I thought this was fantastic - it's a delightful world, nuanced representation of trans characters and a gorgeous story all packed into one very neat package.

3.5

Beautiful language galore with a gently told story.

The story follows Uiziya e Lali and nen-sasaïr (who learns his true name at the end of the book), two trans elders in their communities. The main characters were both wonderful. It is always a treat to see fantasy about older folx, because fantasy doesn't have an age limit. I felt for Uiziya, wanting to learn so much that she almost gives up her life. And for nen-sasaïr who is coming to terms with his recent transition to the body of a man with magic. I was sympathetic even when they made their mistakes and understood the pull of their desires.

The world is lavishly described with beautiful language that helped me see within everything. Nothing is plain in this book, it is all poetry. That did mean that sometimes it was a bit difficult to follow. Some things were so poetically described that they lost their realness. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing and it was consistent through out the book. I always felt a deep, dreaming haziness as I read, as though none of it was real even in the realm of the story itself. That made the story feel gentle even in difficult moments for the characters. Again, another aspect that can be taken as excellently done or lacking in tension. I appreciated it for the most part. There were moments when I felt I could have been more invested in the feelings but was too busy with the poetry of the book, though that rectified itself in the climax which was suitably enjoyable.

The dealing with trans issues was nice to see. We have Uiziya who comes from a culture when it is normal to change one's body to align with one's gender. This is always a refreshing way to look at things in my point of view. But we also have nen-sasaïr who fears being hated and unacknowledged by his own people. But even within this culture, we see that there are those who understand and support him in his true body. It showed the society to not be completely monolithic in it's misunderstanding of transness.

All in all, I think this was the gentle trans novel I needed in my life. Perhaps the poetry of the book did overshadow some of the world-building and the plot but I appreciated the words very much nonetheless. Not perfect but a good read.

Lusciously detailed world-building and gorgeous language shine in this short novel from Lemberg’s “Birdverse.” The magic is inventive, centered on the intricately constructed carpets, each with its own amazing properties.

The Four Profound Weaves: A carpet of wind, a carpet of sand, a carpet of song, and a carpet of bones. Change, wanderlust, hope, and death.

In this world, personal magic arises from deepnames, and gender roles are strictly divided. In certain cultures, men neither sing nor weave. At the same time, polyamorous families are common, as are gender transitions. Transforming from female to male, as one of the viewpoint characters has, takes on the added challenge of overcoming a lifetime of roles, rules, and the expectation of loved ones. If this is a world of impossible choices and cruelty, however, it is also imbued with hope. Images of heart-lifting loveliness brighten moments of dark, even grotesque elements.

“For we are all woven of words,” says the transgender man, “and after we go, it is our tales that remain, wandering around the desert with the wind until our stories are told four times, until a weave is pulled from them – the carpet of truth which is the desert, this weave of change, and wanderlust, and hope, and death.”

This is a wonderful novella that is set in the Birdverse - which isn't something I had encountered before but a search through Goodreads means I have my work cut out for me to read more! Beware those who don't want to have to add lots of things to their TBR! 

I thought this was fantastic - it's a delightful world, nuanced representation of trans characters and a gorgeous story all packed into one very neat package. 

What I would say to those reading this, based on my own experience, is to give this the time and space that it needs. I first started reading this back at the start of 2020 when I thought I would knock an easy win off my TBR - I wasn't enjoying it or understanding anything that was happening so I put it down. When I picked it up again in June of this year I just gave the story and the characters the space they needed to breathe, doing what I think you should always do with novellas and just letting the story take me, not worrying too much about understanding every little element of worldbuilding. So if you pick this up and find you're struggling to get into it, take a breath and come back when you're ready - I promise it's worth it. 

We don't get many books that focus on older LGBTQ+ identities - and those that do exist tend to focus on the idea of a life wasted or a long-lost love. I appreciated that, while this book did acknowledge the pain of figuring things out later in life, it was also buoyed by the hope and the knowledge that old age is not the end of existence - it's a different time for sure but making those changes to your life is still worth doing and living as your true self is powerful at any age. Where most LGBTQ+ stories tend to focus on young people coming out I thought this was a delightful additional narrative to consider. 

I liked the world - as I say I'd never read anything in this universe before, but the setting and the magic and the cultures depicted were handled very well and in the short span of this book I absolutely got the sense of the wider world these characters inhabit. This is a small narrative in many ways but the scope is huge and it feels simultaneously intimate and epic-  which to me is the sign of a great novella. I love any magic involving death - bone magic, necromancy - it's what I like to read. In this case, I liked the idea of these four weaves and the idea of weaving as something learned and taught and passed on - it's a magic connected to reality which helps to ground the story.

