An Exile of Water & Gold by Joshua Walker

Blurb:

Brandon Sanderson's Rhythm of War meets Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time in this epic fantasy mystery adventure.

EXILED FROM HEAVEN. FORCED INTO HELL.

For centuries, the Aobians of the Great Tree have shared the continent of Q’ara with humanity. A select few known as Sleepers are empowered by Luminosity, the Tree’s greatest blessing.

Drift, a young and cynical Aobian, has been exiled from his homeland – forever. Now, with no understanding of this condemnation, Drift must traverse the land of humans below, and find his purpose in an ever-changing world. Tarri, his betrothed, seeks to do the same, whilst also bringing him home.

Elsewhere on Q’ara, an unknown organisation seeks to weaponise Luminosity for their own nefarious purposes. Drift himself is a part of this puzzle, and it quickly becomes apparent that the struggle for true power in Q’ara is emerging for reasons greater than anyone is prepared to grasp.

Review:

Now, I got to meet Josh Walker in person at WorldCon this year, and the more I learned about him, the more I wanted to sit down and read through his novel, “An Exile of Water and Gold”. And with my flight over the ocean, that opportunity presented itself. Arguably, my mind took this book and just kind of went with it, since planes and long hours of sitting do have an effect on how much a person is willing to function by the end of it. However, I did have fun, and it was a delightful read, with purpose put behind every interaction.

If I had to sell this book to anyone, I’d give them this sentence:

“Two souls in love with each other, one content to stay where she is, the other compelled to want to drift across the world, unattached to it all.”,

before saying that it is all in the classic English tones of Tolkien and Lewis, and that one might want to take breaks lest they start feeling adrift in the story (probably due to sleep deprivation on the flight, I had a two hour nap after I was 200ish pages in).

To start off, we have Drift and Tarri. Drift is a hardworking Aobian, but he never feels at home. The wanderlust is strong in this one. Throughout the story, he slowly finds meaning in his exile, and what his job must be. Then, there’s Tarri. She doesn’t understand why Drift isn’t reciprocal to her feelings, and as the story unfolds, she learns more and more about the hidden politics of the great tree, and slowly understands Drift's obsession over being drifty, for lack of a better word. 

After that, there’s the plot. Plot or the fates delicately stringing along each character to dance to their tune, all because one name holds far more weight than others, my mind can’t decide which one fits better with the story that is here. Essentially, there is one major plot where we get occasional glimpses through multiple PoVs and a bunch of underlying subplots that tie into the major one at the very end. Shenanigans unfold, some murder and mayhem ensues as Drift gets set on his path. Subterfuge, secrets and forbidden knowledge lay ahead for Tarri once she realizes what she’s lost.

Then, there is the worldbuilding of Q’ara, and how it all feels very postapocalyptic to some degree. The way that the map shows it brings everything across as divided, yet united through the great tree, with it being the one thing everyone is more or less aware of due to the role it plays for humanity as a whole. And it kind of is, because with the power of Luminosity, the tree’s symbiotic gift to some Aiobians, they purify the water for everyone, to a certain degree, just to keep a sickness at bay. As for the history of the world, it’s indirectly mixed into what we read as well.

Lastly, there’s the Luminosity, and the sheer amount of shenanigans one can fill with that. Reading minds? Go ahead. Want to incinerate something? Luminosity has you covered. Which leaves everyone who isn’t a Sleeper envious of them, even within their own society. The catch-22 though is that without it, everyone would likely be a corpse, since Luminosity is the great purifier too.

As for an issue with it, I think due to the fact that Joshua Walker has worked on his writing tirelessly for a while before publishing his novella, and the fact that this is technically his fifth work, that there is very little to touch upon. The only thing I can really poke at would be that Luminosity seems like a swiss army knife that needs to be constantly applied, and without it, the story would crumble. However, you’d have to read it to find out yourself and build your own opinion on it.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped add another novel to your TBR pile, or your next read. If not, don’t fret, there are plenty of books both within the fantasy pile as well as outside. Here is a link to a random review on the SFF Insiders page that might be in the same pile or might not be.

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good evening.