Nightbirds
Kate J Armstrong
Kate J. Armstrong is a Fyrebird
Nightbirds is a magic book. I am usually a very analytical reader, who thinks in terms of abstractions like world-building and magic systems. But Nightbirds took me out of myself -- the magic just happened.
Armstrong has an extraordinarily deft hand for a debut novelist. The three main characters of Nightbirds are the three nightbirds Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer. Matilde, the goldfinch, is the daughter of one of the Great Houses of Simta and is accustomed to luxury and to getting her way. Æsa, the nightingale, is the daughter of a poor family of the Island country Illan, come to Simta to make her fortune. Sayer, the Ptarmigan, is the daughter of an unwed former nightbird who lived in the sketchy part of Simta, and is a friend of criminals.
Described baldly like this, they sound like a literary cliché -- the group of ill-assorted friends. But I didn't think that as I read. Armstrong introduced each magic girl in some detail, with her own adventure, and I was so caught up in the persons and personalities of these fascinating girls that I barely noticed that Armstrong was assembling a cast of characters.
The magic was similar. As I read, I had no thoughts or questions about the magic system. I just believed -- it was utterly convincing. In fact, it wasn't really a matter of believing or understanding -- I felt quite literally as if Armstrong was using her magic on me. (Words, after all, are the real magic.) The magic was not just a thing that happened sometimes, it permeated every page. Johnny Cash sang, "Well, I tell you I've fought tougher men, But I really can't remember when." Surely I must have read books that felt more magical than Nightbirds, but I really can't remember when.
In Simta only girls and women have intrinsic magic, although there are alchemists who practice magic with potions and formulas. Simta has a religion that regards magic as something stolen from the Wellspring, their concept of the Divine. Magic is prohibited, but that does not by any means imply it isn't practiced. The religious officials are men. Also, the rulers -- the Table, as they call their council, are mostly men of the Great Houses. The prohibition of magic thus has a male supremacist bent to it. They have a mythology according to which the magic of women did great harm long ago, until men managed to extirpate it. Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer find themselves entangled in the politics and power plays of Simta.
According to those old legends,
Once in a generation rise ... Fyrebirds who are heart tied. Once joined, they are forever bound, strongest together, sending ripples through the world.
—a passage from Canton’s Secret Histories
Nightbirds is the first book of a series -- the second book is entitled Fyrebirds. So I think it is not a spoiler to tell you that the nightbirds are heart-tied.
I give Nightbirds five stars because that is how I felt as I read it, and even as I finished it. An extraordinary debut. I certainly intend to read Fyrebirds.