The Gossamer Mage

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a new fantasy epic in which one mage must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic.

Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic.

Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage.

For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die.

To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.

When I saw the synopsis of this book I was IMMEDIATELY drawn in. I mean, magic through writing in a secret language? Magic that has a cost that is literally your life force? Rebelling against the system to kill a goddess?? I mean this is basically the best premise, what more could you ask for?

After finishing the book, it’s funny that even though this book is exactly about what the premise promises, it’s still nothing like what I expected. I think I expected more of an action/adventure story, whereas this books is more of a character and world exploration, and is on a much smaller scale than I thought (though it still does deal with the fate of the world).

One thing I loved from the very beginning was the concept of magic in this universe. The mages are called “mage scribes” and use a forbidden language to write out magic. Just as important as the language, even more important perhaps, is the intent of the mage when he performs this magic. If the intent is not pure, a “gossamer” is formed. Gossamers are magical beings that are not harmful to humans, but playful and sometimes tricky. They have a life of their own. It was very interesting to have a system built so heavily on the intent/will of the person performing the magic rather than having it be some system based on just learning spells or potions or etc. It brings in such a human element to the magic, and by that I mean it naturally brings in the possibility for warped magical creations, mistakes, and consequences. It makes the magic feel more real to me.

The world and story Czerneda created are beautiful and mythical. This feeling of reading a myth of legend is helped by the interludes between sections of the book that seem to give a hint at the history of the land. I almost wish those hadn’t been so vague, because though they added to the atmosphere I felt they didn’t add much to the actual story.

I very much enjoyed the cast of characters, because we got to see so many different paths of life within this world. My two favorites are Maleonariel and Kaitealyn. Maleonariel is a mage scribe who is turned young again and is intent on destroying the Deathless Goddess so all can live free without having to pay the terrible price for magic (their own lives). Kaitealyon (Kait) is in service to the goddess as a hold daughter, who can hear the voice of the goddess and help carry out her will. It was super interesting to see how they are both given “Her Gift” (magic in some form) but practice it and serve the goddess in two very different ways. Other characters include Kait’s son, a boy with a strong gift, another mage student, a lady in charge of a major holding in the realm trying to figure out what evil is happening, and many more.

I think it’s important to note that I did actually have a very very hard time getting in to this book at the beginning. The writing style was not what I’m used to at all. There were a lot of sentence fragments that for me threw off the flow of the story. There is also this interesting contradiction in the style where there is a lot of detail in describing the minutiae of each scene but at the same time, the overall picture of the story is very vague. In addition, we are following a cast of characters, and though the stories of each of them come together in the end, in the beginning we are following them individually. This wouldn’t be a problem except for we only get a small glimpse of each point of view before it switches to the next person. These things all made it hard for me to figure out what what happening. However, as I kept reading things became more clear as the storylines merged and I got used to the writing style.

I think this book will be pretty hit or miss, based on the issues with the beginning. Some, like me, will keep going and end up loving it, and others will not get on with the style in the beginning and not enjoy it. To each their own!

Thank you SO MUCH to DAW Books for sending me an ARC to review! I am so grateful.