An early review compared this to Ursula Le Guin and as a fantasy reader, you know that praise doesn't come easily. If that doesn't convince you to read it, I don't know what will. This epic fantasy is a mentor tale, revenge tale and rich fantasy that will keep you entertained over its 400 pages.

I tried so desperately to finish this book back in 2020 because I heard it was a sapphic fantasy but ultimately had to declare it a DNF at 30%. The pacing at the beginning was so bizarre with its MULTIPLE time jumps. If I recall correctly the writing was also rather dry and heavy with exposition. Originally I thought I might try to pick it back up again down the line, but with so many other books staring at me from my TBR, I don't think it will ever happen.

Larkwood managed to keep me entertained throughout and I liked that. I haven’t read such a mega epic fantasy book in a while and I think that added to my “do I like this or not?” line of thinking. But I’m glad that I grew to really like it. The pace doesn’t really pick up at all, it remains a steady slow throughout. Which didn’t bother me either – I’m happy about both things.

I’m no stranger to odd fantasy names (Kvothe hello) but the audio did help with everything. Also to remember that it’s Csorwe rhymes with doorway. I liked Csorwe’s character. She was interesting and had a lot of depth to her. I can’t wait to see where we go with her in the sequel. I liked how she changed over the book (and the years). Csorwe, as a kid, just goes along with what she’s told to do but it’s not really what she actually wants. I liked that she began to stand up for herself later on; it added to her personality. Hopefully the next book will have her be louder and more stabbier.

I didn’t realise it but I do like end of the world books and books where the protagonists have to stop the world ending. Here it’s much slower than in other world-ending books. But once again, I really didn’t mind it like I thought I probably would.

Honestly, I don’t think I understood everything about the magic system or world-building. There was so much to take in and sift through but I liked what we got and hopefully I understand more as I read on. It wasn’t info-dumping per se but if you’re not a fan of a lot of world-building and it being a bit confusing, I wouldn’t so much so recommend this to you (low fantasy, however, might do the trick).

Tal annoyed me so much at times and then I liked him 😄 – especially when he was bantering with Csorwe – I do love my banter. Either he gets a redemption arc or he goes villain in the sequel – I’m down for either. I felt like we sort of were able to understand him but I’d like to see more.

I really liked Shuthmili – I think she was maybe my favourite with Csorwe a bit behind. I liked how just similar to Csorwe – growing up, having certain expectations pushed onto her. She too decided to make her own choices, to leave that life behind. Taking her life into her own hands made her a more interesting character which I liked.

I enjoyed this book so much and was sucked in from the very first chapter! Great pacing, suspense, magic, world building, and some really well timed sprinkles of humor, The characters were lively and memorable with voices that made them feel like they could walk right off the page. I was so here for all the queer storylines and this is a must for lovers of high fantasy!

A lesbian orc fantasy? I could not pass this one up! I loved this so much and A.K. Larkwood has sold me on any future books.

This was a very fast-paced story! I loved the workd-building. It was very intricate and seemed very realistic! I also loved the characters and thought they were complex! Thus, this novel will be enjoyed by fans of Scavenge the Stars, Elatsoe, and Havenfall!

This book is just a struggle bus. I was liking it at first, when we have the young "bride" meeting our wizard. Then we have them going off and her learning all sorts of fun skills. And then boom, we are at his return to his home country, and I'm like "um, woah...". And then we jump forward years, and we introduce a bunch of new characters, but only get a little bit before we are throwing two old characters in, and well, it's hot mess.

And on that you can't pronounce 80% of the characters without having to stop and wrestle with the name EACH TIME (as another reviewer said, " I could have made it through more quickly if it didn't take me 8.5-minutes to pronounce each name."). I can't abide a novel that feels like it has to be SO edgy that the names make no sense.

On top of that, while the world building had some interesting aspects, the character building was seriously lacking. We have a character with tusks...that's all we get. Is she an elephant, a boar, a weird hybrid of some sort, do these tusks go up or down? I made it about 45% into the book and never had any indication. We have races and worlds presented, but other than the snakes, I had no real solid idea on what any given race was like. It was lazy character building.

In the end, there was just too much time, not enough plot (or just spread too thin), and the story was not compelling. Two stars is generous, given the sprawling nonsense that I found here, but I'm in a good mood, so it gets two and not 1.5.

