The Five Queendoms - Scorpica

I love fantasy but I do get a little tired of male-dominated societies but thankfully this is changing. Scorpica by G R Macallister is one of those books that is gloriously completely about women.
Across the five Queendoms, a matrilineal system prevails- daughters inherit their mothers’ crown, power and magic. The focus of the book is on two queendoms- Scorpica and Arca. Scorpica is an Amazonian like society with women born to fight with disputes over who rules decided by the sword. In Arca, the women have magical gifts and anyone who possesses all magic can lay claim to the throne but Queen Mirriam holds on to her power using every trick she can. In the midst of this, Sessadon, an old sorcerer plots in the background to rule over all five Queendoms.
So in a land where girls are essential, the five Queendoms are plunged into chaos when girls stop being born.
The book has several point of view characters which can be frustrating as I found myself more invested in a particular plot thread. The pace is slow to start with but as the author’s prose was so descriptive and rich, I didn’t really mind. The action picks up towards the middle and doesn’t stop.
The book does raise interesting questions- would a female-dominated society be fairer and treat men better or would it be the same as any patriarchal society? In Scorpica, males hold no value except to be bartered for food and in Arca high society men are subservient ( and seek to overthrow the Matriarchy) and the Queen certainly chooses her men for their looks. I would have liked to find out more about the other Queendoms where men and women seem a little more equal. I have to admit to being more than a little curious as to how the women in Scorpica managed to get pregnant.
How would society react if one sex stopped being born? Would they be targets to kidnap or hoard? Would they be locked away to protect? Would there be a revolution? This book explores these themes effectively among the battles, magic, intrigue and passion.
Content warning-descriptions of young teens sacrifice, reference to children dying.
The book resolves all the major plot threads but effectively lays the ground for book 2 which is definitely on my list to read.
will post on waterstones,goodread,my blog and amazon uk

Title - Scorpica - The Five Queendoms
Author - Greer Macallister
Release Date - 22nd February 2022
Page Count - 464
Read Time - 12hrs

You will hear lots of reviews likening this to Game of Thrones and in many aspects it is true; we have rich storytelling weaving together many characters and locations across many years. Politics, magic, wars, and violence. But this is where the game of thrones reference ends, although the story is amazing, and I really did enjoy it, the book can’t make its mind up who its audience is; is it adult or YA fantasy. The action and sex scenes often fall short of the really gruesome, vivid and graphic nature we would came to expect of the GOT books - it is often very PG12.

The premise is that the country of the five queendoms is cursed; one day girls stop being birthed across the entire nation. We follow the aftermath of this curse, how the queendoms strive to understand and survive knowing that the time of woman maybe at an end.

Although the story centres around some of the last girls born it really focusses on one in particular; this narrows the story arc leaving the reader both frustrated and eager for more. However, this is very much intentional to bring the reader back to the next in the trilogy.

I very much enjoyed the character and world building, particularly the Scorpicans and the Rovers and in particular a character called The Shade. The story then picks up significant pace in the last 70-80 pages making it feel rushed leaving the ending to rather fizzle out…I expected the final showdown to be more grand.

Overall a fun read that has whet my appetite for the next in the series. I am looking forward to how the characters develop and what new characters are brought into the fray.

A society ruled by women where all of a sudden, they realise that girls are no longer being born. This sounds like a great premise for a fantasy novel. I love novels with strong women characters and the five different realms appealed to me so I was really expecting to enjoy this. Sadly though, the book didn’t live up to its expectations.

The world building is well thought out and the magic system was original but for me, fantasy novels stand or fall on their characters and this one fell down. None of the characters inspired any sort of feeling in me. This might have been partly because there is very little dialogue and what there is, feels a bit stilted.
There were enjoyable bits but in the end, I just wasn’t bothered by what was happening.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited about this! People were raving about it on socials. I was so happy when I was approved for it. And I can see why people are raving about it. It's sweeping, it's epic, it's all those things everyone is saying.

It's just not for me.

The back story is huge and given in drips and drabs. There are a lot of characters to follow. Although I enjoyed some of the individual stories, I found the overall arc moved too slowly and with too many digressions.

