The Unbroken

Love, Revolution and colonialism.

So I have literally just finished reading The Unbroken, and I have to say my thoughts are mixed on this one. There is quite a lot to like about this book, and these things outweigh some of my reservations about the book.

As with many books by an author that I am unfamiliar with, my interest was piqued by the gorgeous cover art by Tommy Arnold. I love the way that the cover captures the desert setting of the book and the inner strength of Touraine pushing against both sides of the conflict that she is placed in the middle of.

The story takes place in Qazal. A country that is viciously governed by the expanding empire of Balladaire.

It???s main characters are Touraine, a conscripted member of Balladaire's armed forces, stolen as a child to be used as a frontline soldier in the ???Sands??? regiment of the army. The children are ???educated??? from an early age, with their belief systems and personalities modified to believe that they are fighting their former home for the greater good.

The other is Luca, the young monarch of Ballardaire who is sent to Qazal in order to quell the rebellion and prove her ability to rule Balladaire to her uncle, who is currently the regent and does not want to relinquish the power of the throne.

The Unbroken is quite an interesting read. It is based in a North African setting with the Balladairans resembling the French empire of the late 19th Century. Now, I found this to be quite an original premise and not one that I had seen in a fantasy book before. Clark does an amazing job of building an extensive and believable world that lies outside a normal fantasy setting. She catches the vibrancy of the country that she is describing, even though the country of Qazal is a suppressed country. She also captures the cruelties of the ruling classes and the poverty of the people. She regularly highlights the disparity of the situation, showing the nihilistic attitudes of the nobility on the one hand, with lavish balls and the like, and the abject poverty of the people that are being oppressed.

Additionally, she shows the dehumanisation of the Sands (the regiment of the army that is made up of the conscripted nationals) and theQazali people, regularly peppering the book with descriptions of the casual cruelty that is metered out to both the everyday people that live there and also to the ???Sands???.

The basis of the plot revolves around Luca???s obsession with her obtaining her rightful place as leader of the Balladairan throne.However, Luca wants to step away from the normally brutal methods that have not worked and actually wants to negotiate with the rebels. In order to initiate this plan she needs an intermediary to go between both parties.

This is where Touraine comes in.

At the very beginning of the book, Touraine foils an assassination attempt on the Princess???s life. Thus gaining her some favour with the princess who grants her a boon for her valour. When Touraine is disgraced in an incident later in the book,she calls in the Boon and the princess sees her chance to set her plans in motion by employing Touraine as her personal emissary.

What ensues is a story of two individuals that come from vastly different backgrounds learning about each other and the feelings that grow between the two, as well as learning about different cultures and wrangling with the political machinations of both the Empire and the rebels.

Like I said there is a lot to like about this book. The setting, the romance between Luca and Touraine, the political wranglings and the effervescent plot that takes you in lots of different directions.

However, I did find it a little hard to get into at first, and I found it difficult to relate to the characters initially. The pacing at the beginning of the book revolves around a lot of plot building. And at times, I found that this hampered the pacing for me, thus adding to my difficulty in relating to the story.

However, when we get to the second half of the book, the pacing picks up and I have to say it leads to a pretty climactic conclusion that had me turning pages at a rate of knots as I wanted to find out how the book will end.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book despite my initial difficulties with the pacing and I eventually related to the characters.

I have a feeling that C. L Clark will be a fantasy writer to keep an eye on, and will go from strength to strength.

This is one of those reads that I spent a considerable amount of time getting through, but have little to say about it by the end. I felt like the bones, structure, everything about this story should have been good, great even, but it just wasn't.

Touraine is a lieutenant in the Balladairan army - a powerful colonial empire that took Touraine from her home country, Qazal, as a child, and made her into a loyal soldier. Which she is. She wants nothing more than to rise in the ranks and prove herself worthy. As you can imagine, that's not what happens. In fact, almost as soon Touraine sets foot in Qazal, as part of a battalion of other conscripts like her, things start to go wrong. Sure, she saves the life of the princess, or at least helps a bit. But within a week, she's on trial and facing execution. Instead, Princess Luca plucks her from the military's clutches and makes her her personal assistant, in the hopes that Touraine's inherent ties to her country will help Luca quell a growing rebellion. This will prove to not be a great plan.

There was something I found myself craving while reading this book. Something about it just needed to be...meaner. Maybe. There's grit and death and war, yes, but none of it really seems to land. One of my biggest points of frustration was that whenever a major event or action sequence happened I often came away from it confused rather than excited. It's not like the plot is particularly complex or anything, but whenever some twist happened I would spend several pages going, “Wait, what?”

I also never found Touraine particularly compelling. She's not really impressive at, like, anything. Most of the book she spends forced around by events, changing sides and allegiances, and dying and getting saved repeatedly. Luca I wanted to like more, I liked the promise of a princess that is sharp and weary, rather than, well, princess-y. But she's still pretty naive, and it undermines anything that would be intellectually interesting about her. Also, I never really felt any chemistry between them.

