Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

What a fun, flirty, and easy read! I enjoyed this one and the journey I went on. I enjoy the way Zabé writes and can't wait to see what the future holds!

This was a fantasy book set in a matriarchal society which I found fascinating because that's a 180 from the world we live in. I also liked the world building to an extent (although it needed a lot more work). For example, there were some things that were just mentioned like the reader should already know which just made me more confused as the story progressed.

I quote an excerpt from a review on GoodReads by the user "Dathomira" which perfectly sums up this point::

"... each chapter opens with two epigraphs littered with names, wars and treaties, and none of them being familiar to the reader, they cause more confusion than offer clarity...

...perhaps more important is that neither of these epigraphs offer world building information. they’re vague platitudes, probably meant to scaffold cultural norms in the world but instead don’t do anything. why, when presenting us with either quotes, do we not learn what a fire weaver is, what was pre-liberation, or what the brass war was? and because we get no information and just titles and names, the epigraphs don’t stick and add confusion. this alone would be frustrating to any reader (especially a regular reader of adult fantasy who would expect order and purposefulness in the information given) but this problem proliferates through out all world building in the book. every chapter is replete with names, titles, blood lines, the names of wars, districts, and gods. at no point does the narrative pause to give us information about what matters most to the plot or to Kore."

It also did not help that the story was a bit convoluted and overly long (in my opinion) which hindered my enjoyment.

Simply put, this book just did not work for me despite its promising premise. It may be me or the mindset that I'm in currently but it just didn't do it for me.

Silk Fire had me hooked and excited for the first 35-40% of the story but started to lose me with lack of substantive world-building and rushed pace.

To start with what I enjoyed about Silk Fire, Koré’s growth over the course of the story was well done. His choices could be frustrating at times but they all seemed grounded by his past experiences, which made them believable. He makes strides forward then reacts to situations in ways informed by his past traumas. I was really rooting for Koré to learn to trust others and open himself up to loving, healthy relationships. I wish a little more of this growth had been seen on-page, rather than sort of implied, but still enjoyed seeing Koré grow over the course of Silk Fire.

There are lots of neat, creative details about life in Jadzia that make it seem like the story is set in a well-developed world but didn’t really hold up to close scrutiny. I don’t mind SFF that throws readers in the deep end and leaves them to figure out how things work but there needs to be some pay-off for that. I finished Silk Fire still puzzling over the basic geography of the setting – is the street/ground level accessible to ordinary people? How does travel between these giant buildings work? How many districts are there in total? The details were really great and helped catch my interest in the beginning but more explanation about how things worked would’ve gone a long way to give the plot more meaning to the reader. One example is that a key plot arc is Koré’s quest to get Akizeké elected as the next Judge of War District. However, it’s unclear what the Judge of War’s duties are and why the position is considered the most powerful in the district. The Judge controls a big store of Essence, which makes people stronger and more beautiful, but we don’t learn what they do with all of this magical power.

There is no time to breathe in this story. There are so many elements competing for the reader’s attention in Silk Fire that it’s hard to really take in them all. Koré is basically pulled from one crisis to another, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to see his relationships with other characters develop. While I love a fast-paced story, I wish Silk Fire had slowed down a little bit to make room for additional world-building and character development of important side characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled with this book. The names of the characters confused me and the main character seemed like he had an ace up his sleeve but didnt. I also didn't like the fact that this was an eclectic use of a lot of YA tropes but this was a little too much.

I'm not sure if I will be going to read this again.

Note: I know there are a lot of one star reviews of this book simply based on the author’s behavior. I want to be clear that my review is solely based on the book.

The concept for this book was really intriguing, however the delivery was lacking. Quite frankly, I was confused the entire time I was reading this book. It seemed like the author took tropes and ideas that he enjoyed from years of reading and threw them all into this book in one big weird hodgepodge. And there are SO many characters that it is literally impossible to keep them all straight (especially with difficult names like Sadza, Akizeké, Vashathke, and so on). I couldn’t keep anybody straight, therefore I really couldn’t follow the story properly. Really disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley & Rebellion Publishing for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Zabe Ellor does it again with such an amazing book! I truly think they will go down as a such an impactful author in our time. While this book is almost nothing like May The Best Man Win I enjoyed every word of both and can’t wait to see what’s next.

