★★★☆☆ The Foxglove King, by Hannah Whitten
A slow, careful world-building prolog
The Foxglove King
Hannah Whitten
A slow, careful world-building prolog
Long ago, long ago, there were seven gods. Well, you know that a story that begins that way never ends well. The two most powerful gods fought. One of them won and cast the other down. Then, after anointing a king and leaving behind some scriptures and producing some geological catastrophes (volcanoes, earth-rending quakes, very standard god stuff), he ascended to some inaccessible state. The usual story, you know. Those events are called the Godsfall.
The Godsfall was more than 500 years ago, and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Big chunks of scripture have been lost, and the interpretation of those that remain is subject to difficult translation issues. This theology is still relevant, because (1) there is a king, the Sainted King, and a priest, the Priest Exalted, who derive their legitimacy from the Godsfall, and (2) there is magic. The magic comes in two flavors, Spiritum, life magic, and Mortem, death magic. Spiritum derives from the god who won the battle. Mortem derives from the goddess he defeated, whose remains are interred in a tomb under the city, from which Mortem leaks.
Our heroine and point of view character, Lore, is an orphan subsisting in the city as a petty criminal. She has some sort of poorly understood connection to Mortem. She is snatched up by minions of the Sainted King and caught up in the intrigues of his court. There she plots with a priest, Gabriel, and the King's heir, Bastian. Of course, everyone in the court has an agenda, and no one is on the up-and-up.
No spoilers so far -- this is all in the publisher's blurb. What follows is a slow, careful revelation of mysteries. The most important of these mysteries is who Lore is, and how she is connected to Mortem.
The Foxglove King is the first book in a projected series, The Nightshade Kingdom series. The story is told mostly as an investigation by our three principal characters, Lore, Gabriel, and Bastian, of the theological and political mysteries of the court. It is an interesting approach to world-building. We learn about the Nightshade Kingdom mostly through Lore, Gabriel, and Bastian's investigations.
This worked, I felt, but not perfectly. There was not enough of a plot to grip my interest. However, I plan to continue reading the series. Hannah Whitten leaves us well-positioned for a continued story. And now that the world-building is mostly done, I anticipate a faster pace in the next books.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advance reader copy of /The Foxglove King/. This review expresses my honest opinions. Book to be released 07-Mar-2023.