Overall this book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it and how powerful my feelings were by the end of the story, it's emotional for sure and also hopeful and beautiful and tragic and all other emotions that it should not be possible to pack into a small package like this. I'd recommend this to so many people but I'd definitely reiterate what I said above - give this the space it needs, let the story take you. 

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley - all opinions are my own. 

The Four Profound Weaves publishes September 4th!

This is a really short book, and yet it took me nine eternities to get through. It has a promising start, and off the bat I waxed lyrical over the writing and the deeply thoughtful magic system.

That all kind of came tumbling down the further I got. But before I get to that, first, the good parts.

There's a lot to like here. As I mentioned, the magic system is (from my experience) quite unique, and the author's exposition of it lends the whole tale a very mystical feel. I could also tell that, like many other aspects of the book, the magic system was born out of intensely introspective ideas and personal experiences.

On that note, the author's deep empathy and understanding of their main characters was also almost palpable. Given what I read in the acknowledgments and what I knew about the author going in, this didn't surprise me. It felt like an intensely personal portrayal, steeped in meaning and allegory.

That's where things get a bit iffy for me. While beautiful, there were many aspects of the book that fell short simply because they started moving into high-concept territory - the kind where the author goes so off the map that the reader just gets lost, even if the idea was likely to convey some deeper meaning through imaginative expression. I feel like I got glimpses of that deeper meaning, but the overall impression I got was that people close to the author themself would have a better clue of what they were trying to convey than the average reader. I ABSOLUTELY acknowledge that I might not have been the author's intended audience for this, for various reasons, but I think the veiled ideas behind the story itself and the way I wasn't able to interpret them go way beyond our differences in life context.

The thing that got me the most, however, was the unnecessary repetition. I truly believe this would have been a much shorter story had the author not constantly repeated the same things over and over again. When the reader is told about certain aspects of the world, the magic system, and the characters for the first time, it's all a beautiful blur. You start building the setting in your mind and envisioning this graceful and wonderfully imagined new world. Yay! But. When you're told those details over and over again, each time in basically the same way and not leaving out anything, as if you as the reader must have short-term memory loss, it starts getting to you. Repetition can work, don't get me wrong, but if you don't put some variety in the way you repeat things, your reader will start second-guessing their own intelligence. It got to the point where I was not even just desperate for the repetitions to stop, but I was desperate for new information to be introduced instead, as the world never really progressed much further, and I really think that's a shame.

To summarize my gripes in one sentence: If this were a short story, or a really short novelette, I think I would have been blown away. This is interesting, though, given that the author actually wrote quite a few shorter works set in this same world, the Birdverse, before writing The Four Profound Weaves as a longer work. Who knows, maybe if I'd read those first before this, I might have had more Aha! moments, but I still don't think I would have been able to look past the issues I had with the writing.

I received the ARC for review from NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

A wonderfully heartfelt story whose metaphors sing and whose themes resonated with me quite a lot. I loved the language and the plot, once I got into it a little, kept me gripped. I came to it without knowledge of Birdverse beyond that it exists, but that didn't prevent me from following the story, understanding the stakes or comprehending the cultures and customs depicted in the slightest.

The protagonists are remarkably complex and written in a way that makes them seem very real and believable; the conflicts are not simple and external but difficult and even heart-wrenching, but never in an exploitative way. I've seen a lot lately about how writing queer suffering (misgendering, deadnaming) is to be avoided (by cis writers in particular, but that gets generalised pretty quickly). I am in the "turning pain into entertainment is often bad" camp, but there is value for me in stories that write suffering in a way that's potentially healing. The Four Profound Weaves isn't cozy, fluffy reading: there's queer pain here, but surely we must have space for well-written queer pain. And while there were some bits that seemed slightly didactic here, especially in the beginning (perhaps because they were also here to explain the verse and the background for unfamiliar readers), later on, the story seemed to me to be written with a queer reader in mind. This wasn't a fluffy read, but it was kind and thoughtful.

An absolutely beautiful, poetic, and emotional story! I'll be honest and say that I had trouble fully diving into the first 30% of the story. It almost felt like I had missed the first chapter where everything was explained and that I had just jumped straight into a complex world knowing nothing. However, after picking things up and finally grasping the world, the characters, and the plot the beauty of the story revealed itself.

