Book Review: The Mask of Mirrors, by M.A. Carrick
A plotty pseudo-Renaissance swords & sorcery caper.
Orbit, 2021, 630 pages
This is your past, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
Arenza Lenskaya is a liar and a thief, a pattern reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadežra, she fled that world to save her sister.
This is your present, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
Renata Viraudax is a con artist recently arrived in Nadežra. She has one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune.
This is your future, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
But when corrupt nightmares begin to weave their way through the City of Dreams, Ren realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her-and if she cannot sort the truth from the lies, it'll mean the destruction of her city.
Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling fantasy adventure from an incredible new voice.
This fantasy caper is the first volume in a trilogy (of course, sigh), but it's more or less self contained. "M.A. Carrick" (the pen name for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms) have constructed very detailed lore, including intricate politics and a fully fleshed magic system, for their setting, making it feel like one of those RPG adventures with like five books of background material for the GM behind the scenes. In this case, I am being mostly facetious in comparing the setting to an RPG, because while I could easily imagine someone running a "Rook and Rose" campaign in the game system of their choice (probably 5E because every fucking thing is 5E nowadays, even superheroes and space operas, whyyyyyy?), the writing did not feel dice-driven and the magic did not feel gamey.
The city of Nadežra vaguely resembles Renaissance Italy, but with magic, polytheism, and gay marriage. There was a Tyrant who was deposed and slain some time ago, the natives of Nadežra were conquered and now live "separate but equally" under an oligarchy that pretends to dispense justice, and as always, the rich live lives of luxury, scheming, and backstabbing, while the poor live lives of misery, scheming, and backstabbing.
The main viewpoint character is Ren, a street rat who grew up on Nadežra's mean streets and has returned with a simple con: pretend to be a long-lost daughter of an exiled branch of an impoverished noble family, worm her way into their good graces, and make off with what remains of their fortune.
Ren is a brilliant actress and her con goes so well that soon she's been embraced by Nadežra high society. The problem is she's actually starting to like her adopted "family." The more she ends up helping them as part of her scheme, the deeper into the role she is drawn.
The other main characters are Derossi Vargo, a crime lord who's trying to claw his way up into respectability with his ill-gotten wealth, and Grey Serrado, a member of the oppressed ethnicity who joined the city watch and is thus a bit like an Irish cop joining the English Constabulary.
The plot goes in a lot of directions with many twists and turns and characters. A lot of the twists come with the appearance of the Rook, a Zorro-like masked vigilante who is a hero to the poor and an enemy of the nobility. He appears out of nowhere to deliver justice to haughty aristos, always disappearing into the shadows afterwards. The Rook is apparently a mantle that has been passed down for centuries, but the author makes it something of a mystery and a guessing game to try to figure out along with Ren who the Rook really is.
The magic, which features prominently in the various subplots, is not high fantasy wizardry, but card readers, soothsayers, inscribed magical talismans, and rituals to inflict or remove curses. Except at the climax, where we get astral planes and undead and boss fights.
A fine rapiers and sorcery novel, with a mix of political intrigue, terrible dark magic, crime capers, and a bit of romance.
My complete list of book reviews.
Orbit, 2021, 630 pages
This is your past, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
Arenza Lenskaya is a liar and a thief, a pattern reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadežra, she fled that world to save her sister.
This is your present, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
Renata Viraudax is a con artist recently arrived in Nadežra. She has one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune.
This is your future, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither.
But when corrupt nightmares begin to weave their way through the City of Dreams, Ren realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her-and if she cannot sort the truth from the lies, it'll mean the destruction of her city.
Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling fantasy adventure from an incredible new voice.
This fantasy caper is the first volume in a trilogy (of course, sigh), but it's more or less self contained. "M.A. Carrick" (the pen name for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms) have constructed very detailed lore, including intricate politics and a fully fleshed magic system, for their setting, making it feel like one of those RPG adventures with like five books of background material for the GM behind the scenes. In this case, I am being mostly facetious in comparing the setting to an RPG, because while I could easily imagine someone running a "Rook and Rose" campaign in the game system of their choice (probably 5E because every fucking thing is 5E nowadays, even superheroes and space operas, whyyyyyy?), the writing did not feel dice-driven and the magic did not feel gamey.
The city of Nadežra vaguely resembles Renaissance Italy, but with magic, polytheism, and gay marriage. There was a Tyrant who was deposed and slain some time ago, the natives of Nadežra were conquered and now live "separate but equally" under an oligarchy that pretends to dispense justice, and as always, the rich live lives of luxury, scheming, and backstabbing, while the poor live lives of misery, scheming, and backstabbing.
The main viewpoint character is Ren, a street rat who grew up on Nadežra's mean streets and has returned with a simple con: pretend to be a long-lost daughter of an exiled branch of an impoverished noble family, worm her way into their good graces, and make off with what remains of their fortune.
Ren is a brilliant actress and her con goes so well that soon she's been embraced by Nadežra high society. The problem is she's actually starting to like her adopted "family." The more she ends up helping them as part of her scheme, the deeper into the role she is drawn.
The other main characters are Derossi Vargo, a crime lord who's trying to claw his way up into respectability with his ill-gotten wealth, and Grey Serrado, a member of the oppressed ethnicity who joined the city watch and is thus a bit like an Irish cop joining the English Constabulary.
The plot goes in a lot of directions with many twists and turns and characters. A lot of the twists come with the appearance of the Rook, a Zorro-like masked vigilante who is a hero to the poor and an enemy of the nobility. He appears out of nowhere to deliver justice to haughty aristos, always disappearing into the shadows afterwards. The Rook is apparently a mantle that has been passed down for centuries, but the author makes it something of a mystery and a guessing game to try to figure out along with Ren who the Rook really is.
The magic, which features prominently in the various subplots, is not high fantasy wizardry, but card readers, soothsayers, inscribed magical talismans, and rituals to inflict or remove curses. Except at the climax, where we get astral planes and undead and boss fights.
A fine rapiers and sorcery novel, with a mix of political intrigue, terrible dark magic, crime capers, and a bit of romance.
My complete list of book reviews.