Sometimes, you just want to read about some sad lesbians in a swamp. C.L. Clark knows what’s up, so she wrote Fate’s Bane, about the daughters of warring clans falling in love in the fens. As you might expect from the cover, it has a very Celtic/Gaelic sort of feel to it.
I’d hesitate to call this a romance or romantasy. It’s more romance adjacent. It has that whiff of tragedy like all the best Celtic and Gaelic ballads (I’m not really spoiling anything here, the description in Libby calls it “a tragic sapphic adventure”). Also, there’s the fact that Agnir is a hostage to Hadhnri’s father, and even has to wear a collar to show her status, which makes this feel like a bit of a slave story, which can be uncomfortable in a romance. Calibrate your expectations accordingly.
If you enjoy pining, longing, and angst, you’ll enjoy this book. If you enjoy watching young love blossom into something deeper, you’ll probably enjoy this book. And if you don’t mind rooting for a relationship that might be a little toxic, you will probably also enjoy this book.
I do feel like novellas can be hard to review, because they’re so short. This was a really quick and easy read, with relatively short chapters and a straight-forward, linear narration. It’s not cozy, but it is well suited for cozy season, if that makes sense. It is just the right sort of book to read while inside, under a blanket, with a hot beverage, while you occasionally sigh wistfully and stare off into the rain, dreaming of the fens and forbidden love.
Clark does a good job of providing just enough lore to get you grounded in the book. One of the things I like about a novella is there’s not really enough page count to waste any on info-dumping. Not every author can handle this — some will try to info-dump anyway and not have enough left for plot and character. Others will just throw you into a world with no context clues and hope you can figure it out on your own. By keeping most of the action of this book centered around one clan in the fens, with brief mentions of the rest of the world, you’re able to conceptualize enough of the setting to follow what’s going on.
Because there’s not a lot of time spent on world building, and not a complicated plot (it’s star-crossed lovers, we know the game), Clark is able to focus on the characters and their emotional arc. This is so important for a tragic story — the pining doesn’t work if we don’t care about our main character or her love interest, or if we don’t buy their connection. Novellas usually have to speed-run these romantic arcs, but because this story spins out across years, I felt that I was able to buy Agnir and Hadhnri’s love, because I could fill in the blanks of the time they spent together.
If you’ve been considering Clark’s just-finished Magic of the Lost series, this is a great introduction to her writing style. Alternatively, if you’ve just finished The Sovereign (which oddly, came out on the same day) and have a hole that can only be filled by more C.L. Clark, check out Fate’s Bane.
CWs and TWs: Non-chattel slavery-style practices; mild sexual content; fantasy violence; death of family members; brief mention of death of a child.
Source and Format: I borrowed the ebook from King County Library System.
Reading Challenge Prompts
Book Riot: Read a queernorm book. Agnir and Hadhnri’s love is forbidden because their fathers are enemies, not because they are lesbians. Same-sex relationships and bisexual attraction are normalized in the fens (and perhaps outside). I would have liked to see some representation of trans and non-binary identities, but if it was present, I missed it.
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 18 of 25, 3 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 21 of 25, 4 bingos.
Book Riot: 17 of 24.
Physical TBR: 8 of 12.
World of Whimm: 21 of 24, 6 bingos.