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A review by siavahda
Thief Mage, Beggar Mage by Cat Hellisen
4.0
HIGHLIGHTS
~keep your eye on casual gifts
~clockwork horses
~machinating (not mechanical) dragons
~bugs made of jewels
~an extremely pretty prince of thieves
I knew better than to expect anything specific from Thief Mage Beggar Mage, because if there’s one thing a Hellisen book guarantees (besides fabulous writing), it’s that you are never going to be able to predict what shape the story will take.
You just know it’s going to be amazing.
Thief Mage Beggar Mage kept that promise: nothing went the way I thought it would, and every bit of it was brilliant. Not always comfortable and very often not very happy! But brilliant.
I’ve been a fan of Hellisen for years, but I genuinely think Thief Mage Beggar Mage ratchets it up a notch in terms of prose; lush is not an adequate descriptor for this book, okay? To describe the writing as lush undersells it. This book is sumptuous, and sensual, and simply sublime. And it doesn’t hurt at all that this is a book with a lot of beauty in it; canine gods, silken clothes, clockwork beasties made of gems. I am a shallow creature, all right, I like my fantasy pretty, and Hellisen absolutely delivers with rich, descriptive prose blooming into stunning imagery. This is a book you could get drunk on, a book that so seduces your senses that you can smell the incense clinging to the pages after you’ve closed them. It’s gorgeous.
The story Hellisen spins for us manages to feel both languid and urgent, and no, I can’t tell you exactly how that effect was created, because I don’t understand it myself. Thief Mage Beggar Mage walks the knife-thin, knife-sharp line between beautiful dream and terrible nightmare, weaving sweet lassitude and jewelled wonder with sick dread and terror – because the world Hellisen has created here is as beautiful as it is awful, and poor Tet is caught between too many opposing powers, too many horrible deaths, too many bad options. The story turns like a spiral, first lifting Tet up, then bringing him crashing down, and the tension twists tighter and tighter as the loops of the spiral coil in towards the center – the end of it all.
It’s complicated, and vivid, and twists and turns like a dragon.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
~keep your eye on casual gifts
~clockwork horses
~machinating (not mechanical) dragons
~bugs made of jewels
~an extremely pretty prince of thieves
I knew better than to expect anything specific from Thief Mage Beggar Mage, because if there’s one thing a Hellisen book guarantees (besides fabulous writing), it’s that you are never going to be able to predict what shape the story will take.
You just know it’s going to be amazing.
Thief Mage Beggar Mage kept that promise: nothing went the way I thought it would, and every bit of it was brilliant. Not always comfortable and very often not very happy! But brilliant.
I’ve been a fan of Hellisen for years, but I genuinely think Thief Mage Beggar Mage ratchets it up a notch in terms of prose; lush is not an adequate descriptor for this book, okay? To describe the writing as lush undersells it. This book is sumptuous, and sensual, and simply sublime. And it doesn’t hurt at all that this is a book with a lot of beauty in it; canine gods, silken clothes, clockwork beasties made of gems. I am a shallow creature, all right, I like my fantasy pretty, and Hellisen absolutely delivers with rich, descriptive prose blooming into stunning imagery. This is a book you could get drunk on, a book that so seduces your senses that you can smell the incense clinging to the pages after you’ve closed them. It’s gorgeous.
The story Hellisen spins for us manages to feel both languid and urgent, and no, I can’t tell you exactly how that effect was created, because I don’t understand it myself. Thief Mage Beggar Mage walks the knife-thin, knife-sharp line between beautiful dream and terrible nightmare, weaving sweet lassitude and jewelled wonder with sick dread and terror – because the world Hellisen has created here is as beautiful as it is awful, and poor Tet is caught between too many opposing powers, too many horrible deaths, too many bad options. The story turns like a spiral, first lifting Tet up, then bringing him crashing down, and the tension twists tighter and tighter as the loops of the spiral coil in towards the center – the end of it all.
It’s complicated, and vivid, and twists and turns like a dragon.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!