Other readers are going to love this, and I'm very pleased for them. I hope it does really well, and that it runs and runs - I assume it's planned to be five books, one for each Queendom, but who knows.

Three stars because I do think it's well written. It didn't suit me, and maybe that's a fault in me rather than in it.

4 ⭐
For the fans of Game of thrones and Hunger games

This book contains rich and creative fantasy world ruled by fierce women, smart women, women to make you stand up! Along with court politics, magic, deadly mind games, amazing swordplay and a wonderful combination of Wonder woman!

I can't wait to read the upcoming books in this series!!

This was a fantastic idea, and the world building was second to none, but for me personally it went on too long with too many characters. I know people who adore doorstoppers and will no doubt dive into this one, but it just wasn't right for me, sadly.

“Magic was like that, making the impossible possible.”

🦂🦂🦂🦂🦂

The Five Queendoms by G. R. Macallister. Published 22 February from @TitanBooks - thank you for my early copy via @NetGalley.
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In an ancient matriarchal world of magic, gods and warriors, the last girl – unbeknownst to the five queendoms – has just been born.

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I first/ seen heard of this book on Samantha Shannon’s Instagram stories, if you don’t know, Samantha Shannon is the author of my favourite fantasy book, The Priory of the Orange Tree. It has been dubbed as an epic fantasy where Game of Thrones meets Priory - so I was obviously really intrigued and couldn’t wait to read it.

Whilst I enjoyed this book, I am also very conflicted with it. By the end of the book I was very confused, and felt like I’ve either missed critically important plot details, or they just weren’t explained.

There are a host of characters in this book, however I’ll say that what’s really good is that I never felt at any point that there were too many to keep track of, or to know who was who - which is really hard to do when it comes to fantasy books on this scale. The book alternates between narrators, mostly Tamura, Eminel, Vish and Sessadon.

As the Five Queendoms try to figure out what is causing the drought of girls, we get told a lot of backstory for the world, and for a world as vast as it is, covering many character narratives over a great deal of time - I think this book suffers from being too short. The author is feeding us a lot of backstory, but we don’t get to experience it, it’s just told which for epic fantasy isn’t really a good thing - we want the whole however-many-pages-it-takes feast of the world. A book per Queendom or book per narrator would probably have really served the story better in the long run.

There’s some really great characters in this book, The Rovers, Vish, The Shade and others who I hope we’ll get to learn more about in the rest of the series. After a while though, The Rovers no longer appear in the book - and this is really disappointing, they’re a great group of characters and I really hope we see them again (I’m sure we will)!

Something I picked up on throughout the book is the lack of dialogue between characters, it’s somewhat limited - there’s a lot happening but we mostly hear from the narrator of each chapter, and sometimes more dialogue would be good to help with the pace throughout the book. However, I didn’t feel the book was dragging or that I had to force myself to keep going. I was invested. Further to this, we meet a character who gets renamed as Ama very early on and she’s taken to the Orphan Tree - and this is a thread to potentially be picked up on later in the series, but again if the book was longer I’d have loved to have read more about this character and more about the Orphan Tree.

I read this as an e-arc and I’m not sure if it’s just this copy or not, but I found some of the writing/ syntax a little confusing - there were some sentences I had to read over and over to try and make sense of how it was supposed to be read/ heard. I think I also found a contradictory statement at the start of Chapter 23 - about who makes Vish’s favourite tea in the morning, but shouldn’t this actually say Fasiq’s favourite tea, as it’s Jehenit who previously made Fasiq’s tea in the morning? Think this is an error but it could just be my e-arc and the finished copy is corrected; or I’m wrong!

There are mentions of “The Pale” in the North only a few times throughout the book, which is like the White Walkers/ Army of the Dead from GoT, however - it’s only mentioned, and in my honest opinion it just didn’t serve the story because it was so vague - I didn’t feel any sort of threat or alert by the mention - I needed more of story for The Pale, or none, yet again if the book was longer maybe this could’ve been expanded?

