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primeidealAlmost done with bingo, so this is again the winter-vacation acquire-books-from-a-different-library phase. ;)
The titular character, Exaran ("Ex") is a young member of the Hunters' Guild, who travel throughout Suyoram (fantasy Thailand) hunting demons and other monsters, collecting their body parts to sell to hedgewitches and shamans or bring back to the guild headquarters to prove their accomplishments. This would usually be the place where I link to some Wikipedia articles describing these creatures' basis in Thai lore, but Wikipedia has become increasingly garish, so let's settle for Wiktionary articles about krasue and kuman.
The phi hunters were once respected by the monarchy and common people alike, but the king is increasingly trying to "modernize," following foreigners' example; Sangha (Buddhist monks) have a place at court, and so does a sorcerer (necromancer?) but hedgewitches and phi hunters are losing status. As the title suggests, Ex worries that he might be the last of his kind. And there's a mix of Buddhist and Hindu influences in worldbuilding, that takes seriously the themes of reincarnation and karma--what does it mean for the same souls to be born again and again, in different bodies, across different lifetimes? These concepts, and the different magic users' distrust and rivalries, are where the book shines.
Unfortunately, the book could have benefited from more thorough proofreading. There are a lot of dangling modifiers/weird subject-verb constructions; you know what the author meant, but after a while it becomes increasingly jarring on a sentence level. One example, from a flashback/nightmare scene: "Skin peels back into bones, opens the case and sees a stack of gleaming blades piled high as timber." There are also cases of "spellcheck won't fix this:" "[The horse] snorted every time Ex pushed him over a cantor." (Interreligious worldbuilding!) Two pages later: "The innkeeper spoke in a bouncing island accent, probably from the Kutsu Aisles." That one even shows up on the map at the beginning of the story so maybe it's deliberate, but in conjunction with everything else... :S
The main plot is an escort quest, with Ex accompanying a woman named Arinya who's on the run from the capital. Arinya is, among other things, an experienced boxer, and saves Ex's life on a couple occasions. But the relationship plot feels like kind of tropey box-checking. There was only one bed, check. Let's go out and enjoy a night on the town, probably nothing will happen despite all the bad guys chasing us, check. Oh no we both want to have sex with each other but we can't because...reasons...so let's miscommunicate about it terribly instead of just explaining that you're under a hex, check.
There are a couple glimpses of other POVs; a krasue trying to break the cycle of reincarnation and become human was a nice contrast to Ex's worldview of "you can't negotiate with monsters." But some of the backstory (she was a spoiled aristocrat! his parents were rebels persecuted by the crown!) felt more infodumpy than earned emotion. And while the themes of "letting go" seemed to be handled poignantly in the context of reincarnation, the epilogue felt kind of rushed in contrast. Also, I personally found that some of the modern curse words/vocabulary pulled me out of the story.
Bingo: there's a lot! Under the Surface (not much, but there are secret tunnels and a creepy evil lair); Dreams; Epilogues; Indie Publisher; romance as a main plot line? (I'd argue); Multi-POV; Published 2024; Author of Color; I'm not using it for Judge a Book by Its Cover but I think it would be a good choice, you could probably make a case for Eldritch Creatures with the devas; Reference Materials (the map with the "Aisles").
The titular character, Exaran ("Ex") is a young member of the Hunters' Guild, who travel throughout Suyoram (fantasy Thailand) hunting demons and other monsters, collecting their body parts to sell to hedgewitches and shamans or bring back to the guild headquarters to prove their accomplishments. This would usually be the place where I link to some Wikipedia articles describing these creatures' basis in Thai lore, but Wikipedia has become increasingly garish, so let's settle for Wiktionary articles about krasue and kuman.
The phi hunters were once respected by the monarchy and common people alike, but the king is increasingly trying to "modernize," following foreigners' example; Sangha (Buddhist monks) have a place at court, and so does a sorcerer (necromancer?) but hedgewitches and phi hunters are losing status. As the title suggests, Ex worries that he might be the last of his kind. And there's a mix of Buddhist and Hindu influences in worldbuilding, that takes seriously the themes of reincarnation and karma--what does it mean for the same souls to be born again and again, in different bodies, across different lifetimes? These concepts, and the different magic users' distrust and rivalries, are where the book shines.
Unfortunately, the book could have benefited from more thorough proofreading. There are a lot of dangling modifiers/weird subject-verb constructions; you know what the author meant, but after a while it becomes increasingly jarring on a sentence level. One example, from a flashback/nightmare scene: "Skin peels back into bones, opens the case and sees a stack of gleaming blades piled high as timber." There are also cases of "spellcheck won't fix this:" "[The horse] snorted every time Ex pushed him over a cantor." (Interreligious worldbuilding!) Two pages later: "The innkeeper spoke in a bouncing island accent, probably from the Kutsu Aisles." That one even shows up on the map at the beginning of the story so maybe it's deliberate, but in conjunction with everything else... :S
The main plot is an escort quest, with Ex accompanying a woman named Arinya who's on the run from the capital. Arinya is, among other things, an experienced boxer, and saves Ex's life on a couple occasions. But the relationship plot feels like kind of tropey box-checking. There was only one bed, check. Let's go out and enjoy a night on the town, probably nothing will happen despite all the bad guys chasing us, check. Oh no we both want to have sex with each other but we can't because...reasons...so let's miscommunicate about it terribly instead of just explaining that you're under a hex, check.
There are a couple glimpses of other POVs; a krasue trying to break the cycle of reincarnation and become human was a nice contrast to Ex's worldview of "you can't negotiate with monsters." But some of the backstory (she was a spoiled aristocrat! his parents were rebels persecuted by the crown!) felt more infodumpy than earned emotion. And while the themes of "letting go" seemed to be handled poignantly in the context of reincarnation, the epilogue felt kind of rushed in contrast. Also, I personally found that some of the modern curse words/vocabulary pulled me out of the story.
Bingo: there's a lot! Under the Surface (not much, but there are secret tunnels and a creepy evil lair); Dreams; Epilogues; Indie Publisher; romance as a main plot line? (I'd argue); Multi-POV; Published 2024; Author of Color; I'm not using it for Judge a Book by Its Cover but I think it would be a good choice, you could probably make a case for Eldritch Creatures with the devas; Reference Materials (the map with the "Aisles").
