So, finally finished reading the very lengthy The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri.
A fantasy with a setting inspired by the traditional culture of India, which was a refreshing change for me: I've mostly ended up reading things in settings inspired by Medieval Europe (so overused!), feudal Japan, or ancient China. The Indian setting was excitingly different from what I'm used to (though I was probably mentally mispronouncing most of the names 😭) while still having just enough touch of the familiar, since I have read some Hindu folklore/mythology, and seen some movies set in India (though typically not before the 19th century, but...)
I discovered the book via a conversation between two other people in a Discord server, as one was providing recommendations to the other for sapphic fantasy novels. This one the recommender mentioned as being one they had "bounced off" because it was too "high fantasy" for them. I, personally, thought "high fantasy" typically referred to Tolkien and similar authors, and I'm fine with that style of fantasy (The Hobbit is one of my perennial favorite books), so I figured "yep, sounds like a good match for me," especially since the plot as described on the back of the book sounded interesting. Having read it, I now suspect that the recommender was thinking more of Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings when they said "high fantasy." (Not that I've ever read or watched any of Game of Thrones, but it does have a certain reputation...) There was a lot more human violence--some of it particularly awful in concept (thankfully, there were very few visceral details in the violence) as the villain has a religious zeal for burning women alive--than I was expecting, and a lot more political wrangling and manipulation than I had any expectation of, since I went in with an inaccurate understanding of the novel's genre.
Honestly, The Jasmine Throne doesn't seem to me to be "high fantasy" at all; the presence of magic and magical beings was quite limited. In that sense, it would seem to me to fall more into the "low fantasy" category, since most people and aspects of society function in a non-magical way. For most of the book, the only touch of magic in the daily lives of the people is "the rot," a disease in which plants are growing in people's bodies. But as it's presented as a blight, a disease, it often sounds less magical than it is. What this novel does have in common with the "high fantasy" works mentioned above is the grand, sweeping landscape and story ahead, as this is just the first novel out of...uh...actually, I have no idea how many. 🤷🏻♀️ I'll find out how many there are eventually, because I need to find out how the story ends, 'cause that villain is especially horrible, and I need to see him get his. (Ooh, I hope the series is already complete, or will be soon...having to wait years to see that villain destroyed would be painful...) In any case, I can't pick up book two until there are a few fewer books on my to-read shelf than there are at present, 'cause there literally isn't room on it for a book of this size. (I honestly picked this over the other sapphic novels on the shelf because it was the largest, and removing it would add space for the two books that were on my front table waiting to join the to-read shelf...and I just picked up two more books yesterday...darn you, Barnes & Noble, stop putting interesting-looking books on tables where I can't miss them!)
Anyway, since this isn't a review, just me talking to my future self to remind me what I read and when...I just have one other thing to say. I always give a cursory glance to the Acknowledgements section of a book, just to see if there's anything interesting beyond the usual thanking family, friends, colleagues and publishers. And there was, this time, as the author also mentioned her pets: two bunnies, named Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, and a pet of unspecified species named Asami. 🥰 Two MDZS-named pets and one that I took to be Legend of Korra inspired. This author knows how to win my heart. 🥰
Original language: English