What’s caused me mostly to be conflicted about this book is how it ended and one other point that I just can’t get out of my mind:

1. The book ends with the looming potential of war. I don’t know if I’ve missed something again because to me I don’t understand what the need for war is? The Queendom of Scorpica plans for war, but to what end? Girls have stopped being born, what good is going to war - all the warriors are women? Why kill off your women in war whenever they can’t be replaced? Unless I’ve missed something really obvious, then that’s on me, but I don’t think I did miss anything. If the point is that you need to be smart enough to work out the politics of the decision then I guess I ain’t smart enough to work it out because from what I’ve read, no other Queendom is threatening war so I just don’t know why this is where it’s heading…

2. The other thing that’s really bothered me about this book, and it’s kind of a silly point, is the Scorpica Queendom just a moving circus? They’re warriors yes, but do they live in tents? A Queendom, of Tents? I just didn’t get it, nor could I really picture a QUEENDOM of Tents. Baffled by that.

A good start, but not without flaws, but I will be looking out for the rest of the series, because there’a so so so much potential for this series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Blurb:

In an ancient matriarchal world of magic, gods and warriors, the last girl – unbeknownst to the five queendoms – has just been born. As time marches on, the scribes of Bastian find no answers in their history books. The farmers of Sestia sacrifice their crops to the gods. Paxim, the empire of trade and dealings, has nothing to barter but boys and more boys. Arcan magic has no spells to remedy the Drought of Girls. And finally, Scorpica, where every woman is a fighter, their commander, their queen, has no more warriors to train. The lines of these once-great empires soon to die.

After centuries of peace, the ensuing struggle for dominance – and heirs – will bring the five queendoms to the eve of all-out war.

But the mysterious curse is linked to one of the last-born children, an orphaned all-magic girl, who is unaware she has a claim to the Arcan throne…

5 stars for the sheer delight of reading a fleshed-out matriarchal world!

I went into this book without knowing much about it except that it featured a society ruled by women. There are five queendoms with women as higher class citizens than men. I loved how the author explored the discontent that arises from any society that oppresses one gender yet still celebrated the power women could wield as leaders, fighters and scholars.

Often books with multiple points of view have ones that you're less interested in but that wasn't the case here. Every character was complex and engaging. Beware of getting too invested in any one character though as the death count is high!

After a curse stops any female babies from being born across the country, tensions between and within the queendoms heighten. The plot is driven by the effects of this curse and the desperation felt by so many characters. This is a fast-paced and twisty story that will have you utterly gripped from the first page. An epic fantasy that deserves all the hype.

The Five Queendoms- Scorpica by G.R Macallister was an absolute page turner! The authors writing style was absolutely wonderful and a pleasure to read. The book itself had no discernible errors and was very well edited. The plot was well executed and the characters well defined and developed.

The book itself started off wonderfully but after the challenge and execution of what became one of my favourite characters early on, it took a turn for the worse for me. What I loved most about this book was the universe...not void of men but one where men are essentially useless. The women are the true heros, the warriors, the leaders, the queens, the healers, the magical ones and the pillars of society itself. That...that was what made the book stand out for me in the realm of fantasy....where so often we are bombarded by stories of men and men alone.

To give you a little more insight into this almost man free existence....the women of Scorpica take multiple "husbands" or go off in search of a man to copulate with. The aim is of course pregnancy but if the child is a son he is sold or given away. However, this approach to dealing with males of the society back fires when there is drought of girls/ the female death rate decreases to basically non existent. And this is where the story gets GOOOOOOD....because how else would a warrior class gain new female warriors? Do they steal them, do they buy them or do they enslave them?

The universe created was masterful and unique. One rarely visited in fantasy novels...it was uncharted territory and I loved reading that aspect of women being in complete and absolute control. Arguably I did not enjoy some of the characters in the story nor did I appreciate being led along and then hung off a cliff but I suppose we the readers had that coming...it is a part of a series after all! I am looking forward to reading more of this!

CW: child sacrifice

This was definitely a vanity request first and foremost because I love covers with gold color palettes and this one with its intricately designed dagger was a beauty. I was also quite intrigued by this world of queendoms and immediately requested an arc. And this was such a ride.

