Review: A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery by Curtis Craddock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A high-concept swashbuckling fantasy with floating skylands, skyships, and political intrigue reminiscent of the Three Musketeers. (There are only two musketeers in it, and one doesn't play a big role, but the other makes up for it.) It features a propulsive and complex plot, a plausible antagonist, and some wonderful bons mots. It also features a protagonist who keeps saving the day out of principle, and then being punished by the establishment for how she saved it, which is a sadly realistic twist on the usual course of fictional events.

I've read this series out of order. I had the first book from Netgalley in 2017, and the third book from Netgalley in 2020, but somehow missed this middle one. So I put it on my wishlist and eventually picked it up on sale.

Each book has a self-contained arc, though the three do, of course, form a whole, and each gives enough previously-on that I didn't feel lost. Just as well, because three years between books was too long for me to remember much about the complex plots and large casts. I did enjoy each book on its own, though, and someday I may well read them in order.

Early on, I thought this was going to make my "well-edited" shelf, but the further I went, the more small errors (commas, missing question marks, narrative tense glitches, articles missing or doubled up or inserted where they shouldn't be, and minor typos) I noticed. I see that I noted on my review of the third book, which I had as an ARC from Netgalley, that the author is clearly a sloppy typist; the state of this book is what you get after a good but, inevitably, not perfect editor has worked hard over a manuscript with a lot of errors in it.

I also noted in my review of the first book that I wished Isabelle's mathematical and artistic abilities were more than just colour, that they had some kind of impact on the plot. They still didn't in this book, though I seem to vaguely recall that they might have some in the third one.

As with the first book, there's a shocking bit of cruelty, in this case relatively late and directed at an animal, which comes without warning. The main characters, though, are good-hearted, noblebright heroes who shine all the brighter against the cruelty of the entitled sorcerous nobility, who have been taught all their lives by their church that they are, as sorcerers, automatically destined for paradise while those who lack sorcery will go through torment until the prophesied Saviour comes. The arguably main protagonist is herself a sorcerer, but has rebelled against the awfulness of her family by becoming a decent person, and gathered a group of friends who are genuinely devoted to one another, setting us up for the quest in the third book.

Despite a few minor faults, it's a book with many strengths that handles its complexity well, including the multiple types of sorcery. I could at some points have done with something in X-Ray or a glossary at the back to help orient me to the various sorceries and other terminology, and to help me keep some of the minor cast straight, but on the whole it was clear enough that I didn't feel out of my depth. I enjoyed being in the heads of the characters (the faithful and resourceful musketeer Jean-Claude and the highly intelligent, brave, and principled Isabelle), the world was delightful, and the plot kept moving well without becoming superficial. It lands solidly in the Silver tier of my Best of the Year list for 2023.

View all my reviews