Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Keeper of Sorrows by Rachel Fikes!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 3rd September 2024
Goodreads
Whoever rules the bees, rules the world. A dark fantasy adventure with a twist of Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
On a planet stripped of wind, entire ecosystems lie in ashes, leaving humans to the mercy of a sole surviving bee species on a remote isle. Whoever wins the Praxis to rule them as Keeper, rules the world.
When the next Keeper goes missing, her little sister must not only face her debilitating fear of bees, but compete in the Praxis to find her. As she braves the eerie fortress with sprawling wings of hives, murmuring murals, deceptive hedge mazes, and a host of leering gargoyles, she must also face the reigning Keeper, who’s guarding the darkest secret of all.
Bees!!! I love bees – have since I was an itsy-bitsy Sia – and I’m always excited to see them featured in SFF. It doesn’t happen often enough!
Keeper of Sorrows seems like it’s leaning into the ecological importance of bees, which I am extremely here for. Are these bees the only pollinators left in the world? Even if there are still bats and moths and things, the last bees would still be unspeakably precious – priceless. But how much land could one isle’s worth of bees make habitable? Maybe the Keeper takes the bees to different parts of the world…?
It occurs to me that it’s very evil to have bees and…not work to establish other bee colonies in other places??? Just keeping them to yourself? Obviously it’s a power thing, but the awfulness of it didn’t hit me until just now. Maaaybe the bees are incapable of living elsewhere…but I bet it’s a power thing.
I’m not usually interested in tournament-focussed stories, but I love the sound of this creepy-weird setting. Mazes and gargoyles and murals that talk??? And what kind of people might compete in the Praxis? In this world? Who are allowed to compete? Royalty? Civil servants? Entomologists? How do they know how to look after the bees, since they presumably have never been around bees until the Praxis???
…I’m really curious about this one, okay?
To say nothing of – what makes Keeper of Sorrows a fantasy? A futuristic, post-climate collapse setting usually means sci fi, but everywhere I check, Keeper is described as a fantasy instead – including in its blurb! DOES THIS MEAN THERE WILL BE BEE-MAGIC? I am definitely hoping for bee magic!
Got a few months to wait before this comes out, but it’s available for preorder in all the usual places!
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