Burn the Sea is a rich historical fantasy that calls attention to the true story of Rani Abbakka Chowta, a Queen who led her people and allies in a successful resistance against the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century.
Mona Tewari’s writing brings history to life in a beautifully woven story of politics, love, loss, and a fight for freedom. I can’t fault the style, the pacing, the world-building. It’s lovely and well crafted. While there were some directions that the plot took that I found frustrating, it might be consistent with the historical inspiration and I think without would have made the plot and character development quite flat.
Instead of a magic system, we have an imagined belief system involving Spirits and this was one of my favorite parts of the book. The interactions our protagonist has with the Spirits is incredibly charming and adds another wonderful layer of depth to the story.
Burn the Sea flips the euro-centric historical script that often “others” those it seeks to conquer. This is told from the side of the people defending their shores against invasion and how they see the would-be colonizers.
This is the first in a duology and Book #2 has been announced so stay tuned for more!
I would highly recommend to fantasy and historical fiction lovers who adore a female protagonist leading a political fight for freedom against would be oppressors.
Thank you to Boundless Press at Bindery Books for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I read this book as part of the Fantasy Finishers Book Club on Fable and I’m so glad I did. Although I will issue a specific trigger warning (see bottom of this post, warning – it’s a spoiler) along with general content warnings.
Surprisingly, this is the first book I’ve finished by Tasha Suri although I do own The Isle in the Silver Sea and started The Jasmine Throne last year.
I am NOW going to need to fast track ALL of her books.
Tasha’s writing is so so good.
Official Synopsis:
“The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. Unbeknownst to her, she can manipulate the dreams of the gods to alter the face of the world.
When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she is coerced into their service, as they are determined to harness her magic for the glory of the Empire. She must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist the mystics’ cruel agenda — and should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance…”
Author’s Official Bio:
Tasha Suri is the World Fantasy Award winning author of The Isle in the Silver Sea, The Burning Kingdoms Trilogy, The Books of Ambha Duology, What Souls Are Made Of and Doctor Who: The Cradle. Once a librarian, she is now a part-time writing tutor and a full-time cat and rabbit wrangler. She lives with her family in a mildly haunted house in London.
Review:
I love the world that Tasha Suri builds in this first installment of The Books of Ambha Duology. There is a map that looks like India split into various parts of the Empire. It’s very much a story of colonialism/imperialism and opression with a central ruler. Within this story, there’s also both religious and political imperialism that are closely tied to each other.
It’s rich in both character development, world building, and plot action. The concept of choice is central to the plot and I enjoyed how in depth the author explores this. Is choice an illusion or something that we can still maintain control over despite others trying to take it away from us?
The writing is well-crafted, smart, and elegant.
I would recommend this book to any fantasy reader although please check the trigger warning discussion below first if you don’t want to read about situations where choices are taken away especially from women.
Trigger warning – SPOILERS >>> a large part of this book follows a situation where a woman’s right to choose is taken away from her and she must “wed” a man she (Mehr) hardly knows. The Empire is forcing her into this and she chooses it to save her family or it’s likely they will all be killed. Her new husband Amun is also essentially a slave to the Empire and controlled by the “religious” authority. This “religious” authority tries to force them to consumate the marriage because then it will give him ultimate control over Mehr as well. Through the magic system in place. Mehr and Amun are able to avoid this for a while but then the Maha (the religious authority) finds out and tries to force them to do it in front of other people for proof. By this point they have fallen in love though and they do consumate the marriage (but not in front of others). This was hard for me to read at times because of the constant threat of sexual violence, lack of choice, and being forced to do something both Mehr and Amun do not want to do.
This situation twisted my stomach. It hangs over their heads for a lot of the book. I was able to press on because although it was always lurking in the shadows, it wasn’t front and center for most of the book. And in a way, it still remains their choice in the end because I’m sure they would have killed themselves if they didn’t want to do it. Still pretty twisted and sickening and evil situation they find themselves in, which does reflect much of the world and the violence inflicted on women by men especially by the removal of their choices.
It’s a very interesting book and I rate it quite highly at the moment.
