Synopsis
Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.
Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.
Review
This book has been on my TBR list forever. I’ve been a subscriber to Marie Brennan’s Patreon for a few years, as her worldbuilding essays are a valuable and fascinating resource to me as a writer. And as someone who loves deeply realised fantasy worlds, I knew this series was so far up my alley that I wanted to be in a position to thoroughly devote my time and attention to it. I can safely say that my expectations were met – and then some. Cowritten under the name MA Carrick by authors Marie Brennan and Alcy Helms, this is a story created by expert worldbuilders and it absolutely shows.
We follow Ren, a con artist who arrives in the city to trick her way into a noble family by reinventing herself as an estranged relative. The other leading characters are Grey Serrado, with conflicted loyalties, and Derossi Vargo, crime boss. Ren’s con soon enmeshes her in the upper class society of the city, but also puts her in the sights of the mysterious hooded outlaw known as the Rook, a semi-mythical figure who exists to oppose the nobility. These are characters who are caught between worlds, and often between cultures.
This is where the worldbuilding comes in. The duo have created a dynamic city of two cultures intertwining, where the native Vraszenians were conquered by the Liganti centuries ago and the city then became an independent entity where both cultures exist in an uneasy situation. The Liganti dominate the nobility and also Ren’s persona as she infiltrates that world, but she’s also connected to Vraszenian culture via her birth mother, and that culture has its own religion and customs and familial lines. Grey is similarly caught between worlds, as someone working for the Liganti who is seen by many Vraszenians as having betrayed his heritage. With more than one person playing at multiple roles, the motif of the mask feels apt and appears throughout the story.
Entwined with the cultures are the magic systems, which include the Numinatria, which is based around sacred geometry and using numbers to achieve effects, and Pattern, which is a kind of Tarot like fortune-telling system. There’s also imbuing, which involves enhancing an object to give it certain properties – this is used by Ren’s sister Tess to alter Ren’s clothing to a really creative effect.
The plot moves more slowly but is laden with intrigue and is so immersive that I didn’t find myself bored. This is the kind of story that you can get lost in, and I did, until I found myself utterly devouring the story. This is the sort of book for true fantasy readers who like to be really immersed in a story without handholding, but the stellar character building and fun set pieces are entertaining enough that I’d hope readers who would normally find this intimidating to be similarly entranced.
I’m always thrilled when a book I’ve anticipated for years lives up to my expectations. The Mask of Mirrors does that – and then some. This is an extremely creative world with the added bonus of multifaceted characters and a thoroughly immersive story. On to Book 2!
Synopsis
Trust is the thread that binds us . . . and the rope that hangs us.
In Nadezra, peace is as tenuous as a single thread. The ruthless House Indestor has been destroyed, but darkness still weaves through the city’s filthy back alleys and jewel-bright gardens, seen by those who know where to look.
Derossi Vargo has always known. He has sacrificed more than anyone imagines to carve himself a position of power among the nobility, hiding a will of steel behind a velvet smile. He’ll be damned if he lets anyone threaten what he’s built.
Grey Serrado knows all too well. Bent under the yoke of too many burdens, he fights to protect the city’s most vulnerable. Sooner or later, that fight will demand more than he can give.
And Ren, daughter of no clan, knows best of all. Caught in a knot of lies, torn between her heritage and her aristocratic masquerade, she relies on her gift for reading pattern to survive. And it shows her the web of corruption that traps her city.
But all three have yet to discover just how far that web stretches. And in the end, it will take more than knives to cut themselves free…
Review
The Mask of Mirrors hooked me, and after the sequel, this series is my new obsession.
We pick up after the first book left off, with the characters in a dizzying tangle of secrets and promises that swiftly land them in trouble. Honestly, the character work in this series is masterful. I loved all three central characters and their dynamics and development. We have a con artist, a crime boss, and an enforcer, all of whom play various roles to various people and some of the best scenes come from interactions between characters where one person is aware of some key piece of information that the others are not. And we have the masked vigilante, the Rook, whose role as the legend is separate to the man he truly is beneath the mask. The story’s themes of lies and truths make the title apt, as characters struggle with who to trust and who to lie to.
