One of the marks of a successful retelling for me is that there are moments when I've forgotten that I know the outline of the story and am surprised by something that I did, in fact, know was coming. And though Tessa Gratton's epic fantasy King Lear retelling diverges from the plotline of Shakespeare's original in a number of key ways, especially as it draws closer to the end, it's faithful enough that there were plenty of those moments for me, when I took a pause, shook my head clear, and said, "yes, of course, this IS King Lear."

It's a premise that, in retrospect, seems so obvious that I'm surprised it hadn't been done already. "Epic fantasy King Lear" makes a lot of sense the moment you think about it. Lear has all those hallmarks that have caused some modern fantasy epics to be branded as "Shakespearean," royal family drama played out on the political stage, underhanded betrayals, and, you know, a lot of people who die. And while the setting of the play is England, its source material is more legend and folk tale than history, and what the play is lacking in magical stakes, Gratton seamlessly supplies. I had actually worried, from the tone of some of the pre-release hype, that this book would end up being too grimdark and bloody for my taste, so I was pleased to find that its tone is actually much more slow and moody than brutal and violent, and that the tragic events evoke far more pathos than shock.

I'll admit that Lear has never been a favorite of mine. From context, I gather that it actually isn't one of Gratton's either. There are a number of things about the play that are just straight-up frustrating from a modern, feminist perspective, like how the play's ingenue heroine Cordelia, who actually instigates the entire story, gets shipped off to France by the end of the first scene to marry a minor character and doesn't show up again until the end, when she arrives just in time to die. What Gratton's version does is re-center the story awayfrom Lear himself, making the king's tragic decline more the given circumstance for the drama that unfolds than the main event. As the title suggests, Lear's three daughters, here named Gaela, Regan, and Elia, are all major protagonists (and Elia especially becomes the heart and soul of the story), but they are far from being the only point-of-view characters in this ensemble epic. Though the book starts at approximately the same point in the story that Shakespeare's play does, much of the story is revealed through flashbacks, and the many characters whose stories and histories rise to the surface give The Queens of Innis Lear a truly sprawling feel.

Innis Lear is a small, rugged island nation whose kings traditionally take the same name. But while the current King Lear, now declining into senile incompetence, may have once been a more competent ruler than he is now, it's clear that he was never a great one. His fatal error is his trust in star prophecies above all else, to the point of denying and forbidding the island's natural earth magic, closing off the wells of sacred root water. The stars correctly predicted not only the arrival of his beloved, foreign queen, but also her death, and it becomes clear that the loss of the queen (who doesn't factor into Shakespeare's play at all) is the tragedy that has fractured this royal family beyond mending. To Lear, it was an affirmation of the stars' power, and the source of his increased zealotry. Elia was a young enough child when her mother died that the event brought her closer to her father in mourning. Though she had a natural affinity for earth magic and the language of the tress, she forsook it to become the star priestess that her father wanted her to be. But Gaela and Regan both suspect that Lear had their mother killed in order to prove his star prophecies true, and they can never forgive him. It's worth noting here that Queen Dalat was a black woman, and so all three princesses are women of color, and their relationships with their mother's heritage is an interesting through-line.

Gaela, the eldest, expects to succeed her father to the throne. She believes in political and military power, not stars or earth magic, but she's had to make concessions to Lear's star-foretold expectations of her so that he will name her his heir, marrying an ambitious man she doesn't love, with no plans to ever let him have the real power he anticipates as her husband. Gaela plans to never bear children, and to rule as a warrior king in her own right with her sister Regan as her partner in power instead. Regan practices earth magic, and married for love, but despite her increasingly desperate efforts has been unable to produce the heirs that her and Gaela's plan relies on, suffering a series of miscarriages instead. So when Lear announces that he will divest himself of power in a manner that the stars have ordained for him, and his youngest and favorite daughter fails to respond as he expects, matters in Innis Lear are perfectly primed for catastrophe.

But it's not quite accurate to say that The Queens of Innis Learis just a retelling centered around the female characters, because Gratton makes Shakespeare's appealing but frustratingly underdeveloped villain, Edmund, another emotional pillar of her story, though here his name is Ban. In the original play, Edmund is the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, whose scheming against his over-trusting father to supplant his brother is a secondary-plotline echo to what's happening in the primary plot with Lear and his older, unkind daughters. Like the other characters in the book, Ban is given a much more extensive backstory, and is presented as an extremely likable character nursing a lot of past hurts who becomes a compelling antihero, as his vendetta against Lear and his father takes him down an increasingly dark path of betrayal. He and Elia were childhood sweethearts, but they haven't seen each other since Ban was sent away to the mainland nation of Aremoria years ago. Talented in earth magic, he has become a full-fledged wizard and earned the trust of Morimaros, the king of Aremoria (Shakespeare's King of France). A covert mission for Mars brings him back to Innis Lear, and yes, it's King Lear, so you can guess some of what ensues.

