo, something that the Kattakans, the antagonists of the story, have forgotten. I really hope I got this right, because, to be honest, I do not think I fully understand the extension of that power. WHICH IS WHY I WANT TO KNOW MORE.
I can only describe it as a feeling of wonder, like the feeling a child gets seeing a rainbow for the first time.
The way the author wrote of the Ba'suon, their culture and their beliefs, make me entirely attracted to this world. And want to know a bonus? THERE ARE DRAGONS! (or "suon" as they are called by the Ba'suon).
The reason why I am not giving this book more ⭐️ is because I feel like it was very focused on the world building and the characters were left behind a little. I wanted to know so much more about Mika's family, Lilley's past in the war and Raka's scars; I feel like we could have gotten so much more about them, so the only flaw would be that it was too short. But seeing that this is just book one of the crowns of Ishia, I am choosing to be optimistic that we'll get more; it certainly has the potential of becoming an amazing piece of high fantasy.

"Your people used many things for war. Bodies both suon and Ba'suon. The land. One another."

"Don't that anger you?"

"If I let my anger run wild, it too would devastate everything in my path. And what of the world then?"

[Review contains spoilers]

Karin Lowachee is honestly one of my favorite authors and deserves so much more recognition in the sff space. She has such a natural grasp on the pure emotional beauty of words and the pathos of storytelling. Also, Lowachee really was just out there championing diversity in her work way before such stories were sought after by big publishing houses. Just read any of her short fiction and you'll see what I mean. Needless to say, I literally back-flipped outta my chair when I came across the news that she was tackling a fantasy series.

Méka, a woman of the subjugated nomadic people known as the Ba'Suon, returns to the homeland from which her forebears were driven to carry out an ancient task. To curtail the destructive powers of a king dragon and maintain the balance of the natural world. In pursuit of this goal, she will come face to face with the consequences of the devastating war that has left her people and the land riven.

The Mountain Crowns' setting was so unique. It was sort of giving me some Western vibes? As in frontiersmen and gold rushes and expeditions into uncharted territories. Not gonna lie though - Lowachee has no qualms about tossing you right into the middle of things. I was grasping to orient myself in this world for the first few parts, but the more I just went along for the ride, the more things started to click into place and it eventually felt like I was really living in Ishia. Love when an author has enough faith in the intelligence of readers to piece things together themselves. And the dragons! They are depicted here as simply an integral part of the natural world. This book is also almost very ghibli-esque with its emphasis on the human spiritual connection to nature. I found that to be a beautiful thing.

Lowachee's character work is always an amazing thing to behold. Méka was such a fantastic protagonist. Seriously this is how you write a "strong" heroine!! Really loved what the author had to say here specifically:

"Specifically with The Mountain Crown, I wanted to write a woman who is grounded in her spirituality, who is contained, who is purposeful in her movements, who outsiders might consider stoic, who is capable without being flashy, who (Western) readers might consider passive as if it’s a fault (it isn’t). I wanted to write about her culture that seeks other avenues besides war, that is connected to nature on an atomic level in a conscious way. I wanted this story to unfold in its own way, with a character who wasn’t pushing to be pigeonholed as a specific type of personality. I think my focus on these aspects of both character and story are because I’ve become interested in narratives that explore people and ways of living that aren’t the commonly considered Western narratives of “active” protagonists and constant “action” to drive a plot."

And it's not just Méka who carries the story. The way the author slowly unravels the depths to each of her unwitting companions too was sooooo masterful. Somehow, Lowachee was able to make even a character who doesn't show up physically in the book have so much presence. I would have kept reading just to learn more about each of them. I loved all of the characters and wish I could just move onto the next book ASAP but alas 😭😭😭. The only thing that kind of threw me off slightly was this last minute love triangle that came up imo a little out of nowhere near the end that felt like it was introduced to justify a plot point. But in all honesty that is such an insignificant quibble.

While this novella certainly is a thrilling adventure, there's also a lot of heavy stuff here about colonization. There's a very poignant and sad undercurrent to all of the events in The Mountain Crown, but there is also so much here to reflect on thematically-speaking. I felt the depths of pain and rage - at the destruction of family and cultures by imperialism, at the far-reaching traumas of war. But I also felt the depths of love as well. Anyway, I'm getting carried away. I'm confident this trilogy is going to be a masterpiece.

I really enjoyed this book a lot and was super excited, well because dragons!!
The writing style was great even though you could work on the pacing a bit since I'm a fan of fast paced books and I missed that sometimes. The characters were amazing and I was able to built a connection to them quite fast.
Overall I liked the plot and I wonder where this is going to head in the next books!

I love books with dragons and this one really stood out. Loved the characters so much I wanted to be there with them. Thank you for everyone that recommended me this masterpiece.