I had the impression that this was going to be quite a dark book, and make no mistake, there is a lot of darkness in it: death cults, human sacrifice, torture, malevolent religion, and dying worlds. And yet, it ended up not feeling that way to me psychologically. Perhaps this is because of the main character, Csorwe. She is a person who lives by a moral code, whether she knows it or not, and that code is humanistic enough that it gets her in trouble as she tries to fulfill her obligation to her employer/savior.

On the surface, this book is episodic. It feels a lot like a gaming campaign. Csorwe gets an origin story, has a quest to a ruined temple, must get a map to get to the place so she can find the MacGuffin. There's fighters and assassins, mages, and sort-of-clerics. Csorwe is an orc (or at least is gray and has tusks), there are elf/cat-people, and what are probably humans. It was kind of a romp, if a rather dark one. There were also sort of steam-punky elements in the flying machines that made it easier to travel and traverse the gate/portals that open into different worlds.

However, there were some deeper themes at work. At the core, I think this is a book about young women who have been raised to be tools and who must find that they do have agency in order to survive. It's about young women who have bought into a belief system and who transfer the desperate need to believe in something greater than themselves to those undeserving of their loyalty. That's part of why I kept rooting for Csorwe instead of getting frustrated with her. It was clear that she had a ton of psychological blocks to overcome and she couldn't see beyond those blocks- but I kept hoping she would. Because I was raised in a belief system that was really bad for me and I had to find my own way past the culture that told me that I was meant to be subservient, that I was inherently evil and had only a narrow path to redemption, and that pretty much everything I wanted to do was wrong.

This book seems like part of a sort of neo-goth movement. There are lots of deathly trappings but there's also humanism and hope in the end. I think that this author and Tamsin Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth, are acquainted. I wonder what other books we'll see like this?

Great characters make this typical quest narrative a great read. Good world building, friends/enemies, twists, and an overall sense of character development. Will definitely build to a strong a series as this was a great beginning!

There does not seem to be enough fantasy geared towards adults. This definitely fits. Especially appreciated the diversity and representation. Hope to see more from this author and in this genre.

I just didn't connect with this one. The chapters felt long and drawn out, the world building felt really overdone and yet lacking, and I never really got a good feel for the MC. The first half (or just slightly more than) were near impossible to get through. Finally, the last few sections picked up, but by then I wasn't invested at all and was just ready to be done reading it.

Maybe it was bad timing, maybe it was just me. I wish I'd liked it more.

Stars: solid 5 out of 5.

This book has it all - wonderfully weird and detailed world (or worlds?), wonderfully flawed and detailed characters, and a story that keeps you reading. I often struggle with fantasy books because they are so formulistic and predictable, well The Unspoken Name is neither, I'm happy to say. I will definitely be looking forward to more books in this series.

The world described in this book is wonderfully complex and broken. It's a multitude of worlds, actually, instead of a single one, connected together by a Maze with portal-like Gates leading in and out of it. Some worlds are thriving with life and culture, some are dead and decaying... some are somewhere in between. There are hints at a war between gods that destroyed worlds and shattered the Maze, as well as killing some of them (and the races that worshiped them as well).

And the races populating these worlds are as diverse as their environments, and they worship different gods as well. In fact, magic exists in this world (the existence of portals might have hinted at that), but it is tied firmly to the deity which grants the magical talent to the practitioner... and it exerts a heavy price. See, holding and channeling that much divine essence eventually kills the mage, how soon depends on how often they use that magic and how much power they spend at once. So yes, magic can be deadly and devastating, but most mages will think twice before unleashing it. After all, who wants to end up with goo for insides because you used too much divine power?

I also loved Czorwe, our protagonist and her journey of self-discovery in this book. Her whole life until about the second half of this book has been one of self-negation in the service of someone else. She grew up knowing that she would be sacrificed to her god when she turned 12 and fully accepting that outcome. Then when a mage persuades her to leave with him instead of going through with the sacrifice, she dedicated her whole life to helping him achieve his goals. She never questions why she is doing this, never thinks about what she wants for herself. For the first part of this book, she is just a tool molded and wielded by someone else's will. Just like she was back in the temple when she was the bride of the Unspoken Name.

I love that this passivity and total disregard of her own desires progressively changes when she discovers someone who she cares about and genuinely wants to help. She finally acts for herself and discovers that she is capable of a lot more than she thought and that she is worthy of love and affection for who she is, not what she can do. I hope that we will see more of Csorwe and her friend in the next books.

