Synopsis:
In a forgotten land sustained by colorful rivers of demon blood, a child was born in the last cold hour of the last cold day of the last cold month. Let us call her December.
As an orphaned foundling, December grew up doing her best to fit into the roles society prepared for her. But after a transformative experience, she learns a cataclysmic plague is on the way, one that will curdle the blood rivers and ravage the kingdom.
But who will believe her, a poor woman from a small town on the riverbank? Against impossible odds, she sets sail up the River Violet to warn the king’s court, determined to stop a devastating destiny. Armed only with her wits and accompanied by her new friends – a chatty priestess and a fledgling fashion designer – December must navigate incredulous royal officials, twisted court intrigue, and a roguish count who might hold the key to her quest . . . and her heart.
In the cold days of her youth, society knew what to do with December. But now her eyes burn with wisdom beyond her years, and she will carve out whatever role she must to stave off disaster.
Review:
This reignited my love for Brandon Sanderson.
After having a few rocky books by the author recently (specifically Blightfall), I forgot how creative, witty, and beautiful his writing, world-building and characters can be. It was like he was having FUN writing this, and I had fun reading it.
(You might find novels an odd method of research, considering their inherent frivolity. They’re more dangerous than you assume. While you might go to them to learn, or simply to find a good story, you will end up seeing through the eyes of people unlike yourself—and therefore might accidentally pick up mental lampreys like empathy, understanding, compassion, and an appreciation for the powerful clarity of the serial comma.)
In a land sustained by colourful rivers of demon blood, orphaned foundling, December, discovers that a cataclysmic plague is coming to curdle the blood rivers and ravage the kingdom.
After dying, she returns back to the body of her 21st birthday.
With her experience and knowledge, December journeys to warn the King – an old soul in a young body made literal.
I love the themes Sanderson weaves into his books. Here, we have a heroine who has never fit into a box, who learns that conforming and trying to mould yourself to society’s expectations is exhausting and leads to solutions left undiscovered.
You mean something different to everyone you’ve met. Each perception of you is a variation on the whole, incomplete in the same way that every color makes up white light.
December is stubborn, unique, and intelligent. She accepts others’ help and is unafraid to be bold in what she believes in.
The narrative tone is witty and self-aware, told by Hoid. It breaks the fourth wall and allows for levity, but also darkness and heavy emotion.
Most importantly… where the hell was I in all of this? I appreciate your concern. At that moment, I was having a nice soup.
The father had been a passing sailor with the charm of a sonnet but the moral character of a limerick.
There is also a talking cat demon. A sub-plot of romance with a hefty age gap. Good friends. A VERY talkative spiritual advisor.
I have to mention the art which is GORGEOUS. I spent minutes staring at each coloured art that perfectly captured Sanderson’s descriptions as well as the palette of this world.
The pacing is a bit disjointed, probably expected for a story with time travel (my most detested trope). Especially the ending which felt like an easy way out.
This is most similar to Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and Tress of the Emerald Sea.
It can be read as a standalone, but there are many, MANY allusions (Easter eggs, I should say) to the wider Cosmere.
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