Rutabaga's Reads 2019: Part 5

Although I love reading YA novels, I’ve gotten behind in reading the books I pre-ordered and therefore received awhile back. By the time I read this one, I realized its sequel had already released months before. This duology has long been awaiting its turn to be featured on my blog.

Carve the Mark (Jan. 17, 2017) by Veronica Roth.

Lazmet Noavek mostly ignored Cyra until her currentgift manifested at an early age, but his focus on her big brother, Ryzek, tainted him. Whereas Cyra won’t be broken, Ryzek’s brokenness prompts him to cause suffering to others. As he cannot tolerate pain, he has others do what he cannot. Cyra isn’t known as “Ryzek’s Scourge” for nothing. She and Ryzek are children of the brutal tyrant of the Shotet people on Thuvhe.

            Akos Kereseth is the youngest of three. With his sister, Cisi, and brother, Eijeh, they are all three fated children of the Thuvhesit people on Thuvhe. They’re the children of a farmer (Aoseh) and an oracle (Sifa). Not everyone is fated: “Everyone had a future, but not everyone had a fate.” “Only parts of certain ‘favored’ families got fates, witnessed at the moment of their births by every oracle on the planet. In unison.” However, everyone has a currentgift; these are abilities unique to each person that normally develop during puberty. Akos and Eijeh are captured by enemy Shotet. Although the younger brother, Akos is the stronger one, and he’s determined to get Eijeh out alive.

            Thuvhe is valued for its iceflower production, the most significant iceflower being the hushflower. It is bright red and can be poisonous when not diluted. Thanks to his mother, Akos is skilled with working with iceflowers. His gift is also unique, as he interrupts the current no matter the currentgift. Considering how her own currentgift can incapacitate her, having Akos nearby – however unwillingly and hatefully – is useful to Cyra. With all the time they spend in each other’s company, will they help or destroy each other?

            The first in a YA duology, “Carve the Mark” is cringe-worthy in an exemplary way. The plot is intricately-layered, the characters are any mixture of brutal, strong, powerful, secretive or even cowardly, and the world-building is a web of dangerous beauty all rolled into a galactic adventure. It is a sweeping fantasy, and it does not want to be ignored.

The Fates Divide (Apr. 10, 2018) by Veronica Roth.

One is dead, and any mourning for the person is conflicted at best, and another thought to be dead is alive, which is tremendously unfortunate, for the not-dead person is a sadistic, unconscionable tyrant whose mind is so twisted that bloody violence isn’t simply for the act of violence, but for learning. Multiple characters find themselves on separate paths. Cyra is bent on killing the tyrant, and she’s on a very short timeframe, especially since it’ll take three days alone to travel through space from Ogra to Thuvhe and the Shotet. But war has already come. With fleeing innocents felled at the sojourn ship (Shotet) and healing innocents fallen at the hospital (Thuvhe), the heart of anywhere is not safe.

            Growing up the youngest in the family of the sitting (current) oracle, Akos accepts that he will “suffer the fate.” And he, of a fated family, knows that the fates are inescapable once determined. But what if his fate isn’t defined as he originally thought? Akos would die for Cyra, and he expects he could just die – he is fated, after all – but he also wants answers. So he goes for them without first telling Cyra. He is prepared to kill a barbaric tyrant, even if it ends him, too.

            Cisi, oldest of the Kereseth siblings, leaves her family. It’s not as a betrayal to them, but for the Thuvhesit chancellor, Isae Benesit (of the third fated family), and to, hopefully and with stealth, soften Isae’s decisions. Isae mourns someone close to her, but in an explosive way, sometimes without care for other innocents, as grief can be blinding, and violent grief can be debilitating. With Cisi nearby, the effects of Isae’s decisions may still be catastrophic, but it could be far worse without her. Then there’s a new person in the picture: Ast. He doesn’t bother with a surname, as he doesn’t “need any kind of honorific.” He’s ultra-aware of Cisi’s gift, which is discomfiting to them both, and his aims may not be toward peace. How far will he go to steer Isae toward his own wishes?

            The world set before us as readers is sprawling in its world-building, plot and characters. This duo from Roth doesn’t just take us across the feathergrass, but across planets. The plot isn’t limited to one problem from one antagonist; it isn’t only one tyrant bent on serving one’s wants to oneself through the decimation of others. Granted, it is that, and the tyrant is one’s own brand of evil, but there are also interplanetary politics at play. No one is likely to go gently through the currentstream with the ruthless circumstances the protagonists are up against. “The Fates Divide” and the duology together are finely-detailed and richly-imagined.