oh my god. all I can say is: nothing short of 5 stars.

Themes: i can't believe that in just 417 pages, ML Wang wrote such a masterful critique of colonization, racism, misogyny, and capitalism, and how all of those are part of the same system of evil - explored with all the full complexity and depth and nuance deserved - and all that disguised as a fictional fantasy story about mages. i found every piece of this fantasy allegory so well-crafted to parallel everything wrong with the world we live in. there were so many parts that were way too real.

honestly the metaphor of technology being magic and each spell, each use of technology literally violently murdering an exploited person, was such a stark, viscerally apt metaphor to directly concretize and visualize how each and every one of our modern material comforts and technology come from the exploitation of poor people in the global south. like this was what i believe marx meant with the whole theory of commodity fetishism, except ml wang wrote it in a way that was way clearer and much less convoluted. (ML Wang could write Das Kapital but Karl Marx couldn't write Blood Over Bright Haven /j)

tiran really reminded me of israel, especially with that "dome", but it represents every single western colonial city. each of the 10 stages of genocide were depicted aptly in the tirannish's oppression of the kwen.

Characters:* i'd also like to take a moment to praise the characterization in this novel, bc for a book that is first and foremost social/political commentary, in the hands of a less skilled author the characters could have very easily become flat archetypes, but thomil, carra and sciona were all so well-written. they really felt like real people, all written with so much depth and nuance and complexity. i loved thomil and carra. side note, carra deserves to get her own novel! i'd love to read something with carra as the main character, she's such an amazing character.

sciona was also well-written as a pov character. i absolutely hated her at first, then started warming up to her as a character, although as a person she was selfish up till the very end where in her last moments she finally thought of others instead of herself lmao. her character was a great critique of white feminism. her arc was extremely well-done, and her growth felt very rewarding to witness. it was written in a realistic way where she didn't immediately become an amazing ally but instead she retained her original flaws like her hubris, self-centeredness etc. her ending was fitting for her as all those evil mages needed to be taken down, and that was satisfying to see, and she herself also needed to face retribution for all the deaths of the kwen that her actions caused.

side note, my only real criticism of this novel is that i wish that sciona and thomil had stayed platonic rather than developing romantic feelings for each other. or that thomil at least hadn't reciprocated sciona's feelings. bc with how racist she was to him, them falling for each other is icky. I also felt that the romance made thomil pov parts end up becoming about his feelings for sciona rather than about him :/

Writing style:* i really enjoyed the prose in this. from a writing techniques lens, i also love how the novel comes full circle - starting from thomil's traumatic crossing into tiran, and ending with thomil's crossing out of tiran and back home, with the other kwen together with him, and with the final message ultimately being hope. it was also realistic as they knew there was no guarantee of survival but the point was each generation giving the next generation the ability to go a little further, and a little further, until one day they may finally be truly liberated.

the 2nd last chapter paralleling the 2nd chapter, with sciona starting and ending in leon's hall, standing before the archmages about to receive their judgment, also furthered the theme of the novel coming full circle. it just felt very neat and satisfying for the ending of both characters' arcs to directly reference their beginnings.

im just in awe that this fantasy novel was so well-written, from the plot to the themes to the characterization to the worldbuilding. one of the best written fantasy that I've read. ml wang is definitely a skilled author