QUEEN OF SWORDS

This fantasy debut features a kingdom of stone elementals and a quest to undo a spell that caused a race to vanish.

In 1985, Ivyssa practices with her bow and arrows in the “Ash Point Forrest” of Arbouroth, a region of Azulyria. The 15-year-old Hedarian girl would rather roughhouse than follow gentle pursuits, like cross-stitching. When fiery pain suddenly erupts across her face, she knows she’s been chosen by the goddess Octrisia as her realm’s next ruler, the Queen of Swords. She must now find the region’s Masculirum, the knight who will offer her protection and counsel for the duration of her reign, and then begin training under the current Queen, Azurina Silvera. During her search, Ivyssa encounters villagers conducting an Illumination Ceremony that will test 10-year-old Teaken’s elemental stone-moving powers. But her interruption of the ritual distracts Teaken. He launches the stone with his mind, hitting his mother and killing her. As Teaken’s father consoles him, at least one person swears vengeance on Ivyssa. Later, as Queen, she meets a deranged woman who recites an ancient spell to turn her into stone. But the spell is spoken incorrectly, and all living creatures in Azulyria turn to stone and cause the land to sink. Thirty-four years later, these events shatter the life of former FBI agent Alexandra Nealy. Spacek’s series opener begins ostensibly as a medieval-ish fantasy, with detailed worldbuilding surrounding both Ivyssa and Teaken, before jumping several decades to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Yet there are early clues regarding this twist, like Ivyssa’s mention that overseas nations have telephones. Ivyssa also uses careworn phrases like “cry me a river” and “off your rocker,” which dissipate the fantasy mood. Occasionally, excellent prose carries readers directly into the conflict in Azulyria (“Dropping from the churning vortex, a flood of flashing ribbons fell, rotating together in a tube of celestial brilliance”). Overall, the modern setting offers more dialogue while the Azulyria-set scenes sometimes suffer from telling rather than showing the story. But after introducing the Nealy sisters, Alex and Erika, and the seductive Jared Kingston, Alex’s love interest, the author continues taking refreshing narrative risks.

A fantasy with inventive concepts and a bold construction.