soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavorSunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!
Two books that, while not being the kind of diverse SFF I started this blog for, are both five-star examples of what they want to be!
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Minor MLM Black character, queernorm setting
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
ISBN: 1916678076
Goodreads
21st Century London.
The Norman conquest never happened.
The ancient tribes of Britain remain undefeated.
But murders still have to be solved.The small, mostly unimportant, island of Britain is inhabited by an uneasy alliance of tribes – the dominant Saxon East, the beleaguered Celtic West, and an independent Nordic Scotland – and tensions are increasing by the second. Supermarket warpaint sales are at an all- time high, mead abuse shortens the lives of thousands, and social media is abuzz with conspiracy theories suggesting the High Table’s putting GPS trackers in the honeycakes.
Amid this febrile atmosphere, the capital is set to play host to the Unification Summit, which aims to join together the various tribes into one ‘united kingdom’. But when a Celtic diplomat is found brutally murdered, his body nailed to an ancient oak, the fragile peace is threatened. Captain Aedith Mercia, daughter of a powerful Saxon leader, must join forces with Celtic Tribal Detective Inspector Drustan to solve the murder – and stop political unrest spilling onto the streets.
But is this an isolated incident? Or are Aedith and Drustan facing a serial killer with a decades-old grudge? To find out, they must delve into their own murky pasts and tackle forces that go deeper than they ever could have imagined.
Set in a world that’s far from our own and yet captivatingly familiar, Pagans is “The Bridge” meets “Vikings”, exploring contemporary themes of religious conflict, nationalism, prejudice... and the delicate internal politics of the office coffee round. Gripping and darkly funny, Pagans keeps you guessing until the very end.
In a whole bunch of ways this is not the kind of book I usually read, but I was so fascinated by the premise of the worldbuilding that I had to give it a go – especially with several amazing authors, like KJ Charles and Iona Datt Sharma, giving it a big thumb’s up.
AND FOLX, IT WAS SO FREAKING GREAT!
Like, it is very much a crime-thriller thing. The police are even more violent and abusive than the ones we’re used to, and while it isn’t glorified, it is sort of…taken for granted? There’s a grittiness, an almost-bleakness to the whole book that isn’t noir but definitely contains echos of it. The almost is critical, though.
And I was mostly here for the worldbuilding, which, my gods, DELIVERED! Africa is the global superpower in this timeline, the Muslim empire has a hold of most of Europe, and the Indigenous folks over on the American continents have been Left The Fuck Alone because the big players are locked in a stalemate over it. Whereas Britain…gah, it was so cool! Henry has paid so much attention to every detail – jewellery, fashion, naming conventions, religion, food, slang! Ambulances are marked with apples, not crosses; it’s illegal to cover up a tattoo (but not to alter one); and the one that made me laugh the hardest, milk in tea is gross blasphemy.
male, female, and friends of the aelves
The investigation room was full of reeves now, most of whom were giving Drustan the shield-eye
Mughal students spending their gap year building playgrounds for disadvantaged Saxon youths
They even use the term ‘spree killer’ instead of ‘serial killer’ – because ‘serial killer’ was coined by the FBI, which doesn’t exist in this universe. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?
And while I don’t think it can be justifiably called a diverse read, Pagans is deliberately inclusive in a way that made me really happy – I don’t think crime fiction usually makes a point of reminding readers that nonbinary and trans people exist, but that was exactly what happened here! Such as when it’s being explained that tattoos can’t be removed/covered up (because they’re sacred records of a person’s history) but can be altered–
Trans people did it all the time – it was no longer considered rewriting history but revealing the story that had been there, hidden, all along.
Also important for me: while the Saxon cops are awful and in need of defunding, we do have Drustan, a Celtic sort-of-cop, who is one of the main characters and serves as a great contrast to the Saxon way of doing things. His presence helps a lot – not just in the sense that he’s extremely plot-relevant (he’s a main character, so you’d hope he would be!) but in preventing the Saxon stuff from being normalised to the reader, even if it’s normalised by the narrative/setting.
(Which is not to say he’s all preachy and is constantly calling the Saxons out: he isn’t, and he almost never does. But being in his head is a nice dose of perspective and reality when we’re surrounded by Saxons for most of the book.)