I really wanted to like this one. The premise sounded engaging and it aligns exactly with my interests. However, I could not get into the story, so I dnfed. The writing felt stilted and difficult to follow. I was confused the majority of the time I did spent reading. The plot fell flat for me, and I couldn't connect with the characters. There was a lot of info dumping and the world building wasn't great either. Overall, this book just wasn't for me.

I absolutely loved Silk Fire; it was vibrant, fierce, and cathartic, with compelling characters, worldbuilding, and storylines.


I wrote a more in-depth review CatStone Books/Pharos Magazine.

I actually have read the other YA book by this author, but i loved this one so much more.. This one was also incredibly fun to read.
The world was fascinating and characters, though the main one annoyed me, were well rounded and fun to follow.

Could not get into this and there is a lot of controversy around the author so i think I'm just going nope out of here.

Kore is the most wanted whore on Victory street, he is also a bastard son of War's Judge's husband, and he's trying to put anyone but his scheming, petty, evil father on the Judge's throne. Around the same time a ship comes floating out of the lost city and the same night of the celebration parade Kore goes with a client to some ruins and while he's there he has sex on their old dead god's alter and becomes a dragon and now everyone is out to get him.
The matriarchal structure of the world is an interesting concept, men are basically home bodies for the most part, they also get the unpleasant aspects of being the "weaker" sex, but the world building wasn't focused enough, even the buildings in this world don't physically make even with altered gravity as part of the equation. I think the fact that the world was so unfocused also pulled focus from the characters as you spend so much of the book trying to make the landscape make sense.

Ahoy there mateys! This book sounded cool cause dragons, diversity, and a male courtesan as a main character but just ended up not really working for me at all.  I abandoned this at 62%.  Most of this stemmed from said courtesan, Koré.  He is a angsty character who spends half the time talking about how badass his political acumen is and all the secrets he has stolen from his clients and the other half talking about what a horrible person he is and moping about how he is a monster from birth who needs vengeance against the man who created him.  And yet Koré doesn't seem to actually DO anything with these supposed secrets or try to actually manipulate to get revenge.  He seems to do a lot of posturing on both fronts without accomplishing anything.  I got tired of him and didn't care about him as a character.  The world building was also strange.  I had a hard time understanding how the city was actually set up and how the streets and districts worked.  It was an odd mix of drones, dinosaurs, dragons, magic, sci-fi and fantasy.  I usually like the blending but it came across as nonsensical, particularly once Koré switches districts.  And all the sex scenes felt written for shock value but were just boring.  Too many random elements in this book to do any of them justice.  Even the diversity was somehow made boring.  Arrr! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

I’ll get straight to the point on this review.

The author was overly ambitious and tried to include every single trope, societal inequality, and fantasy element all in one book. I felt this was more a rough (very rough) draft/outline thank a complete novel. The lack of depth hurt the world building. Betrayal after betrayal just for the sake of a “twist” aspect.

The concept was interesting but the execution was off the mark. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

It's a very original book and, as I discovered a quite controversial one. I like it and liked the plot and the world building.
I think that the author deliver an interesting and unusual story that I enjoyed.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Aughughuhguh. This book is so. I’m so. Eugh. Lots of other people have said a lot of really smart things about this book and you should go read their reviews instead. The famous dathomira review, of course, but also some other great reviewers have given in-depth reviews. Personally, this book was Exhausting and I could definitely see that maybe someone could enjoy it, but there was SO MUCH going on, and I didn’t understand what was happening, and there was no way to really get immersed in the book because there is such a weird mix of Fantasy Language and Regular Slang. I stopped 45% of the way in. Two stars, only because I legally have to give this a star rating.