Turning Elia and Ban into "star-crossed lovers" of a sort adds an interesting layer of emotional entanglement to the story, and the two characters are sort of poised as narrative counterpoints to one another, opposing forces around whom the fate of Innis Lear revolves. While Ban becomes entangled in Learish intrigue, Elia departs for Aremoria with Mars, whom she is expected to marry. Elia's journey is one of realizing that she can no longer be a passive character in her family's saga, and of the discovery of what she needs to become if Innis Lear is to survive its ordeal. Mars is also a very interesting character, balancing royal responsibility with his own personal feelings, as his increasing respect for Elia comes into conflict with his political schemes for her country.

Gratton fabricates a couple of other major characters who I think really enrich the story. One of the major downfalls of sidelining Lear in this story is that we also don't get to see a whole ton of his Fool. Gratton gives Lear's Fool a daughter, Aefa, who is Elia's attendant and confidante, and serves some of the same functions for Elia that her father does for the king. We also learn a lot about Ban's mother Brona, who is a witch and guardian of sorts to Innis Lear's beleaguered magic, commanding respect in her own right.

The magic of this world and the essential magical nature of Innis Lear are presented as beautiful and mysterious, which is just how I like the magic in my fantasy. It's the sort of magic where trees speak in their own secret language, and the land cares who rules it. I also enjoyed some of the more heightened language of the book, though it's inconsistent throughout. Though there are chapters where beautiful language is used for epic fantasy storytelling effect, it does sort of come and go. There are also scenes where the dialogue seems to be artificially heightened in order to accommodate lines of Shakespeare's text, while elsewhere in the book the same characters will speak in a much more modern, colloquial style.

As far as the story goes, I'm not sure that Gratton does quite as thorough a job with her reclamation of the two older sisters as she does with the youngest, though that's a pretty heroic thing to ask, all things considered. Gaela and Regan are both complex, flawed characters, whose actions and motivations you will completely understand, but they just don't get to carry quite as much emotional weight in the story as Elia does. Also, there are some minor elements of the ending that I might have preferred had gone a little differently. But for me, these are quibbles. I found this retelling to be utterly engrossing, and captivating enough that I'm tempted to claim it as my new headcanon version of King Lear.

I'd like to mention that several times during the writing of this review, I was tempted to go on a tangent of comparisons to Nahum Tate's totally nuts Restoration-era rewrite of King Lear, which I studied in college, and I would like a cookie for my restraint. You can look it up yourself.

I originally thought this was just a sneak peak! But it was much longer than the average sneak peak! It took me a bit to fall into this. The names were really hard to pronounce and remember and I kept getting mixed up. Maybe if I read more I’ll eventually pick it up easier but it was also formatted really oddly which was distracting for me. The premise of the book itself seems interesting and engaging but I just hard a hard time with it.

The Queens of Innis Lear is an epic tale of daughters, of kings and stars, of an island crying out for peace. It's a battle between choice and destiny, between the choices we make and the paths set out before us.

They are not the only narrators, the only characters with plots and visions of the future, but the three daughters of Lear are the most important. Gaela, power-hungry and determined. Focused. Harsh and hard, trained as a warrior. She is ready to rule the island of Innis Lear after her father, ready to stand as king. Regan, manipulative and thoughtful. Plotting and planning. Full of passion and love for her husband. Most of her goals align with Gaela, and she is ready to stand alongside her sister as queen, her children as their legacy. Elia the youngest, sweet and kind. Blessed by the stars, devoted to their aging father. Content to just be Elia, but sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes princesses must act and move forward, take steps toward a destiny they never expected.

This is layers upon layers upon layers of motivation, chance, fate, and determination written in magical, lyrical prose. This is an island of people who want what they want. People who follow the stars and people who work hard to carve out places for themselves. There are so many different plots and plans afoot, so many hoping that they will be the one to win, to rule, to love. To survive. This is an epic retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear with haunting magic, realistic and flawed characters, and women going after what they want. I would definitely recommend this to epic fantasy fans searching for something new but also familiar.

Since I haven’t been on this site in awhile I haven’t yet gotten the chance to post my review for this eARC I received. Overall I enjoyed the writing styles and the characters in this book along with the progession of the story itself

I'm giving this a one star rating for now, because there is no way the copy I received from Netgalley (for review) is a finished copy. According to Goodreads this book is to be a stand alone, but the copy provided from Netgalley ends literally mid-sentence with in a scene where there is absolutely no resolution to anything that had occurred plot wise and no cliff hanger for a sequel???