Not only is this book written beautifully, but it also tackles issues with LGBTQ+ in society (even though it's fantasy it reflects the real world well) and it has a strong focus on the trans community. This book is such an exemplary example of how fiction can be so important to the world.

If you love adventure, magic, and beautiful imagery this is a book you should definitely pick up!

This is a beautifully written story about hope and acceptance and dealing with change and I found it very moving and a wonderful read. The magic system was very interesting and I found the atmosphere of the book to be inspiring.

This was one of the most beautiful written stories I’ve ever read. From the first pages I fell in love with this lyrical writing style that manages to put the serious topic of accepting your own gender and sexuality in a magical setting. It has a bit of a flair of The Tales of The Arabian Nights, which I always love. The main characters were both interesting and I liked seeing this story unfold in both their point of views. The world and magical system were well thought of.
I didn’t have high expectations for this book, but was very pleasantly surprised.
R.B Lemberg will sure make me look up more of their work.

This is a beautiful, lyrical and unique story that takes the characters not only on a physical journey but an emotional one as well. I loved reading about transgender characters who had very different perspectives with regard to their identity, aging, family bonds, and life in general. The Birdverse that R.B. Lembery has created is intriguing with its layers of magic.

While there was so much to love about this story, there were some aspects that left me wanting a bit more. The pacing of the book had moments where the story felt a bit slow and then other times where things moved too quickly and I wished for more specifics. The switching from one character’s perspective to another so quickly left me confused at first but as the story unfolded I enjoyed the two perspectives. As I finished reading I found myself wanting more detail and history for this magical world. Overall, I enjoyed how unique this story was. It’s very different than other fantasy books I’ve read and I’d like to read more from this author in the future.

ARC provided by Netgalley for review.

This book is undeniably beautiful. This is the first book I've read in Lemberg's Birdverse and it took a while to let go of needing to fully understand everything that was happening, but once I was able to the story pulled me in. Nen-sasaïr (a temporary name) is struggling to find a place in society after a gender transition and hopes to find his new name, something so culturally significant that he can't begin to imagine his future without it. Uiziya is determined to find her aunt and finally learn the rest of the four profound weaves. These two elderly trans characters form an unlikely duo as they wander across the desert in search of Benesret, facing danger, derailment, and emotional upheaval.

This universe is incredibly detailed, with cultures and societal expectations that are ingrained in the world and each of the character's actions. Told in alternating perspectives, we are able to learn about each character's past and the traits that tie them together - defiant self awareness, determination, bravery, and loyalty.

This was my first introduction to the Birdverse. 4.5/5 stars.

I loved it so much! It was such a complex, multifaceted and creative story.
I hope to read the rest of the books in the BirdVerse as well.

This is the first novella of an already established universe, one I am not familiar with, so jumping into the world was a little difficult.

This world is broken into two groups, those that can perform magic freely, and those that can have magic but are rarely allowed to use it. This is also a world where one group accepts that people change, and even has a tapestry that allows the individual to change their whole person, and the other group is told that it is not allowed and to do so can be deadly.

Our two characters, both that have undergone the change, one as a young boy now an old woman, and one as an middle age woman now an older man. They set off to find the woman's missing aunt, the one that supposedly has created the found profound weaves. She wants to learn the final weave, he hopes for a new name. When they do find her, it isn't what they hoped for, and are sent on another mission, to go back to the place he escaped from and return the Aunt's greatest tapestry.

While this has excellent diversity and a great message, getting to it felt longer than it should have. The start of the book seemed to take a long time to go anywhere, and then the ending feels like it is all wrapped up in a few pages. This could be that I don't know this universe and therefore don't understand the pacing the author has chosen. The characters also don't really develop beyond the need to have a name and learn the final weave, so I didn't feel very connected to them. Though I did feel terrible when he has to return to the woman's quarters and they refuse to accept his change and continue to dead name him.

I think this is a fantastic world, and I would like to read more to understand the story, so I will have to go find their other work.

Title: The Four Profound Weaves
(A Birdverse Book)
By: R. B. Lemberg
Tachyon Publications
Genre: LGBTQIA | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Pub Date: 04 Sep 2020
Review Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3131293023

Weaving is a trade for some people, for others it is life changing. However, one of the greatest weavers, Benesret, has been banished from the community and no one will tell "the nameless man why"

He is not the only one looking for Benesret, her nice Uiziya is getting tired of waiting for her to return, the only difference between these two seekers is that Uiziya knows exactly why it is forbidden to mention the name of the great weaver.

Together they must find Benesret and also their own true nature.