The writing is quick and super readable without being simplistic, and there’s enough sensory description to keep me happy without impacting the pace of the book. None of the worldbuilding felt info-dumpy to me; it always felt quite brisk, and the explanations of things were succinct even when I would have been happy with a lot more detail. But we got exactly as much detail as we needed; the balance of worldbuilding to plot was just *chef’s kiss*
And I remain weirdly pleased about who/what the villain turned out to be. CALLED IT.
I feel so sorry for Henry’s agent, trying to shop Pagans around – it must have been such a hard sell; hardcore alt-history, but also a crime novel? Not a huge amount of demand for that overlap, I’d imagine! But I am very, VERY happy it did get published, because it’s awesome, I had a fantastic time with it, and I really hope it’s the start of a series!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Hispanic-coded MC, bisexual love interest with dyslexia, secondary sapphic character, queernorm world
PoV: Third-person, present-tense
ISBN: 1393846742
Goodreads
A Sheltered Monk
By day, Lucían brews potions and illuminates manuscripts in service to the monastery that took him in as a child, wielding magic based in his faith and his purity. By night, he dreams of the world outside the cloister--a world he knows only in books and scrolls...
A Mysterious Warrior
A mercenary known as the She-Wolf hunts for a shipment of stolen manuscripts. When she needs a mage to track them down, she chooses Lucían for both his adorable blushes and his magic. She purchases his contract, hurling him headfirst into an adventure that will test both his skills and his self-control...
A Sacred Vow
Inexorably drawn to the She-Wolf's strength, surprising kindness, and heated touches, Lucían fights temptation at every turn. His holy magic is both vital to their mission and dependent upon his purity. How can he serve both her and the Lord if he gives in to his desire? As intrigue and danger forces them closer, how can he possibly resist?
I don’t read straight romance often, and I get invested in it even less often – but subby male sweetheart going heart-eyes for a built woman warrior??? Come on, I HAD to give it a try!
And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The worldbuilding is simple, but it fits together well and I didn’t require more than I was given for this particular story; the prose is lovely, with a quick, bright elegance to the word choices and sentence structures that made it a delight to read. When I say it reminded me of the best kind of fanfic, I mean that entirely as a massive compliment: addictive and indulgent in the best way!
It burns to look at her and it hurts to stop and Lucían doesn’t know how he’s going to survive.
I adore frank, open characters, characters who feel like mature and confident grown-ups, and Glory (the She-Wolf) was everything I could have asked for. I loved both how patient she was with answering all of Lucían’s questions about the world (having grown up in a monastery he is every bit as sheltered as you’d expect, but crucially not stupid) and how Lucían’s discovery of things went so neatly with the reader’s. It’s a great way to introduce readers to a fantasy setting for a reason, and Gale rocks at it.
Honestly, the take on masculinity and femininity here just…delighted me endlessly. Glory is allowed to enjoy make-up and cuddles and delicate, pretty things as well as being an extreme badass; Lucían gets to want freedom without being in charge, to be passionate about healing and calligraphy and deeply shy about all things sexual. They were both fully rounded, deeply believable characters, and I really, really, really loved their love story. (Might be the first time I was this invested in a straight romance since Long Live Evil!)(Actually I’m not 100% Rae in LLE is straight in which case THIS MIGHT BE THE FIRST STRAIGHT ROMANCE I CARED ABOUT IN LITERAL YEARS.
Kudos, Gale!)
Smaller detail but almost as refreshing as the gender stuff: religion isn’t demonised here!!! I reflexively hate and distrust Christianity and its fictional look-alikes, but I’m so bored of Evil Christianity Knockoffs in fantasy, and it was a pleasant surprise that His Secret Illuminations didn’t go there. Extremely minor spoiler: View Spoiler »
This is not a book for anyone looking for a lot of plot – there really isn’t much; it’s a slow, sweet, very wholesome-feeling (despite Lucían’s rape fantasies) little romance, and the plot is a thinly-veiled excuse to push the characters together. I take no issue with this at all. Especially because Gale gave me unicorns! (Why are unicorns so rare in Adult SFF?! GIVE ME UNICORNS, PEOPLE!)
Much love, hugely looking forward to diving into the sequel!
What have you been reading this week?
By Iona Sherman did you mean Iona Datt Sharma?
YES, YES I DID! I’m going to blame the handwriting-to-text function on my tablet, whose fault it definitely is, for sure XD