As with the previous volume, I also loved the side characters. Tess, Ren’s sister, is a standout, and her adopted cousin Giuna is coming into her own as a character too. The authors’ attention to detail on a character level is matched by their development of the world, which remains deeply layered and fascinating in depicting the intertwined cultures of Nadezra. It’s plain that the authors have put a ton of work into figuring out the finer details of the culture and customs of the Vraszenians, the Liganti nobility and those born in the city of Nadezra itself. But the authors don’t outright dump this information on the reader’s head, instead immersing us in the story and showing through the characters and their interactions. It’s the kind of epic fantasy I love the best and that I feel has been sorely lacking in the current traditional publishing market.
I did feel like the plot took longer to get going and isn’t as focused as the first volume, but the world and characters are so immersive that I was never bored. The complex layers of disguises and deceptions make it hard to guess what would come next. And though the main plot moves slowly, it picks up the pace in the second half of the novel and there are some great set pieces and tons of scheming and double-crossing to keep the reader entertained.
Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about this series. It’s clever, fun, and the authors’ passion for their characters and their world shines through every scene. And an upside to having waited this long to read the series is that I have the final book already ready to dive into. Here we go!
Synopsis
May you see the face and not the mask.
Ren came to Nadežra with a plan. She would pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister. And she would vanish without a backward glance. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple.
Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. But she is also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.
Even with the help of Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, it is too many masks for one person to wear. And as the dark magic the three of them helped unleash builds to storm that could tear the very fabric of the city apart, it’s only a matter of time before one of the masks slips—and everything comes crashing down around them.
Review
I entered the final volume of the series with both anticipation and trepidation, knowing that I’d be sad that it was over. This series has got into my heart, and I’ve been shamelessly devouring all the behind-the-scenes information alongside the series, which includes a Wiki, an actual card deck depicting the Pattern reading in the novels, and a lot more besides.
So… on to the book. We’re at the point where most of the major characters know one another’s secrets… but the world at large does not. And near the beginning, a character shows up whose very presence threatens to blow up everything Ren has built. Her double life soon comes under strain, as she juggles the noble persona she’s created with the real person beneath. The people she’s drawn into her con are now close to her as family and her other alter egos also threaten to collapse around her. Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, our other viewpoint characters, face just as much strife and turmoil as the authors tug at our heartstrings. Honestly, it’s hard to give details without spoilers, but I was on tenterhooks too many times to count.
And can I just give an enthusiastic shout-out to stories in which a romantic relationship is not the solution to all the problems in the characters’ lives. We need more of this. I also really appreciated that the friendships and other relationships get an equal amount of importance and page time.
This final book is where all the building the authors have done to get to this point really shines. We feel for the characters and their struggles, and the world feels like a real place with the complexities of class and culture layered in detail. Honestly, this series is a worldbuilding lover’s dream, and I was seriously impressed with how many details introduced earlier in the series are brought back to great effect in this final instalment. We get to learn more about Vraszenian culture through revelations of their tragic history and their relationship with the city of Nadezra comes to the forefront as tensions with the ruling noble Liganti reach a boiling point.
The plots start converging, too, and there’s so much going on that I was riveted throughout the story. We have a brewing rebellion, a magical threat, and countless more intertwining stories that… I can’t mention due to spoilers. Ha. Suffice to say that I was very satisfied with this finale, and I was delighted that the series finished on such a high note. Some might find the finale too neat, but I feel like it’s fitting and that this is a series is one I’ll gladly come back to reread. In fact, given the layers of foreshadowing and secrets throughout, I’m already tempted to revisit the first volume with full knowledge of everything that’s been playing out in the background throughout the whole trilogy.
Overall, this series has earned a place on my all-time favourites list. If you want epic high fantasy with spectacular character work and an immersive world that invites you to keep coming back for more, I can’t recommend the Rook and Rose trilogy enough.
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