This is a political thriller with pretty thin politics, a military-fantasy with not a whole lot strategy and confusing action sequences (though Touraine's one-on-one fights with Jaghotai and Cantic were definite highlights). For all the effort put into the world, the meat of the story felt pretty anemic to me. It premise and setting had a ton of potential, but I felt like it just never went anywhere.

This could absolutely have taken some bad, tropey turns but Clark managed to avoid them splendidly imo.

Take Luca, who could have been childishly good or cartoonishly evil. She struck a balance between ‘self-intrested' colonialist who doesn't hate the people she's colonizing but also isn't willing to give full sovereignty. The argument she makes for the Qazali to just wait until she gets power and ~then~ they'll receive basic human dignity, sorry about the people who'll die in the meantime, tho. That feels so painfully real.

And Touraine's constant struggle between the Sands, Luca, and the Qazali makes so much sense. Of course her loyalty would be split.

Did knock a point off because I really feel like the first 100 pages could have been condensed to some degree

Seriously, I'm mostly disappointed that it's a triology and book two isn't even out yet

Fantasy with a foreign legion type setting is something that I have started to see a few more examples of, and I honestly really love. Gunpowder fantasy is a niche area, but it provides a welcome break from the medieval and modern urban fantasy that dominates the market and has a very cool look and feel. The Unbroken follows an officer in ‘auxiliary' style unit brought back to their original home city. Historically, auxiliaries like this have been kept well away from their homes as they represent troops raised in areas that are not fully under control of the occupying forces. This idea is played with very effectively in this story - the loyalty towards comrades in arms versus the loyalty to home.

CL Clark builds an impressively layered and nuanced story of occupation with both profiteers trying to squeeze every last drop from the occupied country to well meaning if ineffective governments trying to integrate the population into the larger empire. The conflicts this drives increase the scope of the question of loyalty examined in the main story.

I really enjoyed this. The ideas were well constructed and explored, an intriguing world was built with hints of more to come and the characters were well rounded. I did find the constant flip flopping on loyalty a bit extreme in places, but I get that that was one of the driving themes even if it did reduce the likeability of the lead character a bit. Overall a solid start to a series

This book started strong. I enjoyed the characters and the different views they brought to the story even if I disliked the romance plot between them. To me, these characters locked chemistry that made me believe they were at tracked to each other.
I did however expert more from Toraine. Shedidat learn too much from her mistakes and to see little to no progress from her storyline was annoying to read through.
There were moments toward the end of the story where I felt the intention was for me, as a leader, to heel deep emotion and it failed. I had little emotion for the story or the characters.
It was advent story and love the magic system. Toraine's Mum is a force to be reckoned with by and for the favourite and the life of the book
There was one scene that left he wanting for the rest of the book. I had thought, expected as it was mentioned so many times that they would cross the river to The Cursed City but we never did. it left me feeling so disappointed

Somewhere halfway through I had already had my heart broken a million times, and I thought, “Sky-falling fuck, when's the sequel coming out.”

I did not expect to love this book, alas, here I am.

See, the thing is, I'm not usually one to read military and politics heavy books, not even in the fantasy genre. But I wanted to support an author whose debut (for adults, not YA) is about an adult, female protagonist. Having that character be an lgbt character? Bonus! There aren't many such books.

The military and the politics stuff is delivered in just the right amount to be important and pushing the plot forward while also making sure the ambitions of the characters are in the spot light. It's a perfect balance, in my opinion. Quite genius.

The world building, the mystery of the magic that may or may not exist.. All very intriguing.

The characters are flawed and will make you want to yell at them for stupid decisions (yes, I did such thing), but I like them even more so for that.

And perhaps more importantly, I like how colonialism is explored, how it's used to form and push and develop, not just Touraine and Luca, but the entire cast of the book. So many nuances. I think it'll stay with me for a long time.

It ends in a way that won't have you hate yourself for starting a first book in a not yet completed series. Still, I ache for a sequel asap.

I was not expecting this when I opened the book; a contender to a favourite 2021 read.

//
r/fantasy Bingo Card 2021: Debut Author
Also fits: New To You Author, Published In 2021, Chapter Titles

Pros: great characters, excellent world-building, thought-provoking

Cons: several near-death encounters

The day they arrive in the country she was kidnapped from as a child, Touraine, lieutenant of the Balladairan Colonial Brigade, saves the life of Princess Luca. The princess is there to quell rebellion and prove her fitness for the throne. She’d also like to learn more about the healing magic the locals used to wield. Touraine just wants her fellow conscripts to survive the coming unrest. As they work together, their feelings for each other, as well as their private goals, clash in unexpected ways.