Otherwise I was much enjoying this King Lear retelling, givin' that I am aware King Lear is one of Shakespeare's foremost tragedies I'm not really expecting a change in the ending, or a happy ending for any of the characters I find myself most attached to.

I'm going to be finding another copy of the book, so I can actually finish it all the way through before posting a full review on Goodreads. Once I've finished it, I'll provide an update there.

The Queens of Innis Lear

by Tessa Gratton



Rating: ♥♥♥

Pages: 567

Publisher: Tor

Publishing Date: March 27tht 2018

Synopsis:

The erratic decisions of a prophecy-obsessed king have drained Innis Lear of its wild magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the once-bountiful isle, sensing its growing vulnerability, hungry to control the ideal port for all trade routes.

The king's three daughters—battle-hungry Gaela, master manipulator Reagan, and restrained, starblessed Elia—know the realm's only chance of resurrection is to crown a new sovereign, proving a strong hand can resurrect magic and defend itself. But their father will not choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align and a poison ritual can be enacted.

Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.

Mini - Review:

I have to say I expected a completely different plot after reading the synopsis, but I was really surprised by how complex and word ridden this book was. The prose was phenomenal, but made the story a bit too slow pacing for my taste. We have about 5 different "speakers" in this book and a million time jumps within, which made it sometimes difficult to read. In my opinion maybe it would have been a better fit with less jumping and more insight in a few characters feelings and life. I first thought it would remind me of Kandare Blakes "Three dark crowns", but it did not in any way.

I liked how completely different and explizit the characters were written, how difficult it was to dig deeper into the feelings of the characters, so you would never know what happens next and how colorful everything was described. Some were dark, some were delightful and others just naiv. my favorite Character must have been Ban, though I think he will follow a dark and bloody path in the next book. I loved how feminist and strong the three queens were and especially Gaela was a bomb. In this book the women are the kings and all the man can only hope for a place in their life. That was sooo great. Badass, fighting queens are my favorite. Also we need more books that talk about womanhood problems like the burning period or being unable to bear a child. To deal with this topics in this book was an absolutely amazing solution of it!

The world building in this book was so on point with all the detailed descriptions and the importancethe nature and the star constellations, it made my heart bloom. This book felt as old as a fairytale but was also absolutely innovative, with the kingdom made by stars.

In the end I found the book a bit to slow and not deep enough, but I couldn't put it down either, so its a solid good book and against all odds I can't even wait for the second book!

(23. August 2018)

This book was so good. I initially read the excerpt through Net galley and was hooked. I didn't realize how hooked I would have gotten to it. It is definitely a must-read.

So I honestly don't remember what drew me in besides the cover and sometimes that works for me, unfortunately this time it didn't. I can't give you a full review of reasons either it was simply that the story did not excite me enough to get past one chapter.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the storyline so I only ended up reading about 50 pages. I will definitely pick this book up at my own expense to give it another chance, in the near future.

This book was definitely not for me. I thought it sounded interesting, but the writing style didn't hook me.

I didn't realize this was not the full book when I requested it (should have looked better, totaly my own fault) however, I did enjoy what I read so far, Really want to finish reading this!

A low-key feminist fantasy novel with diverse and grown characters (most in their twenties), oh yes please. I felt life being given to me... Beautiful prose and very strong character development, which is to be expected since this is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. It’s not an easy read but it is definitely well-crafted and well worth the coins to buy and time to read.

I am not particularly familiar with Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. I missed out on taking AP English Literature and Composition in school, where some of my friends read King Lear. So at most, I'm vaguely familiar with the story from Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (乱).

That being said, I was still very interested in reading this book when I learned of it. An adult fantasy novel, with three women vying for the crown is appealing to me. The magical system—the practice of wormwork versus the religion of star prophecy—also appealed to me. This dichotomy between the earth and the sky feels very mystical, very rooted in Paganism and Western astrology, things I'm interested in.

Still, in the end, the writing style is what has gotten me stuck with this book. If I had only read the prologue—which I honestly skipped in the end, because it was very confusing—and the first chapter alone, I would have put this book down. Gratton is clearly a talented writer, but at times her writing is too flowery for me. Luckily, I continued reading, past the first chapter, which is told from the POV of Ban the Fox, who corresponds to Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester in King Lear. While Ban is one of my favorite characters so far, this chapter, again, spent much too much time describing the forest and the exterior world for my taste. And I was about to give up reading this book at that point when I finally reached chapter three.

