TW: Torture, Death, Injuries
Bechdel: Passes

The Eyes of Tamburah is Maria V. Snyder's first book in her new series, Archives of the Invisible Sword. As a long standing fan of Maria's, I was over the moon when I got the notification that I was approved to review the eARC of this book. The chance to join Maria in a new world, was something that I just couldn't pass up.

We are introduced to Shyla, our protagonist, who is 'sun-kissed'/'sun-cursed' (depending on who you ask). She has been raised by the monks who have given her the tools for survival in a world where she will always be judged for what she looks like. Her tenacity and observational skills serves her well in her day-to-day life of researching and uncovering lost artifacts, treasures and maps - until the day she is blamed for the theft of a legendary, magical item and in order for her (and her friend/employer Banqui) to escape this alive, she is charged with the task to uncover who has actually taken them and recover them for the Water Prince.

Along the way, Shyla is introduced to many characters who will either assist or hinder her along this quest and as a reader it is a joy to discover alongside Shyla who is actually who. I have some theories about where we might be headed in book two and I can't wait to find out if my thoughts are in the correct direction, or if I will be blindsided - either way, I am signing up wholeheartedly to this ride.

DNF at 36%.

Three reasons, one specific to my tastes, and two of which shouldn't apply to the published version (I had an ARC from Netgalley). So YMMV, and probably will.

1. It's dystopian, and that is so very not my jam. I gave up at the point where the second despot had captured the protagonist for the second time and was about to torture her. I really didn't care how the author was going to contrive to get her out of it, or want to go through the protagonist's fear and pain in order to get to that point.

2. The publishers have uploaded it to Netgalley as a PDF, not an epub, and the formatting is borked. This is constantly distracting. (Again, this won't be a problem with the published version.)

3. The copy editing needs a lot of work. Really a lot. Hopefully won't be a problem by the time it's published, but combined with the other two, kept bumping me out of the story, which I didn't care all that much about to start with.

I mean, it had a motivated protagonist in a dynamic situation, which is usually a reliable way of getting and keeping my attention. <spoiler>The attractive guy with green eyes was <i>not</i> the love interest (I peeked at the end),</spoiler> so points for trope subversion. But it felt like a slog through a kind of story I dislike, and the characters didn't have enough depth to overcome the drawbacks.

What a great start to a new series. Well done Maria I loved it and am looking forward to the next book in the series.