The world-building is top notch. The level of second guessing motivations was perfect given how the colonial troops were raised. Seeing Touraine torn between wanting to help the princess, the rebels and her conscripts was heart-wrenching, especially when she kept making bad decisions. I also liked seeing how torn Luca was about wanting to do well by her people even when she had to chose what was best for the crown.

Touraine manages to recover from extreme injuries - via healing - quite a few times. It seemed unfair by the end how often she survived when other characters die. Especially given how much of the damage done in the colony was due to her own poor choices.

I loved how easy - and hard - using magic is.

It’s a good, thought-provoking read about colonization and loyalty.

CW: mentions of past rape(or attempted), violence and gore, torture

I've been so excited to read this book since the first time I saw the stunning cover and realized it was sapphic fantasy. And I truly never expected Orbit to approve my request for the advance copy, so I'm definitely thankful to them for being able to read this wonderful book sooner.

The writing in this book is stunning... that's it. I don't even wanna extrapolate more about it because the author's words speak for themselves. The vivid descriptions of the desert city make you feel the heat and dust, the characters' inner monologues makes you feel so connected to them, and the unfairness of the world makes you feel despair. The pacing is also perfect (though not everyone might agree with me) - it starts off slow and takes time to get interesting, but the buildup the author creates makes for excellent payoff towards the end where everything happens at breakneck speed and we are left catching our breath. But the book is also pretty grim throughout with hardly any levity nor much hope, which can make for a depressing reading experience but the excellent writing, exciting plot and complicated characters more than make up for the bleakness.

I mentioned in another review of mine recently that I seem to gravitating a lot towards fantasies these days which explore the themes of colonialism and prejudice and racism, and this was no different. The author shows through her world how centuries of colonization entrenches prejudices, which become so ingrained that people don't wanna look past them even for the sake of their own prosperity. It just becomes easy to oppress and punish and subjugate the colonial subjects, rather than treat them like an equal part of the empire; even if it foments rebellion leading to destruction for both sides.

The author's exploration of identity, through the eyes of the soldiers who were long taken away from their homes and trained to fight for the empire, now being turned on their own birthplace, was pretty emotional. It was heartbreaking to see these soldiers unable to forget their years of training and hope for some equality and respect, while also being conflicted about oppressing the people who are their own. Not feeling like they belonged anywhere was quite distressing and the author perfectly captured this anguish.

The cast of characters are splendid. Touraine, the conscripted soldier and Luca, the rightful queen make for an excellent source for conflict and yearning and the author does it to perfection. They are also immensely flawed, making many decisions without thinking through the consequences, leading to most of the unexpected twists and turns throughout the book. This makes them not likable at all times - there were moments I hated them and then wanted to hug them right after - but they both are immensely sympathetic characters and you hope that things go in their favor. My only gripe is that the amount of yearning and the number of loving interactions they had with each other didn't feel proportional, and I wish their relationship was developed more.

The side characters were also equally well written and memorable, I kept wanting to know more about them. Particularly Aranen, Djasha, Bastien, Gil - I wanted to know more of their backstories coz they were so interesting. There were also quite a few who I truly despised but they were not the kind of mindless villains we sometimes encounter, so I enjoyed their portrayals too.

Truly, this is an excellent debut and I'm glad that I got to experience another new author this year. If you want rebellion and intrigue and magic interspersed with complicated characters you don't know what to feel about, then this is perfect for you. If you can wait out the slightly slow buildup and don't mind your fantasy worlds bleak, then you'll be blown away by the time you reach the end. I definitely was and I can't wait to see where the story goes next.

I really enjoyed this one. It has everything I love. It's epic, military fantasy, with very little romance. It's political and action packed. I loved Touraine and Luca! Such a wonderful dynamic between them. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I was confused at times about the countries and different cultures. That could just be me.

I loved the writing and will keep an eye out for more from this author.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Touraine was stolen as a child to fight in the Balladairan army. This life is all she's known, and she's taught to be grateful that she was saved from being “uncivilized” and given a much nicer life. However, when her unit is sent on an assignment to her home country to stop a rebellion fomenting there, she starts to realize that Balladaire may not have her best interests at heart. Luca is next in line for the throne of Balladaire, and is sent to quell this rebellion as a test of her abilities. When her's and Touraine's paths cross, they must figure out where their loyalties lie.

I really enjoyed this book. There were so many layers and complexities that were expertly woven together to create this story of colonialism. The characters were very memorable and endearing. The reader was really shown how difficult the decisions everyone had to make were, and really solidified that everyone is doing what they think is best. The plot was fast paced and intense. The only part of the story I wasn't as invested in was the romance. I didn't feel like there was enough there for the feelings to cause such internal conflict within the characters. Their feelings were very strong. However, I don't believe this detracted from the story much. Everything else made up for it in a great way.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for an intense, epic queer fantasy story.

TW: ableism, abuse (mental, emotional, physical), attempted rape (past), blood, colonization, death, drugging, grief, murder, sexual assault (mentioned), slavery, torture, violence, war