The Book Wench

For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.

When Sciona finally passes the qualifying exam and becomes a highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome—and, instead of a qualified lab assistant, they give her a janitor.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago, he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power.

At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first.

This was one of the books that I had designated as a “Need to Read” after I graduated with my Masters. I lucked out, however, that it also came up as a book club book for the Fantasy Book Club at my local Indie Bookstore, Columbus Bound Bookshop. And when I say I lucked out, I mean it. I loved this book (so did most everyone at the book club).

First off, Wang’s ability to weave description into her story was delicious. From the very beginning of the prologue I was sat, ready to find out what happened next. There were some passages that I wanted to underline or highlight as instruction on how to do description the right way. Not too much. Not too little. The Goldilocks way that was just right.

I will confess, however, that I did not like Sciona, the main character. But I think that that was wholly intentional. She was selfish and glory-seeking…and she freely admitted it time and again. But unlike other situations where not liking a main character would lead me to DNF, Wang wrote in such a way that I still wanted to know what happened…to Sciona, to Thomil, to the city and every citizen in it. I was still gripped despite thinking that Sciona was not, at heart, the best person. She is a perfect anti-hero/unreliable character. This is how you do it, folks.

The magic system in Blood Over Bright Haven can kinda get confusing at first, so be sure to pay close attention. But if you just approach it like a computer programmer (no, seriously) it makes way more sense. Just think of it as creating a simple “If/then” program and it helps a lot. Plus, they have the major system info dump in the form of Sciona teaching Thomil for the benefit of the reader, so that sincerely helps. So, if it’s confusing at first, just stick with it and it’ll all be explained.

The book was so completely thought-provoking too. There was so much that resonates with society today that makes the book extremely relevant (almost to the point of being scary). It was very richly written, and the characters remained true to themselves. Nothing felt contrived, nor did anyone behave contrary to how they were depicted, which is ultra-refreshing. The language Wang used was simple yet elegant, very typical for the Dark Academia genre. I loved every bit of it. This was easily a 5-star book if I review on a star scale, even with my not liking the main character (and, in some way, BECAUSE I didn’t like her). I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy, especially the Dark Academia genre.