Review: Renia by Karl Forshaw
Blurb:
The Halls of Venn are the seat of both knowledge and power in the great continent of Luna Ruinam. Renia, a scribe with a tragic past, spends her days expertly copying books that do little to satiate her desire for knowledge.
When a fateful commission lands on her desk, she finds herself tasked with transcribing a book coveted by assassins from the southern continent. Its theft throws the scribing halls into chaos and threatens to destroy the fragile peace that exists between their nations.
Haunted by dreams of her past, Renia must learn to master her impulses and awaken her long dormant magical abilities if she is to prevent war.
Fate, it would seem, is eager to grant her wishes. Yet she must risk everything to pursue it, and pay the bloody price it demands.
Review:
One fateful, not so fateful Saturday night, I sat in a shed and joined in on a community cafe event within the Page Turners, soon to SFF Insiders, Discord server. There Karl and Boe, if memory serves me right, were talking about Karl's new book and how it was based around a character within a video game idea that he had. Didn't think much of it, added it to my rather small TBR list and noted the buddy reads channel within the server, and went about reading a few books. Then, the next day, I saw that he was giving out a limited amount of free copies of the launch edition of "Renia" to those who joined in on the buddy reads. I thought: "Alright, cool. I'll get the book and read it when the buddy reads start.". Got the book a few days ago, looked at the cover and everything. Wonderful cover art and paper, by the by. Let him know that I got it, was pleasantly surprised at the fact that he signed the books sent out for the buddy reads, and placed it on my bookshelf... for later reading. As in, March 15th and beyond reading. My brain however had different ideas, so as of writing this review it's the 6th of March, nine days before the buddy reads is supposed to begin. Clearly, the lure of a new book and the smell of paper snared me into reading it early. The question is however, about whether I liked the book or not.
First of all, the world. We find ourselves in the world of -checks notes- somewhere on the great continent of Luna Ruinam. Despite not knowing the name of the planet, we do have the name of the continent. No big deal, not having the name of the planet makes the book more mysterious. Next up though? The continent of Luna Ruinam. Luna Ruinam is a very interesting place to be. Practically a desert, with an ocean near the capitol (With a large building called the Hall of Vrenn). Cool. Interesting. We don't have a lunar cycle, no moon. What's up with that? Haha, well... you see there is an explanation...
More character and story focused Jonathan here, I've shut off the world building nerd for a bit, and would like to go over to the people that Karl has created. I am using the term "create" here, because if I so choose to, and if I had a portal device, I could warp into that realm, that world, and go hold conversations with those characters and not be bored.
Let's start with the main character, Renia. Renia is a scribe, a glorified printing press, for old books that need to be renewed. Where does this take place? The Hall of Vrenn. -the plot is beginning to thicken. wooo- thought I locked that door. Ah, whatever. All I can say about her without massively spoilering the book is that she's haunted by her past and her future, according to the fortune teller within the magic eight ball, will not lighten up one bit.
Then we have Petor. Petor is... Petor, for a lack of a better word. He is a Hall Master, the guy who's in charge over who copies which old book into a new edition. By the time the book begins, he's quite old and many in the staff fear he has lost his mind. For Petor, that is not the case. He just wants to have a decent cup of coffee before an important document gets filched from his desk.
Then, lastly in terms of characters I'd like to introduce in order to get you, the reader of this review, to get the book is... Jeff. Security chief, day in, day out. That is Jeff's life. Until Petor mentions to him that the important document that he had got filched. Until that important document ruined his monotony. In a way, he is us, the reader... trying to piece together the clustered mess of both past and present mysteries within the Halls of Vrenn.
The writing, though well done and thought out, did have something that rankled me. Extra spaces every once and a while between sentences, though considering it's a launch edition that didn't bother me much. And another thing that made this book a bit stifling to read was the fact that the first 100 or so pages didn't give a clear direction of where it was going. Sure, by that point you might be invested in Renia, Petor or Jeff but the direction is unclear.
Aside from all that I'd like to add a list of trigger warnings about things you'll find within the book, because it definitely needs one...
Domestic Violence
Forced medical intervention
Unexpected pregnancy and miscarriage
Torture and dismemberment
Suicidal ideation and depression
All in all, despite the fact that several characters in this book go through things even a professional therapist would lose their demeanor listening to them, it was a good read and I would read it again. This time, with a box of tissues. If you've decided to not read this book, that's ok... it's not for everyone. I'd recommend it to those who like the concepts of science fiction, mystery, and high fantasy. Having said that and if you have made it to the end of this review..., and even if you are not interested in reading the book, I'd implore you to check out other book reviews here on SFF Insiders, since there are reviews for books of almost any genre. Hopefully this has helped you find a book you'd like to read or it has helped push you towards finding your next read
