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A review by kitsuneheart
The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell, J.K. Drummond
4.0
This companion piece to "The Alchemist" takes the Middle-Eastern feel of its companion book and runs with it, though perhaps in a way that capitalizes too much on an outsiders view of Islamic culture. While the city of Paika isn't explicitly Islamic, their need to impose their religion on the lands surrounding them certainly echo back on how Islam is currently viewed.
I can't fault the story too much, however. In the world where this takes place--where the by-product of magic is a deadly vine which is threatening to destroy human civilization--it's only natural that there should be a nation which seeks to halt the spread of magic by imposing death and conversion to anti-magic sentiment on their enemies. And the narrator is rather novel (at least for me): a mother who has lost her children, and who responds to this loss with swift and brutal vengeance.
I can't fault the story too much, however. In the world where this takes place--where the by-product of magic is a deadly vine which is threatening to destroy human civilization--it's only natural that there should be a nation which seeks to halt the spread of magic by imposing death and conversion to anti-magic sentiment on their enemies. And the narrator is rather novel (at least for me): a mother who has lost her children, and who responds to this loss with swift and brutal vengeance.