Despite his high position as a scholar, Danso is an outsider in the strict caste system of Basso. His mother was an immigrant to the city-state, his father a native healer, so he's a rare mixed-race member of the upper caste. He's also VERY curious about the world outside Basso, though information information is hard to come by. But when a skin-changing woman from the Nameless Islands (which, according to Basso sources, don't even exist any more) appears in Basso, Danso finds that what he thought he knew isn't right at all.
As the beginning of a series, this book does an excellent job of addressing a multitude of complex topics — including race, caste, propaganda, colonialism, political uprisings, and immigration — without losing any of the action and adventure. The characters are equally complex, and grow (sometimes horrifically) throughout the novel. I can't wait to see what happens next in this series!
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