6/28/2023 0 Comments Polk witchmarkTogether, they hope to get to the bottom of both the murder mystery and a wider-ranging mystery of Tristan’s-where are all the souls going? There’s a whole bunch of layers and nuance to the plot here. But Miles also meets someone: Tristan, an otherworldly companion and soon-to-be lover. He thought he had wriggled out, only to discover that his freedom was always contingent and, indeed, easily curtailed when the time came. Miles is a competent protagonist trapped within the strictures of his society. Telephones and aetheric power, bicycles and pedal-cars and aetheric engines. It isn’t directly analogous to a specific time or place, but it blends some familiar tropes and set-pieces of, say, Edwardian England alongside more magical inventions. This is a world that feels comfortably different from our own, yet also very familiar. The result is a streamlined narrative-yet I never felt particularly lost. Polk has the knack for not bogging us down with infodumps. Soon there won’t be any secrets … but will the price be Miles’ independence? Or Aeland’s? But when a stranger dies in Miles’ arms and begs Miles to find his killer, Miles’ two worlds collide. He himself is hiding from his noble family, who would drag him back to use his magical talents as a mere battery and help prop up their power in Aeland. Miles Singer is a military psychiatrist treating veterans of Aeland’s war with Laneer.
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