Review copy provided by the publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I absolutely tore through this and was so glad to have it. Highly recommended. I’m saying that first up, because I don’t want you to mistake one of the other major things I’m saying as a criticism: it is one of the most clearly about the aftereffects of the Covid pandemic<\/em> on medical staff<\/em> of any novel I’ve read in any genre; certainly the most in the secondary world fantasy genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so the plot is: five students about to take their final exams to become healers in the city that produces the most magically gifted healers of anywhere in the world (distinguished from non-magical medics and nurses), and there’s a murder mystery they have to solve that turns out to have a direct connection to all of them. In the middle of finals. While they sort out their complicated personal lives as people at the cusp of their professional careers often have to do. Backwards, in high heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marske isn’t trying to obscure some of the strongest sources of inspiration to her book. This is a matter of “let’s make a Covid-like situation in a number of dimensions but not pretend that Covid itself is universal,” not “let’s make it a point of dispute about whether we’re even talking about that.” We are. But we’re talking about it thematically, in the same way that the system of educating healers in this universe does not directly replicate our current med schools but invites thought and discussion about some of the same issues that ours have. This is one of the things fantasy can do well, and Marske is doing it really well specifically here. While also juggling a murder mystery plot and several flavors of human interactions, from grudging colleagues through dearest friends into complicated family ties and unsettled romantic\/sexual relationships. It’s a longish book, but not because she’s taking her time–there is a lot<\/em> packed into this one. And I love it that way, I really really do, I love all the chewy thoughts about bodies and healing and relating that go into this with shiny magic systems along the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Review copy provided by the publisher. I absolutely tore through this and was so glad to have it. Highly recommended. I’m saying that first up, because I don’t want you to mistake one of the other major things I’m saying as a criticism: it is one of the most clearly about the aftereffects of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bookses-precious"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}