Chapter three is told from the point of view of Lear's youngest daughter, Elia, and it helped me to finally start getting into the story. The chapters told from Elia, Reagan, and Gaela's POVs are the most interesting. Each daughter has a different voice, a completely different perspective, each equally intriguing. It's because of them that I think I can keep going through this book.

I'm on the waiting list at the library, so hopefully I can finish it soon, since, as I said at the beginning, I received only an excerpt of this from NetGalley.

I think this is the kind of book that you definitely have to be in the mood for. It's beautiful and haunting, but also plodding and dense. I've heard it compared to Game of Thrones, which is ridiculous. Just because it's about a throne and has multiple POVs doesn't make it so. I'd compare it to Robin McKinley or perhaps Patricia A. McKillip instead, due to the writing style and the retelling.

So, if you like a deeply infused natural magical system, breathtaking descriptions (which, at times, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore) that make the world feel both gritty and beautiful, and three fully developed women of color at the fore, then this book is for you.

Absolutely LOVE this book. If you haven’t read up on Kind Lear, I recommend reading a synopsis before starting this book.

Beautiful prose, although a little dense. I feel as though it could have said more, with less at times.

Gratton wrote very strong female characters, and I loved each of the three sisters. This is the feminist Queendom you want to be immersed in. I found myself rereading passages quite often because of how powerful they were. I don’t want to say too much about this story, as I believe it’s best to be discovered as you turn the pages.

Highly recommend this book! I’m off to order the beautiful UK edition to sit alongside the US hardcover! Happy reading!

Didn't realize this was a sampler, but I still enjoyed what I read so far and I am intrigued to see what happens next and I hope it is as bloody as people say it is!

With gorgeous writing and an intriguing retelling, Gratton made me a fan of Shakespeare—it totally counts.

I know the very basics of the original, so I don't know if that helps at all. But somehow, this tragedy was enjoyable. Everything is complex: from the plot down to the characters. The diversity of the characters. Just, everything is positive.

I think I held back from rating it 5 stars simply because at times the writing kept the pacing slow.

I was not aware this was a sampler when I requested it. I don't read those so I would not have requested if I had. I tried it and this has some serious potential as a retold King Lear. We shall see.

Fascinating book with a unique plot! This is not typically the type of book I choose, as I generally prefer male protagonists, but I was thoroughly hooked on this band of women and their adventures. I read it non-stop and loved every minute! Highly recommended.

I had high hopes for THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR and, although I did very much enjoy it, it didn't blow me away. I had added it to my Goodreads TO BE READ pile long before I found it available on NetGalley. I wish to thank the publisher for allowing me to read a copy before its publication.

At first, it was desperately slow and I was pretty sure that I was going to DNF it. However, I continued, and i'm glad that I did as after the scene setting it started to pick up pace and I begun to appreciate it a lot more. So, if you are finding it hard getting through the beginning, I urge you to persist as it does get better. You also see that a lot of the details given are what make the rest of the book make sense.

I am pleased that this is described as an "epic adult fantasy" as there are some pretty bloody scenes and a rather graphic description of a miscarriage that would not be appropriate for teenagers. As it is based on the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear, the story encompasses a king with a lack of sanity and an obsession with prophecies, and his three daughters - Gaela, Reagan, and Elia who end up having to take matters into their own hands as their kingdom crumbles.

I'm a big fan of William Shakespeare, possibly the greatest storyteller who ever lived, this retelling is definitely worth a read. As you would expect with King Lear, there is much blood and brutality. It is basically a story following the King in his gradual descent into madness.

I know one complaint in many of the reviews of this title is the writing. People feel that Gratton's style bogged it down but many people also feel this about my favourite author, Haruki Murakami, so this for me worked wonderfully. I felt her writing was brilliant and bold. No complaints from me. I tend to love books that describe things in minute detail so her worldbuilding felt like heaven to me. A masterclass in how to construct a world, in my opinion.

Tessa Gratton is such a talent, I know I will be purchasing a copy of this for my bookshelf, and would be interested in reading any future titles she chooses to publish.

I would like to thank Tessa Gratton, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an e-arc copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I did not realize this was a King Lear retelling when I was first interested in reading this book and I have never read King Lear so I cannot compare the two.

I thought this book was ok with some interesting moments, but overall, it was a little too boring and slow-paced for me. Nothing happens in this book. Literally, nothing. Some people travel for a meeting, said people meet, some people get mad about the meeting, and that's about it. There wasn't enough plot for me and it was a little all over the place.