A pandemic in a fantastic world – how would the kings and queens respond? What about the healers? Welcome to my stop for The Wrack blog tour organized by Storytellers on Tour! This book is based on a very interesting premise that goes well with the situation in the world today. It gave me the opportunity to look at a pandemic with new eyes and I am excited to share my thoughts with you! First up the book blurb:
Plague has come to the continent of Teringia.
As the Wrack makes its slow, relentless march southwards, it will humble kings and healers, seers and merchants, priests and warriors. Behind, it leaves only screams and suffering, and before it, spreads only fear.
Lothain, the birthplace of the Wrack, desperately tries to hold itself together as the plague burns across it and its neighbors circle like vultures. The Moonsworn healers would fight the Wrack, but must navigate distrust and violence from the peoples of Teringia. Proud Galicanta readies itself for war, as the Sunsworn Empire watches and waits for the Wrack to bring its rival low.
And the Wrack advances, utterly unconcerned with the plans of men.
Content Notes: Descriptions of death and disease, death of a loved ones.
Themes for Thought
There are three aspects of The Wrack that I want to highlight in this post!
On World Building
How does world building affect the experience of a Fantasy book?
The societal structure looks like ours from many decades ago when there were kinds and queens, and this world too has its political tensions, empires, religions and magic. However, the world in The Wrack is not like ours. Castle Morinth, where this story begins, intrigued me and so did the massive wall of mist past it:
“Those few who had entered and returned spoke of a twisting maze inside the mist, narrow paths where the miasma could be seen through. Those who strayed off these paths into the thicker mist were never heard from again.”
Excerpt From: The Wrack
The book starts off on an ominous tone and this continues throughout the story. Through multiple characters, whether it is the priests, the healers, the king and queen, the courtiers, children of the common people or captain of a ship – everyone is affected by the Wrack in some form and this book is the story of their confusion and survival. A journey into facing the mayhem head on and finding a way to defeat it.
I loved the epistemology aspects of this book and the amount of research that went into it. There are a couple of appendices that are super helpful to look through to get more idea of the world.
On Magic
Is magic the solution to our physical world problems, over medicines?
The Wrack does not promise to be an overly magical read. There are seers who can look into the spirit world and work with currents, send messages, and identify the cause of a person’s physical distress. The seers all have at least one eye taken out. Using precious stones, they can tap into the spirit world, whether it is for healing or for deciphering messages from other seers sent through intricate machines, the semaphores. I learned later that there are mages in this world too.
I liked that the focus of this book was not on the magic itself because in some ways, that might have been too easy. I think at some point, we all conjure this image that magic can solve everything and The Wrack does an outstanding job of showing that even the alchemists and the seers can feel stumped by an unknown devastating entity that is killing one in four people and leaving the survivors in desolation.
On the Politics
To what extent would a queen go to save her people?
As we all know from our own real world experiences, a situation of emergency and public health does not mean that everything else gets forgotten. Politics, whether it is in court or in trade, still continues and there will be organizations that try to take advantage of trying times.
“No matter how much one hoped that trying times would bring the mighty to look past their own interests, disappointment would always be one’s reward.”
Excerpt From: The Wrack
The Wrack offers an in-depth look at the different key players in such dangerous times, adding in the aspect of religion whose narrative is not as prevalent in our media. At times I found the religious groups, their differences, the animosity towards them hard to grasp, but overall, through the characters and the settings, the story did a good job of bringing it all together.
It takes a lot of imagination to look at a widespread pandemic situation from so many different angles. The Wrack is a commendable story and there is no doubt about the hard work that went into it! My only regrets – with the plethora of characters spread over a vast area, it was hard for me to connect with them. I wish I could have been on a longer journey with some characters. I also found the pace a bit slow and the conclusion a little bit hurried.
How close does this come to COVID, you may be wondering. It isn’t the same level and we aren’t living in that world. So, it really won’t be that terrifying a read! If you are looking for a light quick Fantasy, The Wrack is not the book for you. If you want to dive deep into the human psyche and what happens when a pandemic no one understand unleashes out of nowhere, then do pick up this book!
** The Wrack is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Many thanks to the author for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, as part of blog tour organized by Storytellers on Tour. Check out the other stops on the tour – the schedule can be found here!
Cover image from Unsplash. Mood boards created using Canva. Blog tour graphic from Storytellers on Tour.
Great review Kriti! I didn’t even mention the appendices in my review, but thought they were really interesting, as a follow up the the main story.
Thanks, Ollie! I was thinking of you when I was reading the book, considering your love for epistemology! 🙂