by M. L. Wang
First sentence: “Thomil had taken the long way back from scouting.”
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Content: There is violence and swearing, including several instances of the f-bomb. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I suppose it’s best to start with the world: Tiran is a city in surrounded by a protective barrier to keep the wasteland and the Blight out. It operates by magic – though there are guns and cars and factories that run on magic – and the practitioners of such are mages. It’s a very patriarchal society: men can learn and practice magic; women are deemed unsuitable, useful only for keeping house and bearing children. There are people outside the protective barrier: the Kwan, some of whom braved the blight and made it through the barrier to become lower-class citizens in Tiran, doing all the hard, manual labor. Sciona is a woman in this world who is determined, at all costs, to become a highmage. And when she succeeds, she is faced with sexism by her all-male colleagues, who give her a Kwan janitor, Thomil, to be her lab assistant. That singular act, done in malice, changes Everything, forever.

I was told months ago by co-workers that I needed to read this one. I put it off and put it off, especially since someone told me that it was going to wreck me. But, honestly, I shouldn’t have waited. If I had read this one last year, it would have easily been in my top 3. It’s just that good. The magic and world-building is some that I haven’t seen done like this in a long time, if ever. Wang knows how to give us characters that we care about without being saccharine about it. And at its heart there is a complex and challenging moral question: what is Good and what is Evil. It’s a criticism of patriarchy and white supremacy and capitalism, wrapped up in a fantasy novel. It’s brilliant, it’s ruthless, it’s devastating, and I couldn’t put it down.

It’s one that will stay with me for a long, long time.