taking down oppressive regimes like …
what would you sacrifice to take down an oppressive regime? the Waning is a story of violent patriarchal cycles … and those that are destined to break them.
meera wants to kill her king. as one of five spirit sisters who contains part of the goddess of chaos, she sits in a peculiar position in the palace. they witness the hunger and greed of the nobles, the desperation of the Midzoners, and the devastation of the Endzoners.
the desert kingdom of Ile-Oja doesn’t remember the last time they saw rain, and the lake that they all rely on has been shrinking more and more with each passing year. while the royals squeeze up the tiny amount of resources of the region, the rest of the people labor, suffer, and starve.
when the high priestess is murdered, the four remaining women must prepare to undergo a dangerous ritual once more. only one will survive, and that new mother of witches might just be powerful enough to defeat the king and restructure their world.
dystopian regimes and magical cycle breakers aren’t new concepts, but this is a unique story all the same. the world and mythology were fascinating, and we definitely only put some of the pieces together. this is very clearly a society that has repeated the language of the victors again and again, and the truth of the creation of their world will still have to be unveiled.
i absolutely loved the emphasis on community care and how compassionate leadership and looking out for each other is the way to reshape unjust societies. the resistance (at its best) isn’t composed of scrappy individualistic fighters. it’s an entirely new way of existing with each other.
the prose is often clunky, and so is the pacing. Many sentences were structured awkwardly, and sometimes things were frustratingly repetitive. i also found the character development to be a bit weak, and I’m not sure I ever understood the inner workings of Meera. but I see the gem inside this story - I just think it needs a kick-ass editor.
this was a really exciting new fantasy story to me, and I was never quite sure where we were headed next. if you don’t mind a little bit of clumsiness, I would give it a try!
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