In a land of thousands of floating islands, the aging emperor uses a particularly gruesome form of magic to manage his empire: by taking shards of bones from the children of his subjects and using those shards to build animate constructs to carry out his orders. But the emperor's daughter Lin will one day take over, and must learn how create and control. Meanwhile, many of the subjects aren't too keen on this misuse of their bodies (which degrade as their shards are used), and are beginning to rebel against the emperor. Stuck in the middle of all of this is the smuggler Jovis, who just wants to find out where his kidnapped wife has gone, but keeps getting drawn into the rebellion and has a new mysterious link with an odd talking creature named Mephi.
The world-building in this book (the first of a series) is wonderful, and sets up the rest of the series well. The only character that I felt any connection to was Jovis, who is wonderfully complex and interesting (though my husband pointed out that a LOT of my favorite characters in fiction are the smugglers and criminals). However, there may be a reason for that, one that I will not delve into here. I'm definitely curious to see where the next book goes!
*This book will be published Sept. 8, 2020.
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