E-ARC generously provided by Rebellion Publishing through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! Thank you so much!

DNF at 10%. I think everyone has said enough, but can confirm this book was a chore to get through, even with the problematic content aside.

This novel just tried to do too much. There were just far too many aspects of the fantastical world to fit in a 475 page book and there were only a few things I enjoyed. I think so much more could have been achieved if the author had just filtered out a few aspects rather than cramming every fantasy trope into one place.

I greatly appreciated the main character and his identity and was definitely intrigued by the romantic aspects of the story - I would say that the sex scenes were written especially well. I felt that the concept of sexuality and love was explored well too (with a few problems), but that is not an own voices review so take it with a pinch of salt. In addition, I also very much enjoyed the interlude chapters that gave some background to the protagonist’s character as well as his occupation.

However, this is where the enjoyment ended for me. I do not think that this novel was written especially well and often it tried to overwrite to sound fancier and more fantastical, which was ultimately a flop. The pacing as well was done poorly, so many things that should have been whole chapters (like certain fight scenes) were only a few pages whilst other inconsequential conversations lasted 15+ pages. As to the character-building, the many many characters all seemed so one-dimensional and in my opinion, the protagonist did not grow (other than to realise he can be loved) in any capacity. It just felt stagnant. The world itself was just too complicated and had a mixture of so many different things (helicopters, hovercrafts, dinosaurs, dragons) that pulled me out of the story and ultimately made the entire novel too confusing. As a result of these random additions, often only mentioned a couple of times, I was left bored. Saying all of this, my biggest gripe was the matriarchal world which this novel was based upon. It was trying to turn society as we know it on its head but it ultimately just came across as woman-bashing and misogynistic and I hated it. It seemed that nearly every woman was greedy, power-hungry, abusive, and incapable which I greatly disliked. Overall, this novel just wasn’t for me and I’m not sure I would be able to recommend it.

TW: abuse, sexual assault, sexual violence, rape (mentioned), polygamy, violence, murder, sex work, sexism

This was such an interesting book! I was drawn in by all the concepts it lays out: a gender reversal of roles with a matriarchal society, a bi MC who is a courtesan, lots of political intrigue, high fantasy. Unfortunately, I think this book could have used a little more work to flesh out what the author was trying to do. The world-building was interesting but overly confusing. I read lots of fantasy and most are usually a little confusing but we quickly get knowledge that helps us understand everything as we go.

I will also say, the reversal of gender roles felt.... heavy-handed. The author was very obvious in what he was trying to say but I don't think it made a lot of sense. Would the world be the exact same if women were in charge instead of men? I think in ways yes, but in even more ways, no. This felt like a weird indictment of women with no real reason. I think it could have been done better if there was more nuance to the issues with the power structure.

I did love that this book has a bi main character (thank you representation!) and that instead of a love triangle the romance turned to polyamory! I adore that "fix" especially because I hate love triangles.

Overall, I am enjoyed parts of this book but I think it could use some more work!

Would recommend if you enjoy high fantasy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

Look, I've been struggling to get into this book for months. I had no idea about the controversy surrounding the author's behavior until 10 minutes before writing this review, but this book just isn't good.

It was one of my most anticipated reads and I was so ecstatic when I got the arc because my god that blurb sounds freaking amazing. So when I started to read it ages ago and kept hitting a wall, I thought nothing of it. It just wasn't the right time. But I've been trying for months and it never got any better. The writing style is clunky and not at all appealing and the characters might as well have been paper cutouts. The worldbuilding makes no sense, information is just randomly and messily dumped on you and I'm genuinely confused at some of the paragraph structures. It was painful to read.

I'm devastated that this book isn't what I expected and I ended up DNFing at about 28%. I usually give books I haven't made it halfway through 3*, as I feel it isn't fair to judge just in case it was my own specific tastes. I'm making an exception this time.

DNF

I was interested because i loved this authors last book. welp, i think hes better at contemperary writing than sci fi. the world building was messy and convoluted. there was so much just info dumping on the reader that made no sense.