There is some magic in The Unbroken, but for various slightly spoilery reasons it’s almost never used on page, and it’s very small in scale (healing, mostly).

I’m not in any way saying that fantasy shouldn’t look long and hard at the monarchies and empires it’s so often centred in, but personally I prefer that interrogation to still come with the trappings of magic and wonder. The Unbroken deserves all of the praise it’s getting for being an incisive, intense look at the brutalities of colonialism, and for its gritty, realistic military/espionage style – however, that just isn’t something I enjoy in fantasy. This is a textbook case of me not being the right reader for this book. Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation.

Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne. Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought. Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. All opinions my own.Ĭontent warnings: violence, injury, and death, including amputation and major character death several scenes of hanging genocide cultural erasure, and violent and non-violent colonialism children stolen from families racism ableism past attempted rape, threats of rape, threats of torture. Ownership: Review copy sent free of charge by Orbit Books.

The unbroken cl clark