4.5 out of five stars
If I were to give a simple world-building descriptor of Tvara, the fictional world in which the Dragon Song Saga as well as other of Tvara books are set, it would be what if Tolkien grew up in East Asia. Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and dragons are all present, but rather than interacting with longsword wielding knights, they instead must contend with blackfist assassins and their throwing stars, shurikens, and various poisons and martial techniques.
In just reading the Dragon Song’s Saga, I already know that the characters central to this story appear in other Tvara stories because the core characters reference adventures with other core characters from other books when they meet up. This reminds me a little of Brandon Sanderson’s cosmere novels except everything is occurring in the same world. It gives the stories a more intimate feeling. In cosmere novels, each world seems to be on its own epic fantasy trajectory. There is an overarching trajectory connecting all the stories, but what happens in one book really doesn’t effect the actions of characters on other worlds for the most part. Despite an interconnected universe, because of the size and many characters not knowing about the interconnectivity, the worlds feel too far apart.
In Tvara, there are multiple epic fantasy story lines occurring at the same time and interweaving. I’m reminded a little of how The Prince of Thorns and Prince of Fools trilogies by Mark Lawrence intertwined. It makes sense to me that there would be multiple epic fantasy storylines occurring concurrently in a large enough and richly created world, which Tvara is.
As a fellow author, I see the draw of creating a single world and telling multiple stories within that world. I feel like it’s the literary equivalent of Marvel movies. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to restrict myself to telling stories from a single world-building perspective, but telling multiple storylines in the same world with minor overlap definitely makes the world feel more fleshed out.
One thing that I really wanted to be addressed that wasn’t was whether ghost-tripping thresholds worked. A cultural norm in Cathay, all rooms have a raised threshold to trip and out ghosts, but at least in the Dragon Songs Saga (DSS), no ghosts ever get tricked by this. To my knowledge, there are no ghosts in the DSS. Since this is a fantasy world, I would have loved if I got an answer to if there were ghosts, whether ghost-tripping thresholds worked, and what happens if a ghost trips over the threshold. It seems like a silly question but on a world-building level the thresholds are mentioned too much for there not to be a story inclusion. They are like Chekhov’s gun never being fired.
Aside from that minor desire to see ghost-tripping thresholds in action, the world of Tvara is rich, complex, and engaging. The nations didn’t feel like cookie-cutter stereotpyes and I loved how they each had their own types of magics. The first book did a good job of showing how the magic of Cathay was tied intricately to their art with the protagonist wanting to revive the lost magical art of dragon song. That magic was juxtaposed with the magic of the martial paladins and their innate intuition of danger.
I really enjoyed the DSS books, and so it’s with a heavy heart that I do have to add a trigger warning to his world. Stop reading if you are triggered by sexual assault. A nation of people, the Bovians, are cursed and unable to produce females. In addition to that, a woman can never give birth to two Bovians. This has led to a systemized culture of multiple men forcing themselves on one woman to ensure the survival of the nation until they can break that curse. The third and fourth book of the DSS features this theme heavily. Do I think the stories could have been told without this aspect of the story? Yes. I don’t think the characters brushed over the brutality of such a practice, but if you’re going to include such a divisive and shocking world-building detail, it needs to serve a greater purpose. The Bovians are already the villains, them needing to reproduce in this manner felt like it was too over the top. Perhaps is the story was told primarily from a Bovians POV trying to end the practice the detail would have merit, but with the story focusing on an outsider only the horror of being subjected to the practice is present.
This aspect also didn’t make a lot of sense to me. With this curse, they need to procreate in such a brutal fashion isn’t necessary. Especially since the Bovians have a prophecy that a Bovian who knows who both his mother and father are will end their curse. Their is a counter-prophecy dictating that man might be the end of the race, but all the Bovians in the book don’t seem to pay much head to the counter prophecy. If that is the case, wouldn’t it be in the Bovian’s best interest not to participate in multiple men forcing themselves on one woman? I may have missed a detail about this practice, maybe infertility is common among Bovians, but it really put the third and fourth book into the dark fantasy category when the majority of the story seemed to be in the epic fantasy category.
All this being said, these themes didn’t make me start reading, but I’m hesitant about picking up another book set in the world of Tvara. I won’t DNF a book because of these darker themes, but I don’t seek them out either. If I could, I’d give these books a 4.5 out of five stars, but that isn’t possible on the sites I reviewed the book.
Since I listened to the audiobook (I picked up the whole seventy hour saga up for one audible credit), I do have to applaud Natalie Naudus’ narration. I’ve really enjoyed her performance in the books I’ve picked up she has narrated.
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