Review: Elegy of a Fragmented Vineyard by Kaden Love

Blurb:

The beginning of a new fantasy epoch from debut author, Kaden Love.

Forced to appease the policies of a foreign fiefdom, Phenmir must do the unthinkable: harvest organs from infants.

Ten years ago, a new generation of children began to manifest abilities from the gods. Now, nearly half of the continent has chosen to graft these organs into adults, granting them their powers.

Phenmir will no longer participate, but can he repent his sin before all morality is lost?

Meanwhile, Aerhee will give all to preserve the process of harvesting, silencing those who oppose her people.

Will this land of peace resort to the barbaric practice of war? In a battle of preservation and progression, there can only be one victor.

Review:

I first heard of this book in February and then, after downloading “Elegy of a Fragmented Vineyard” onto the kindle app and after having it sit there for a bit, I cracked it open to see if the hype Kaden Love has built up for his debut novel would hold true. And after reading “Elements of a Fragmented Vineyard”, I can say that all the hype around this book is justified. And after finishing this novel, I can’t wait to read the next one in the series. 

Let me elaborate the ways this book has taken my expectations for what it would be and thrown them out the nearest window.

First of all, the three main characters and the perspective between those three. We have Phenmir, a doctor of the Chess Court. He’s an older man and a father, who believes in his Cheric, and has had enough of harvesting organs, so he goes home. Then we have Aerhee, a caser from the Zhae Court, who immigrated from Court Priess as a child and desperately wants to fit in to the point of being obsessed over the Zhae Court behaviours. And then we have Yetrik, just a teenager, who’s an OCD scribe from the Gruth Court, who’s tasked with delivering a letter to the Zhae Court. Each of these main characters never truly interact with each other and, if memory serves me right, meet either not at all or only once or twice before the book is over. But that doesn’t need to necessarily happen in a book with multiple narrators, if it’s pulled off well and doesn’t feel like you’re reading three different stories that are in no way intertwined with each other. And now we go onto the second point…

The plot. It felt so familiar and yet at the same time so foreign. And I think the reason behind this and how Love has accomplished this is by telling the story from two sides. We have those who want organ harvesting to end and we have those who want to keep things as they are, and we get the perspectives of people on both sides. Not just one. But both. And within one of those two sides, not all is black and white. And that’s where I was truly surprised. I thought that I’d have all the answers, that I’d be able to piece together the ending with both sides providing me clues. But no. There was still suspense, still things hidden within the dark that jumped from practically nowhere, that took me by surprise to the point of almost setting my iPad down and going outside for a bit. 

Now, let me go over to the world building. While a bit confusing at first, with enough time, all becomes clearer. I say this because there’s a detailed description of each court and their specific terminologies for those in power. Don’t focus on that when you first flip the book open. Place a secondary bookmark on those pages for when things don’t make sense, and reading this book will be a bit easier. There’s nothing wrong with having a glossary at the beginning of the book, but with the amount of care and detail put into each court and their descriptions at the beginning, I had a bit of an information overload. But when it comes to the map, we only get the barebones need to know. And for me, ignoring the temporary information overload, it works.

After that, we have the organ harvesting magic system. However he came up with this idea, bravo. Within all the books I’ve read this year or last year, this is the only one with this sort of magic system, and ignoring the absolutely messed up nature of using a second intestine from a dead child to give a child superpowers, this is a concept that absolutely works in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding. This gives weight behind the actions of those trying to prevent the harvesting to happen and those who want it to continue, because each side has its benefits and although one has a moral high ground, the other can run the claim of bettering all the courts. All the while, this is magic no one in the courts truly understands, so they’re potentially playing around with dangerous forces that could come back and haunt them, but it’s a risk they’re taking knowing full well the benefits of having empowered people helps further their society. 

As to what I didn’t like that much, I’d have to say that some parts moved far too quickly to get a firm grasp of what was happening, which might just be a me thing.

All in all, this book throws all expectations of it out the window within a few chapters and as soon as that happens, be prepared for a ride of political intrigue, personal doubt, and absolute chaos that does feel resolved at the end, yet it leaves the opening up for more.

As always, thank you for reading this review and I hope I’ve helped you along finding your next read. If this book doesn’t sound like something for you, don’t worry, we here at SFF Insiders have reviews on books that are more Sci-Fi leaning or Romance leaning or even books that are more mundane, to a certain degree, and we’d be delighted if we’ve helped you find your next read!

Wherever you’re reading, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening or good night!