In a Garden Burning Gold
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
This was a lot of fun. Very unique world building and magic system, great descriptive writing, good cast of characters to root for and against. I see this being billed as the author adult fantasy debut, but it did still read very YA to me. Will read the second in the duology.
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Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for providing an ARC copy of this novel.
The premise of this novel had real potential, but the actual book is mostly a let down. In A Garden Burning Gold is Rory Power's first foray into both the high fantasy genre and the Adult label. Prior to this, she's been writing YA books that tended to lean towards horror. These might be reasons why this book struggles, but either way, this was a tough one to get through.
In A Garden Burning Gold takes place in what I took to be a weird sort-of -kind-of Ancient Greece / Byzantine Empire. It's not based on any one particular culture, but those were the two I could see the most of. The main characters of the novel are twins, Rhea and Lexos, who both have powers akin to a god. Rhea changes the season by marrying someone and then killing them when the season is supposed to end. Lexos has power over the night sky and of the tides. Their siblings have powers, too, but they're less important. Their father, Baba, has power over death. He's also horrible, cruel, and mean to his children, all in the name of making them and him more powerful.
This is a book where pretty much every character is an awful person. There's a whole mess of political drama and whatnot, but there was so much information shared at the beginning of the book that I literally could not follow what was going on. That's one of the problems with In A Garden Burning Gold. There's too much thrown in all at once. It's world-building, yes, but it's also extremely overwhelming. It feels like nothing happens for a good chunk of the book. I found myself both bored, and frustrated while reading this. I wish I had liked it more.
In A Garden Burning Gold comes out April 5, 2022.