The world building was a major draw for this book and I’m glad it didn’t disappoint on that level. We never do get to know why the women in this world are so powerful except for it being their god’s will but I loved the history of how the Great Peace came to be and the unique ways each queendom differs from each other. Their specific characteristics together make for a very coherent whole and I loved how the author managed to create them. The pacing is also pretty steady, never too fast or slow, but with its own reflective moments, covering more than a decade of the story. The writing is straightforward and easy to follow, with not too many flourishes, but I think it suited the slightly harsh circumstances of this world.

This is not a spoiler because it’s mentioned in the blurb but the idea of what will happen to a matriarchal world when girls stop being born is a fascinating premise and I was really excited to see the issues arising with this play out. I probably did want to see more of the political machinations and how the common people were dealing with the issue, but we never get to explore the societal wide implications. The author mainly focused on what it meant to one of the queendoms and how they decided to deal with it - I wasn’t completely disappointed but I just expected more.

There are a whole number of women POVs to follow along here and it was nice to get such a variety. Tamura and Mirriam are both conniving queens in their own ways - Tamura hiding all her insecurities by leaning on her warrior side, with a thirst for blood and conquest; Mirriam on the other hand who can’t trust anyone around her, paranoid to the core, all powerful magic user but all alone. Jehenit is a healer who takes her duty to her village very seriously but all that changes when she needs to protect her only daughter. Vishala is bound by her loyalty to her queen, more than to her homeland, and will do anything to protect her heir. Gretti is a reluctant strategist who is loyal to her people more than the Queen and will try her best to protect them all, but is not fond of conquest or bloodshed. Eminel is an unexpected prodigy who doesn’t realize what she is capable of. And finally Sessadon - the resentful one, who wasn’t chosen to be queen but will destroy the world to make it kneel in front of her. All these women are dynamic, their personalities shining through the pages, and I loved getting to know each of their strengths and vulnerabilities and guessing what they might do next. There is so much tension in their relationships and life altering consequences to their actions, and it was fun exploring it all.

In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book and I loved savoring the book a bit slowly than I usually do. The world is fascinating, the magic is cool, the ensemble of characters is brilliant (whether I actually like them or not is a different matter) and the plot is convoluted in some ways, but thrilling in others. I liked how this first book is almost self contained with an interesting conclusion, while leaving lots of possibilities for the sequel. I’m definitely looking forward to it.

The second I saw this was like a feminist Game of Thrones I got super excited to be part of the blog tour for Titan. The world building in this nook is absolutely exquisite. The entire time I was reading through this one I could clearly envisage everything going on as if I was immersed into the book itself and living in this amazing world. We get a lot of different POVs from the women in this one which I really enjoyed as you get to know different individual’s perspectives that you may not have gotten otherwise. The pacing was really good and the plot keeps you gripped and wanting to turn the pages quicker than you can read them!

I can’t go into too much more detail without spoiling the plot so I’ll leave it here, but you all need to read this one. It’s going to be big. Grab yourselves a copy and prepare to be amazed.

Scorpica is an epic fantasy tale that follows multiple characters across the five Queendoms. The Queendoms have had peace for hundreds of years, but this is soon thrown into uncertainty when no new baby girls are born. As the drought causes tensions to erupt, new alliances are drawn and old scores will be settled.

Scorpica is one of those books that hooks you in right from the very beginning. The plot was instantly gripping and it felt like such a unique story. I also found myself becoming invested in the characters and the fate of the five Queendoms. Scorpica has such an intriguing world and I was fascinated by the magic system, which is powered by sand. I really enjoyed seeing the different abilities and how the characters choose to use them. I feel like I’ve only seen a small part of the world in this book and I can’t wait to see where McAllister takes the story next.

Where I think Scorpica really excels is the well-crafted characters. There are a number of different POV characters and each one has their own motivations and ambitions. I was never sure who to trust, or who was going to survive. There’s tons of political intrigue and there were more than a few moments that had me on the edge of my seat. Tamura was particularly fascinating as she strives to navigate being queen and I really liked Eminel too. Scorpica is an incredible start to a new fantasy series and if you’re looking for a fresh and engaging fantasy read, this one should definitely be on your TBR.

Headlines:
An epic worldview
Female-dominated political intrigue
Brutal & engaging
Progeny

I have so many thoughts on finishing this book. I feel like I've been brought into an fantasy world that is something of an epic and I'm very ready to carry on with the series.