From the first page it is obvious that this book is about equality. It would be difficult to find a book that contained so many rights subjects. Not only is it clear that there is trans representation with both Uiziya and the nameless man, we also feel and see the writer is showing us women's rights, how they were to trade while the men sat by or raised children while the men were educated. Race rights, how outsiders were treated compared to the natives, gay rights the nameless man's relationships and religious rights how the men sang but the woman were not aloud, also who must wear veils and not.

This sounds like my kind of book, so why did I not enjoy is as I think I would have?!

The blurb and plot really caught my attention, I was excited to read this book, so what changed. I enjoined learning about the characters and their lives but at times it seemed that the plot was sacrificed for agenda. The story would seem to be going one way and then the writer to escape a problem would create a solution out of thin air. For example, the nameless man made Uiziya a wheelchair but when it was broken and they needed to leave the palace he managed to find two canes.?! Understandable the book was short but the world building never seemed to end.

Again due to the books size there is little suspense in the book. They decide where they are going and get their quickly. It seemed that every time a weave was mentioned is was almost a different explanation of what the weave was/did.

For such a short book some subjects were repeated numerous times, such as Uiziya's habit of asking the same question until she gets an answer she excepts. I found this unbelievably annoying, as though the writer though I might have forgotten in the past ten or so pages since it was last mentioned.

So what did I like about the book?! I loved the way that the nameless man finally decided to go and seek help with his name, and ultimately the name he chose. I loved how Uiziya found a better way to death weave, how Kaveh-nen-Kimri found acceptance and wanted to go back and tell his grandchildren about the weaves. Finally, I was glad that they decided to stay together at the end.
Personally I think the book is too small for what it is trying to achieve.

DNF @ 40%

I want to start this by saying that this book is excellent and my DNF definitely shouldn't be held against it. This book is beautiful and it's telling an amazing and powerful story about change and hope. It's full of nuanced thoughts about the trans experience and mirrors our society against a backdrop of a gorgeous magical world. It just didn't click for me personally and I struggled to get into it. The prose is gorgeous but I found it a little difficult to get into the story and the characters.

The idea of the weaves is gorgeous, I'm completely obsessed with being able to weave from wind, sand, song and bones. The fantasy world is fascinating and well-built, creative in a way that I haven't seen before. It's also a hugely diverse book with trans MCs, racially diverse characters and a plus-sized woman and I think that most people would love it and it's a shame it didn't work for me.

I loved this book. Lemberg's deft weaving of two lives and two stories into one overarching tale about the power of hope and change was beautiful and much-needed. There is a good deal of world-building that happens in the first 10% of the book, but don't let that deter you. As you enter the richness of the world Lemberg has built (the Birdverse) you find you want to know more and more about it. The details are sometimes horrifying, sometimes beautiful, but because the four profound weaves are really just the four main elements of life, it makes sense. The emphasis on the insistence of change was what got me the most--I think I"ll be re-reading this one.

This was a very weird story. I felt confused a lot of the time and think that it would have been better if I understood the Birdverse before reading this one. The characters and ideas of gender were interesting though. And I ended up wanting to learn more about the Birdverse in the future. For me although I was confused I still had a great time with this one.

I haven't read anything else from this book's universe, so I had to take it as a standalone.

I was excited about it because I love weaving/textiles generally, and I was interested to read a fantasy novel with trans characters. I found it lyrical and thought provoking. The language and the tone are elevated and serious, which lend the story the air of a parable. The magic feels much more like metaphor than anything you could really be grounded in or viscerally experience, to me at least. This is a book I can certainly appreciate, but I think it's working at a level a bit higher than where I'm capable of reading at the current moment, if I'm honest.

The Four Profound Weaves is set in Birdverse and this story is about an old man who was born a woman who is not transformed, and an old woman who wanted to learn the craft of weaving from her aunt. A person with knowledge of their deepnames can use magic while weavers can create beautiful carpets from the wind, sand, song and bones. The journey depicted in this book was atmospheric and intriguing. The illustrations in the book were beautiful and added to the world building. There was a lot to learn about the universe, such as the position of women and men in society, the power of the carpets, the Bird god and the significance of deepnames. Overall, I found the book to be an engaging read.

The Four Profound Weaves is a lovely novella about hope, resilience, and the stories we leave behind. It is lyrical and strange in a lovely way. It is also one of the only fantasy stories I know where both leads are trans, where trans identity is explored through magic, and where trans and non-binary identities are woven into the nature of the world as well.
It is a lovely, inclusive narrative. We need more fantasy like this!