Review: Complex Worlds
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2013
I highly recommend this fantasy featuring incredibly well-defined worlds and inhabitants that are flawlessly executed. The author has a keen ability to remain true to the complex in-universe laws she has created, and the outcome is a deeply engaging and plausible adventure tale rich with characters you care about and plotlines that matter. Mythical lands and characters like this excel when they extrapolate parts of our own society or our selves and illustrate them through their focus. The author takes great care to help us understand what motivates and defines elves/vampires/fairies both as distinctive creatures, and then also what defines each individual elf from other elves, or the personality of one vampire compared to another. This is two layers of character development and it's where lesser authors can stumble, so it was a delight to see it succeed with such depth here. Ultimately the novel describes a wrenching tension between the desire for independence and the drive for power through connection or belonging, or the power of being desired. So many plot lines point back to this pull, including the battles, betrayals, mysterious stalking, and marriage pursuits. Highly recommended!