 | The Unspoken Name is equal parts spy novel, heist story, and romantic fantasy—and a thoroughly compelling reading experience. The main character is Csorwe (pronounced “ksor-way”), a young novitiate raised to become a willing sacrifice to the Unspoken One, a god dwelling deep within a nearby mountain. She channels this god when asked to prophesize: “She plummeted through the dark, and felt the eyes of the void upon her. The presence of the Unspoken One crept in slowly at first . . . And then all at once it was impossible to ignore: a vast invisible pressure, a single focused curiosity that weighed her with impersonal hunger.” Then: “The Unspoken One drew back from her, like a wave falling back down the shore, leaving only a sheen of brightness where it had touched” |
The powerful magician Sethennai rescues Csorwe from a sacrificial death and spirits her away through one of the many portal gates scattered throughout this world. Sethennai has been exiled from his home city, and he has Csorwe trained as an assassin-spy to help him regain his position. She is profoundly loyal to him and strives to earn his approval throughout the story: “she owed him her life, and the obligation gnawed on her like a worm in an apple.”
Cut off from his god because of his exile, Sehtennai’s power is much reduced. When he does wield magic, he uses leather gauntlets to insulate himself. He explains that magic is a potentially lethal exchange between magician and god: “Mortal flesh can only bear so much. Divine power is a wonderful thing, but it is also poison.”
Cut off from his god because of his exile, Sehtennai’s power is much reduced. When he does wield magic, he uses leather gauntlets to insulate himself. He explains that magic is a potentially lethal exchange between magician and god: “Mortal flesh can only bear so much. Divine power is a wonderful thing, but it is also poison.”
 | Sethennai is Tlaanthothei (“tlaan-thoth-eh”), a tall, elegant, brown-skinned race with pointed ears and “fashionable cheekbones.” Csorwe is Oshaarun (“Oh-shar-rune”), a stocky race with gray skin and yellow eyes; the adults have tusks, which they often decorate with bands of silver or gold. In an especially gruesome scene, Csorwe is tortured by having a tusk broken off. The Qarsazhi (“kar-sazh-ee”), the third race in the story, are humans with olive-brown skin, dark eyes, and long black braids. The gods generally reside in specific places or objects, such as the Unspoken One’s mountain home, and several gods are awakened at different points in the novel, adding to the complexity of the story world. |
In the second act of the story, we meet Shuthmili (pronounced “shuth-mee-lee”), an Adept from the Qarsazhi culture that considers magic a corruption. “To use magic is to violate the ordered structure of the universe, to step outside one’s allotted place.” In Shuthmili’s culture, mages are “tethered” into a controllable quintet and wielded like weapons—and lose their individual identities in the process.
 | Much of the novel involves finding an ancient relic that Sethennai believes will give him unrivaled power. Shuthmili becomes caught up in Csorwe’s quest for the artifact, and in an excruciating dilemma Csorwe must choose between saving Shuthmili from a malicious antagonist or snatching the artifact. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns in the plot, some hilarious and others unbearably tense and deadly dangerous, which kept me turning pages. A nemesis from Csorwe’s days as a novitiate to the Unspoken One plays a recurring role, as does an Inquisitor looking to force Shuthmili into a tethered quintet. A relative of Sethennai also serves as an uncertain ally and general thorn in Csorwe’s side throughout the novel. And Csorwe must also reckon with her broken relationship with the Unspoken One. The final outcome of the quest for the antiquity is equal parts astounding and inevitable. |
The romance between Csorwe and her sweetheart develops slowly, but is believable and entirely worth the wait. Csorwe describes their first kiss:
“She was tentative in a way that suggested maybe she hadn’t kissed a girl with tusks before. At first Csorwe could still notice this sort of detail, and then—it wasn't that she forgot immediately about her enemies, and their enemies, and all the rest—but for a moment everything else faded into the distance.”
“She was tentative in a way that suggested maybe she hadn’t kissed a girl with tusks before. At first Csorwe could still notice this sort of detail, and then—it wasn't that she forgot immediately about her enemies, and their enemies, and all the rest—but for a moment everything else faded into the distance.”
The Unspoken Name is a debut novel written with authority and grace. A five-star read for the complex characters, intriguing world, and can’t-stop-reading plot.
Other magic-based “Romantasy” and impossible-quest fantasy fiction:
The Thousand Eyes (also by A.K. Larkwood), Paladin’s Grace, Swordheart,
Best New Romantic Fantasy, The Magician’s Daughter, Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and Nettle & Bone
The Thousand Eyes (also by A.K. Larkwood), Paladin’s Grace, Swordheart,
Best New Romantic Fantasy, The Magician’s Daughter, Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and Nettle & Bone
