Our Take
Tasha Suri builds a lush, politically knotty fantasy that trades generic medieval Europe for a richly imagined subcontinent inspired empire, and the result feels genuinely fresh. The slow burn romance between Priya and Malini never overshadows the sharper concerns here: imperial violence, religious suppression, and the quiet, dangerous work of resistance. Fans of The Poppy War will recognize the unflinching look at empire's cost, while readers who loved the sapphic longing of She Who Became the Sun will find a similar charge in Priya and Malini's scenes together. There's also a vein of creeping, plant based horror magic that gives the book its own identity, something closer to Uprooted in its willingness to let nature turn strange and threatening. Suri doesn't rush the politics either; the empire's rot is shown through bureaucracy, fear, and small cruelties as much as battle. It's a dense opening volume, occasionally weighed down by its many POV threads, but the payoff for patience is a world that feels lived in rather than assembled from tropes. A strong pick for anyone wanting epic fantasy with real emotional and political stakes, not just a spectacle of magic.