This book feasted in the themes of feminism, female leaders, matriachal families, the prominence of female children and those elements had problematic sides as you can imagine. Equality wasn't necessarily on the menu but quite honestly, it felt refreshing to read an adult fantasy in the ilk of Game of Thrones from the female view point.

There were a range of stories in tandem being told until the connections started to knot together. I championed lots of the characters, but it wasn't always wise to get too invested. It was a magical world with some interesting powers and gifts but don't be misled, this world was also about the brute force of some of the female soldiers and queens; magic had a place, but it wasn't the only power.

Scorpica was a dense fantasy read and that depth of world building and characterisation really worked for me. It felt like something I could really get my teeth into. Definitely a recommendation for all adult fantasy fans.

Thank you to Titan Books for the review copy.

Scorpica is a matriarchal epic fantasy that I was really excited to read. The selling points for me were the multiple point of views and the sapphic characters, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I don’t think I had ever read a purely matriarchal worldbuilding before so that was one aspect of the book I found really interesting. Each of the Queendoms (at least the ones we’ve explored a bit more) seems to treat men differently: one sends them away as soon as they are born since they can’t be warriors; one sees them as trophy husbands that at best can do pretty magic; in another one men are starting to demand more rights.

There are several point of views throughout the book and that’s my favorite thing to see in epic fantasy. All the women were so different and since the story spanned multiple years it was also really cool to see some of them grow to become young women.

I think the writing style, paired with how seemingly slow paced this book is, is going to be a little polarizing. It’s the type of writing that’s more tell than show and that can be your thing or not. It’s personally not what I normally prefer but I think it worked here for this type of story, especially since there was so much going on.

One question I had from the very beginning was whether gender binarism was going to be challenged, and I think it wasn’t an unreasonable expectation to have for a sapphic fantasy releasing in 2022, but unfortunately I wasn’t completely satisfied in that point. There was a very minor (non-POV) agender character and mention of “people who are neither [men nor women]” but other than this there was no mention of how people that don’t fit the binary may fit the different societies of the Queendoms. Scorpicans sending away their boys as soon as they are born just based on what they see doesn’t seem to account for the existence of trans women and trans men, let alone someone who is neither. The curse that’s at the center of the plot only sees boys being born, but you can’t really know they’re boys until they’re old enough to tell you they are. The role of the only agender person mentioned in the book was to be a priest, which seems a little convenient in order not to have to think about how people of different genders may fit in an otherwise binary society. I hope this will be addressed in later books in the series because I see it as the biggest, and quite literally fundamental, flaw of this first book.

Despite this and the moments I wished I was able to read this a little bit faster, I enjoyed reading this book and I can say that pretty much at no point did I know or expect what was going to happen later. I would recommend it for readers who are used to epic fantasy and are prepared to be patient until they see where the book is going, and are looking for a casually sapphic matriarchal fantasy.

TWs: pregnancy, child birth, violence, death, murder, blood, death of a parent

An intoxicating, sophisticated and stunning fantasy: a breathtaking fusion of court politics, deadly & unique magic, family rivalry, intrigue, swords and sorcery set in a fierce matriarchal world - where women rule!

Often, I like to swiftly make my way through books and enjoying doing so. However, Scorpica was different. Scorpica demanded my attention - forced me to read slowly, to pause and reflect and to take in every richly woven detail; appreciate its intricate world-building and immersive plot.

Scorpica is a raw feminist story told from multiple characters, locations and times all seamlessly fused together to create something truly breathtaking. I loved how the writer did not shy away from the graphic brutally of traditional Grimdark tales but instead morphed it into something refreshing new and equally powerful - a phenomenal world where women dominated as Queens, as Warriors, as Mothers!

As well as being brutal and violent at times, the story captures a beautiful tenderness, a mothers love and sacrifice, women finding sexual satisfaction without being branded whores; rewarded for being cunning and fierce.
There’s a cast of diverse characters - including sapphic and pansexual representation. And a world where polyandry and casual relationships are normalised, where dynamic
characters draw you in - making the experience truly immersive.

Truly grateful for my netgalley and physical arc.