Book: Sunbolt Review [Book Tour + Wyrd & Wonder 2023 Day 13]

After a very long time, I am reviewing a book! The review is both a part of the blog tour for Sunbolt and Day 13 of Wyrd and Wonder!

This review is a part of the Book Tour for BBNYA finalists and I am thankful to the author and Write Reads for letting me be a part of it!

For those who don’t know, the BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or Twitter @bbnya_official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

So without further ado, let me present to you…

Title: Sunbolt

Author: Intisar Khanani

Length: 152 pages

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date:17 June 2013

Publisher: Purple Monkey Press

A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

Summary:

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

I would first like to congratulate Sunbolt for winning 3rd place in BBNYA 2022! Hitomi’s story is brilliant and I can definitely see why the panellists might have loved this book. But this isn’t to share their thoughts, this review is to share mine and I have plenty!

Sunbolt hooked me from the start. I began reading it on my way to work and when I tell you I mildly regretted choosing a moment that would ensure I have to pause the book and then pick it up again, I would probably be understating exactly how much of a page-turner this book really is. There is something about the Hitomi and the others that draw you into their world within a few sentences and it wasn’t long before it felt like I was running down the streets of Karolene with her. The writing style with the way it mixes descriptions of the world with the narrative rarely felt like it was giving exposition and most of the history of the world and tensions amongst the characters were written subtly, with the trust that the readers would understand the unstated subtext. Though the story felt criminally short, at no point did the brevity leave things unclear. The writing style at any given point felt as though you knew just as much as you were supposed to about the world and the people in it.

This leads me to the world-building in the story. The author began the book with a caveat and a guide. The caveat was that the cultures in the fantasy world of The Eleven Kingdoms “are primarily based on a variety of real-world historical cultures.” The guide was a guide to the pronunciation of the various names in the book which was helpful, to say the least. The caveat was interesting and I would say that for at least the first two chapters, I was trying to keep this in mind but by the time I was on the third chapter, the cultures and people in the story had blended with the world of The Eleven Kingdoms and become something that was intimately a part of it. The world, when we enter it is one with its own history, rules and people and you at no point are left wondering “Huh, but why is that?” because the world is so clearly developed that you know that there must be some reason for it, even if this reason is something as simple as “that’s how it always has been” as it so often is even in our world. The various magical races we meet have their own inter-race dynamics and leave you wanting more. The impact of these histories on the character interactions are fascinating to read.

Characters! What can I say about the characters that won’t give too much away? This book might have been out for 10 years but I stick to the policy of no spoilers so I will try my best to not mention characters that haven’t been mentioned in the summary! Hitomi is brilliantly independent and street-wise as one who has been on their own for too long often are. Her will and the sheer strength of her conviction once she has decided upon something is empowering and I adored her all the more for it. The way her interaction with each member of the Shadow League reflects their bonds and relationship was fun to read and truly allowed the readers to understand the relationship they shared without ever explicitly stating any of it. The personality of each character and their motivations were revealed not only by what they said but the subtle undercurrents and actions. The readers are asked to form their own opinions based on what they read about each character and it works so beautifully in a story that is all about how there is more to the world than necessarily meets the eye.

Overall, I loved the world, the characters and the writing style. The plot was also engaging and a wonderful read. I am a little upset that I did not know about the author or the book before this tour but now can honestly say that I am trying to get my hands on the sequel (which is thankfully already published) along with the Dauntless Path series because this is a world (and a writing style) that I most definitely want to get mor

Reading Recommendation:

The book is criminally short for the depth and beauty of the story. This is the kind of book that you can read in one sitting, on your way to work or from (although I wouldn’t suggest it if you only have a 30-minute journey as I did). A deeply engrossing read, I would think this is a wonderfully light read for escaping this world when you’ve had a bad day but don’t want to enter a new and highly complicated world. Not to say that isn’t complicated, but the length and punchiness of this book means that at no point does it feel overwhelming. This is the kind of book that you can curl up with at the end of a long day with a cup of coffee or lemonade (now that the weather is getting warmer). This book is not for the very young and there are certain depictions of gore which would lead me to range this book as something for those above the age of 12 at the least. A fantastical adventure through a magical land, this book is perfect for those who enjoy leaving or world behind to enter one completely new.