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 Lord of the Empty Isles by Jules Arbeaux!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Aro-ace MC, queerplatonic, queer cast
Published on: 6th June 2024
Goodreads
Interstellar fugitive Idrian Delaciel will die by inches, and Remy Canta will laugh as he goes.
Five years ago, Idrian ordered a withering—a death curse—cast on Remy's brother that cost him his life, and Remy hasn't been the same since. Now Remy finally has the materials he needs to return the favour, but he has one major problem. When he casts the withering, it rebounds onto him.
The implications are unthinkable: Remy is fatebound to his brother's killer.
Even worse, the only way to slow the curse for long enough to find a cure is to join forces with Idrian and his criminal crew. But when he gets there, Remy discovers there are more than just their lives at stake.
Idrian is the sole provider of life-saving supplies to tens of thousands of innocents, and when he dies, they'll die with him. Caught up in perilous heists and a race against time, Remy finds himself truly living for the first time since his brother died.
Too bad for Remy—the only way to stop a withering is to kill the witherer.
Winter's Orbit meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet in this story of loss, power, and privilege with a queerplatonic hate to love story at its heart.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this post (which is not a review, as I haven’t yet finished reading the book).
I don’t usually feature books I have arcs of for Can’t Wait Wednesday – and I’m not sure I’ve ever featured one I’d already started reading before!
But I’m reading Lord of the Empty Isles right now, and I already can’t wait for it to reach the rest of the world.
This book feels…kind of game-changing? Oh, not the stuff about Things Being More Complicated Than Remy Knows (although I do like that very much). But what it’s saying about relationships, connections – the fact that it’s not a romance at the centre of this story, but it is entirely about love, love, love; so many different kinds, and all of them just as valuable, as important, as romantic love. Some of them much more important: what does a romance matter next to the love a person has for their community? How can you say a romantic partner – or even partners, if you have more than one – matters more than all those hundreds and hundreds?
But we do say that, all the time, and I don’t know if that’s ethically wrong and I don’t want to debate it – but it is so immensely refreshing, and relieving, to find a story that highlights and honours and uplifts the kinds of love (white, Western) media tends to forget about or outright dismiss!
I’m ace and autistic: treating romantic love like The Best love and also The Only One That Matters has never made sense to me. I don’t mind romances! I even enjoy them! But Lord of the Empty Isles feels like it’s speaking directly to me, in my language, after a lifetime of hearing only gibberish.
Plus, I love literally all of the characters and I desperately need to know WHAT REMY’S GOING TO DO so, you know, Lord of the Empty Isles is more than an IssuesTM book; it’s also an incredible story so excuse me, please, but I need to get back to reading it RIGHT NOW.
You’ll get the chance to do the same in just two weeks!!!
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