And I will definitely be looking for the next books in the series, because even though this book answered one of the mysteries it introduced, there are a gazillion more that can be explored. Not to mention that the Unspoken Name is not done with his runaway bride, not at all.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After several chapters I knew it would not appeal to my students and do not plan to purchase it. Thank you for the opportunity to read it for preview purposes.

I was super excited to hear the blurb for The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood when it first became available on NetGalley. I have a soft spot for orcs/ half-orcs, as I think they get a really raw deal in most fantasy settings. And Csorwe sounded like a kickass young woman. I’m also a sucker for “escaped a religious cult and made my life into something I wanted.” So I was super psyched when I got approved for an advanced copy.

The story started off well. Csorwe and her rescuer Sethennai were interesting, and the world building was super creative and in-depth. There’s a bit of the Gideon the Ninth vibe going on (which made even more sense when I saw that this author mentioned Tamsyn Muir in the afterword, and they are apparently friendly.). But at some point the story started to lag for me, to the point that I put the book down, and forgot to pick it back up for several months. By that point, I’d read a lot of other books, and somehow the security aspect of the work Csorwe was doing in the scene where I left off had gotten confused in my head with the security work Murderbot was doing in All Systems Red, and I had to go back and skim re-read significant portions of The Unspoken Name to sort out the two stories and remember what was going on in this one.

I’m honestly not sure I would even have picked this back up, had I not been granted an arc, and had it not met a reading challenge prompt for which I didn’t have a lot of other appealing options. The story is a bit darker than I prefer, with some pretty gruesome violence inflicted on Csorwe throughout the book, and none of the other characters up to that point (about 40%) had really turned out to be very likable. But I had, and it was, so I did. I picked it back up at the last possible moment to count for my reading challenge, in the last week of December, and spent New Years Eve pushing myself through the remaining 40% of the book. I finished with 3 hours to spare, feeling exhausted, like I’d tried to swim through mud or something.

I did end up really liking Shuthmili and rooting for her to escape her oppressive circumstances and live a fulfilling life too. There were definitely exvangelical vibes to both Shuthmili and Csorwe’s stories to which I could relate a little too well. And while I didn’t LIKE Tal, I have to say that he was often hilarious. Larkwood wrote very very clever lines for and about him. He’s an awful person, but I laughed more in scenes involving him than in the rest of the book combined. “Tal never took one bite of a bad idea without polishing off the whole chunk,” for instance, or “It was loud and dumb and very likely to hurt, so, of course, he agreed.” I also appreciated the LGBTQ+ rep. Pretty much all major characters were queer, which was a pleasant surprise.

So, overall, this wasn’t a bad read, but I also didn’t love it. I thought it dragged in many different spots. I see that it’s listed as the first in a series, and I wonder if a second book would be faster paced and less tedious, because much of the world building would already be accomplished. And I am mildly curious about where the story would go from here. Probably not enough to pick it up any time soon, though. Not a book I’d be quick to recommend unless someone was looking for a very specific story aesthetic. Either way, I appreciate #NetGalley and Tor Books giving a digital #advancedcopy in exchange for an honest review. Both quotations are from the advanced copy and are subject to change

This book is a blend of fantasy and science fiction, but for me, leans more into the fantasy realm. There is a lot of magic and gods, but the travel system feels science fiction when it is first introduced. It really reads like a spaceship traveling through a stargate and crossing space. However, the way Larkwood describes it I could see it also just being a form of magic, because when you enter the stargate you don’t just get spit out at your destination. You actually have to navigate the in-between area. There are islands you can stop on, there are color changes (though green is the one color I remember the most), and there are any number of stargates/portals open at any given time that you have to know which one to choose. I will say that I am probably doing a bad job at explaining it, but I think that’s a good thing.

You can find my full review linked.

It is good to have original stories that try to explain a fantasy story from a different point of view. Even though the synopsis tells you the main character is a female ork, the book doesn't do such a well job in explaining it. The plot is quite weak and the writing, although ok, does not save what could have been a very enjoyable book. I hope the second volume in this series is better than this first book.

The premise of this book was great, but unfortunately the execution just didn't do it for me. The world-building was interesting but the characters weren't very well presented, and the pacing was just...not my favorite. Overall, not the most gripping of stories, which disappointed me. Ah well.

