Review: Flower and Thorn

Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimers first: the author and I are part of the same writers' forum, and I received a copy via Netgalley for review; the publicist emailed me offering a copy because I had previously reviewed another of the author's books, Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove .

I'll also confess upfront that it took me more than two weeks to read, and I took time out during that period to read several other books, in part because Night of the Raven had turned more tragic than I was prepared for partway through, and this one looked like doing the same. The protagonist is an initially naïve young woman from a nomadic group in medieval India who supplement their herding income by hunting for magical flowers in a salt desert, which they supply to a predatory and exploitative moneylender to service their debt. An attractive young man from outside the community offers her a chance to get her group free from the moneylender, and all she needs to do is break a solemn promise to her best friend and let him have one of the most valuable flowers, in order to save the sultanate from the Portuguese invaders. She makes the first of a series of bad decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, and we're off.

She does get more canny in the course of the book, and is certainly principled, determined, courageous and resourceful. She is just a little bit of a Chosen One; the magical flowers speak to her and help her out as they don't with anyone else, but she still has to act, and she does so without hesitation. Her decisions (and those of others) do lead to several deaths, which are treated as the tragedies they are, but overall the story is hopeful and positive.

The magic system is relatively simple but fresh, with each type of flower having a special power, and we get to see all of them in action over the course of the book. The powers range from finding things and healing through speaking at a distance to teleporting, being victorious in battle (the mechanism of that one isn't gone into), and even controlling time. Each of them also has a drawback or cost, like all the best magic.

I did feel that the characters sometimes felt more 21st-century than medieval, but that was subtle, and could be easily overlooked. The editing was excellent, apart from the common error of using "may" instead of "might" in past tense narration, and a couple of minor vocab glitches, which will probably be fixed by publication time. All in all, it's a solid fantasy adventure with an innovative magic system, a capable female protagonist, and a strong sense of place.

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