Bright Haven is a city with familiar technology powered by magical energy siphoned from the Otherrealm. It is protected from the Kwen, the outside, by an energy barrier. Outside, the Blight strikes, seemingly at random, and causes living things to messily and painfully come apart. Within the city, it is believed that the Blight is a sickness brought upon the Kwen inhabitants because of their degeneracy and refusal to accept the recognized religion.
Sciona Freynan is a female mage with the single minded goal of becoming a high mage and achieving power and glory. She passes the exam and earns the white robes as the first female high mage. Unfortunately, the ranks of the high mages is very much a misogynistic boy’s club. To humiliate her, Tommy (or Thomil), a Kwen refugee and janitor, is assigned as her assistant. But Thomil is smarter and quicker than the other mages imagine and he and Sciona become a team. Together they uncover a secret that could bring down Bright Haven and destroy everything Sciona believes.
Sciona isn’t a particularly likable character. Her thirst for power and glory is unfortunately combined with a naivety of the real world and that leads her to do and say dumb things and make poor decisions.
The magic system is pretty neat. The mages siphon energy from the Otherrealm and use it perform actions using what we recognize as computer programs. I really enjoy how the author builds the magic system and it makes it more real.
The story went in a direction I didn’t expect and I was sad at the end.
Blood Over Bright Haven is a well developed and entertaining stand-alone novel with interesting, if at times cardboardy, characters. I hesitate to call it a fantasy because the magic is grounded in what I know from my previous profession. But it has magic and mages so fantasy. I think it would be perfect for someone dipping their toes into fantasy for the first time.
You might be interested in Henrik Ibsen’s play, An Enemy of the People, for a classic companion read.
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