I wasn't able to read the book but it will be featured in a series called "I Wish I'd Read That." Text below:

The Unspoken Name sounds like quite the rollercoaster, mixing fantasy with nail-biting action, magic, and espionage. I love each of these genres on their own and was super excited to see how they were combined to tell an intense and entertaining story. I’m bummed I wasn’t able to start the book but, seeing that it’s a full series, I may need to come back to this one in the future. I’d love to hear what you thought about the book in the comments! Read more about the author and book below, or purchase a copy for yourself. And of course, a big thank you to Tor Books for the free review copy!

So first off I need to say that this book is super slow to get started, not because its actually paced slowly but because it is a massive info dump for the first 30%. I read the first section twice in order to grasp what was going on. Each time, it took me a lot longer than it should have...

Once the whole thing jumps forward 5 years, it begins to resemble something that became an enjoyable tale. I found myself really disliking the main character extremely easily but also really enjoying a few of the secondary characters which sort of balanced it out. From around the 40% mark, I was easily able to continue the read through without being easily distracted by other things.

For the most part, the narrative took a relatively logical progression with a few twists and turns that sort of surprised me but were also conducive with the standard fantasy plot twists.

While I should probably find one of the characters who were around for most of the novel most intriguing, I am more interested in reading more about The Mouth and the various abominations that were made by the Inquisitors.

Overall I feel like this series has a lot of potential despite me almost giving up early on (I always have issues with novels that have a seemingly pointless info dump). It had that standard slow progression that is synonymous with fantasy of old. Would I read it again? Maybe not. Will I continue on with the series? Yes.

The Unspoken Name is a lesson in why beautiful prose just isn’t enough. This is a gorgeous story. It’s written in a vivid (albeit sometimes confusing language) with lots of world building and depth. A. K. Larkwood takes us on an elaborate, lengthy journey where years pass by allowing our characters to grow and change. There is a tension held just below the surface of the story that keeps you flipping pages and wanting to scream at characters to just do things (like kiss, even though the romance is subtle in this)! And yet I didn’t care about a single one of the people in the story; and thus the proof that beautiful prose and an elaborate fantasy story just aren’t enough.

Subpar Characters
I want to say I cared about our leading gal Csorwe, or the mage that saves her, or any of the numerous people they encounter over the years in this book; but I just didn’t. The opening (Part I and Part II) are interesting enough as we are learning the world (or if you’re me being confused by how the Maze works), encountering new religions, trying to decipher how to say things (there is a pronunciation guide at the start), and keep everything straight (there is also a cast of characters at the start). However as the book progress past those first 100 or so pages and Csorwe ages, develops her skills at being a thief, a spy and an assassin, I came to realize that she could live or die and I kind of didn’t care. The only reason to keep her around was that she was our main character and the story revolved around her.

Remote Location
A second critical error that Larkwood makes here is taking us from a vibrant, exciting small town with thieves, assassins, magic, competing religions and more; into a remote, boring planet with only 2 other people on it besides our leading lady and her perpetual (it seems) shadow of a partner (that she loves to hate). It was like going from Coruscant or Cloud City to Tatooine or Hoth; instead of the other way around. It just doesn’t have enough depth and excitement (no matter what monsters or magic are thrown at our characters) to compete with the cute little town we encounter early on in the story.

Debut Novel
It is worth noting that this is a debut fantasy novel. And so for a first publication in fantasy it is actually quite good. But to stand-up next to the many amazing novels written in fantasy over the last 20 years (or even just 10) there is more substance and emotional tie needed to the characters. The world, the magic, the fighting, the religion, and the constructs of society are all good enough to create a series from that is robust. I’m not opposed to reading the next of Larkwood’s books in this land as it is a very intriguing place (especially the Maze!); but I’d like to see Larkwood move into more of the grim dark genre that she teases with. A little more depth in the writing and substance are needed; and perhaps a bit more thought into some of the odd metaphors, similes, etc. are needed. This one in particular made me actually laugh out loud.
“He was white as a ghost, one-eyed, and handsome in the style of a shark.”
Not only did I laugh because I have no idea what it means; but because I couldn’t stop thinking of Chandler on Friends and his shark fetish!

Overall
I did appreciate that The Unspoken Name didn't have a huge cliffhanger ending, and so if you wanted to try it out and not continue you’ll feel like you read a complete story. This is an interesting choice in a genre where large series are common. Many desire for stand-alone books (including myself) and yet when you put so much heart and time into the world developing it seems a shame to only use it once; and so I’m glad there will be more books and hope that Larkwood improves on what is a decent start.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.