This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend. Read the full disclosure here.
Book: “The Book of Gems” by Fran Wilde
Publishing Info: Tor, June 2023
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Some truths are shatterproof…
It’s been centuries since the Jeweled Valley and its magical gems were destroyed. In the republics that rose from its ashes, scientists craft synthetic jewels to heat homes, power gadgetry, and wage war.
Dr. Devina Brunai is one of these scientists. She also is the only person who believes true gems still exist. The recent unearthing of the Palace of Gems gives her the perfect opportunity to find them and prove her naysayers wrong.
Her chance is snatched away at the last moment when her mentor steals her research and wins the trip for himself. Soon, his messages from the field transform into bizarre ramblings about a book, a Prince, and an enemy borne of the dark. Now Dev must enter the Valley, find her mentor, and save her research before they, like gems, become relics of a time long forgotten.
Review: First of all, thanks to Emily over at Tor for sending me an ARC of this title! I know Fran Wilde to be a very prolific SFF writer, but for whatever reason I hadn’t gotten around to reading one of her books yet. So this felt like as good of a time as any. I will say I wasn’t aware that this book was part of a series, but after some quick perusing, it seemed like it could also be read as a stand-alone, so I dove right in!
One of the harder things, sometimes, when picking up a SFF title that is part of a series but has also been marketed as a stand-alone is trying to center oneself in the world and any magic system that may or may not be present. Unlike contemporary or historical fiction, the reader cannot rely on a knowledge of our own world to fill in any gaps that may have been missed from previous books. So I think it’s a mark of Wilde’s talent that it was a fairly smooth process orienting myself with this world. Necessary information flowed out in a natural, timely way without any info-dumping early in the novel, and the patient reader will be rewarded by looking up about halfway through the read and realizing that they already do know everything they need to about this series even without any obvious “telling” sections.
Beyond how the information was given, I enjoyed the world and magic that was laid out here. The gems and the way they operate is clever and unique. I also really enjoyed the blending of several genres that we see here. Fantasy, of course, but there were also strong hints of the mystery and historical genres. As our main character is also a research, this book also hits on the currently quite popular “fantasy academia” subgenre. I’ve really enjoyed this resurgence and very much enjoyed this nice blending of many types of stories.
I also liked the character well enough. Though here I will say is where the story fell a bit flat for me. There was nothing wrong with any of them, but I also never felt supremely invested in our main character’s story or that of any of the side characters. Here, perhaps, is where more familiarity with the first two books could have helped, as a better sense and expectation of overall tone could have aided in my feeling invested in these stories. However, the characters were still interesting and competently portrayed, so fans of the first two books will likely be very pleased with what we get here.
Overall, this was a solid novella, and one that speaks to an interesting wider world. I’ll definitely have to go back and check out the first two books in the series!
Rating 7: Short, sweet, and with a vibrant world and magic system. The only flaw was my inability to feel incredibly invested in some of the characters.
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Books of Gems” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but here are the other books in the series!
The Library Ladies 