The Mask of Mirrors is set in a glittering world of noble houses competing for power, and a dark underbelly of poverty and crime. Nightmares stalk the streets, stealing away children who return unable to sleep and die shortly after. In the midst of this, a young woman named Ren returns to her home city. She aims to infiltrate one of the noble houses, and gain the wealth she feels that she is owed. As Ren straddles the line between noblewoman and con artist, between magic and illusion, she struggles with her own identity and the brittle facades of all those around her. 

There is excellent worldbuilding in The Mask of Mirrors that makes it stand out above the pack. The City of Dreams is a fully realized place, with an ensemble cast of characters that all get a moment to shine. The authors do a great job of building a government and caste system that is similar enough to the our world to feel realistic, while still being utterly fantastical. 

Our main protagonist of Ren is an excellent character. She is clever, intelligent, and inherently kind even though she has ulterior motives. Working as a con artist to infiltrate the noble Traementis House, Ren soon discovers that the House has fallen from grace and is no longer wealthy. Ren also discovers that it is harder to con the members of the Traementis family than she expected as she starts to build meaningful relationships with them that make her job much more difficult. Ren is a flawed character, with selfish tendencies and a limited world-view. But her flaws make her relatable, rather than frustrating. 

Also featuring prominently in The Mask of Mirrors are several male protagonists who all seem to be a likely candidate for the true individual behind the mask of the Rook. The figure of the Rook is legendary in the city, a superhero-esque figure who fights crime and corruption while protecting the poor and most vulnerable.

Some might compare the Rook to Robin Hood. But I found more similarities with the character of the Gray Fox from the Elder Scrolls games. An individual with a magical cowl that prevents anyone from discerning their identity?  Sounds like the Gray Fox to me. It is worth noting that authors Brennan and Helm are both avid gamers, so this might be an intentional homage.  

Throughout the book, Ren encounters the Rook several times. Eventually they begin to work together, and all the while she is trying to figure out who is beneath the magical mask. Over the course of the story, she has several suspects who may also be potential love interests.

First there is the heir to the Traementis House, Leato. A charming and fundamentally kind individual, he is the first to welcome Ren (in her disguise as Renata) to the family. Leato takes Ren under his wing and helps guide her through the world of nobility. He is a complex character, who espouses political viewpoints that many of his class disagree with. Leato also has a strong friendship with a character from the lower classes that marks him as unique among the nobility. 

Grey Serrado is another candidate for the role of the Rook. He is a police officer (or a member of the Vigil as the law enforcement is called). Serrado rose up from poverty to join the Vigil, and is viewed by members of his own community as a traitor for doing so. He comes from the original inhabitants of the city - the Vraszenians - who are routinely arrested, beaten, and oppressed by the ruling classes above them. The Vigil is the fist of the nobility that crushes the poor. But Serrado believes in truth and justice, even when no one around him seems concerned with seeing it done. 

And then there is Derossi Vargo, a former crime boss who has worked his way up the ranks of wealth in the city to become something resembling nobility.  Vargo is charming and handsome, with dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. He charms Ren immediately, and the two of them work together for mutual benefit. But there are more mysteries to the character of Vargo than the book provides answers for. Who is the voice in his head, that can seemingly see events around the city that Vargo cannot? Where did Vargo learn to use powerful magic, the type that is typically reserved for nobility?  What are his goals and motivations? Even though we get POV chapters from this character, he remains a mystery to be explored in further volumes of the trilogy. 

I would be remiss if I spent all that time talking about the men of this book, without mentioning the women. Because this story is overflowing with great female characters. First up are the ladies of House Traementis. The matriarch Donaia is steely and strong, keeping her family together through sheer force of will after her late husband squandered much of their fortune. She has her doubts about Ren’s intentions from the beginning, proving that she is intelligent, observant, and worldly. She will do whatever she must to protect her family, and her good name.

Alongside Donaia is Leato’s younger sister Giuna. A bit naive and inexperienced, she immediately forms an attachment to Ren. Over the course of the story, Giuna has remarkable character growth that sees her transform from a timid young woman to a force of nature akin to her mother. She is one of the kindest characters in the story. But she is also the one with the most to learn about the world around her. 

Then there is Tess, the seamstress who works magic on Ren’s beautiful dresses. Tess is Ren’s best friend, and chosen sister. The two of them grew up together as members of a child gang, and together they escaped the evil old woman who sought to control them. These two characters have been through fire together and it shows in their deep bond and implicit trust.

There is a theme of ‘found family’ that recurs throughout the book. Ren lost her mother when she was young, and never knew her father. So all of the family she has found are limited to those who know who she truly is, like Tess. But when the Traementis family starts to welcome her as one of their own, she learns to expand her definition of what a found family looks like. 

This beautiful world that M.A. Carrick has built is not without its flaws however.  The world itself feels real and vital. However, the magical systems in the book can be a bit confusing. There is a type of magic that can be ‘imbued’ which is easy enough to understand in the magical makeup that Ren uses to disguise her appearance. Then there is Ren’s inherent magical ability to read patterns in cards, much like Tarot.

The book explains the magic of Pattern reading pretty well, giving solid examples of how it is treated in the world much like Tarot readers of our own world. Most readers are considered to be fakes, just telling clients what they want to hear for a couple of coins. But a rare few have the true ability to read the Pattern in the cards and gain insight into what will happen in the future. Ren has this ability, and was trained well by her mother to read the Pattern. The inclusion of this fantasy version of Tarot is well done, easy to understand, and makes for some compelling symbolism throughout the book. 

What was not as easy to understand is the magic based on sacred geometry that recurs throughout the book. Magic-users create large sigils using either themselves as focal points (very dangerous) or using the power of “Lumen.” It took me the entire book to realize that Lumen is supposed to be a God in this world, and that this magic draws directly from divine power. I found this magical system to be fascinating, but it needed a bit more work to be fully comprehensible.

Another magical aspect of the book that needed some more explanation was the dream and nightmare scenarios of the story. Early in the book, children go missing and reappear unable to sleep. They all tend to die a few days later. This subplot doesn’t tie much into the larger story, until suddenly a magical occurrence throws several of the main characters into a nightmare. I found this section of the book to be highly confusing, and that detracted from the emotional stakes involved. 

But as a first novel in a new fantasy trilogy, The Mask of Mirrors does its job very well. It sets up a compelling fantasy world, with complex characters. It delves into the themes of identity, and class politics very well. The real-world parallels are obvious when it comes to the racial tension (particularly with the law enforcement). But the authors handle this subject with sensitivity and care. There is something for everyone to enjoy in this novel: an immersive fantasy world; glittering balls, duels, dashing rogues, and intricate magical work.

The Mask of Mirrors // by M. A. Carrick // narrated by Nikki Massoud

I think this is the first print ARC I have received from my favorite publisher. It came in the mail several months ago and I felt like I had foreeverrr to read it so I enjoyed myself for a while with their other offerings, such as The Burning and The Reborn Empire. When I received an email about the audiobook for The Mask of Mirrors, I knew that waiting was the right decision. I really, really, very much enjoyed listening to Nikki Massoud narrate this book. Her voices and accents added so much character to this book and I’m not sure I would’ve pushed through the confusing parts if it hadn’t been for her.

To readers of The Kingkiller Chronicles, the opening lines will be very familiar. While I obviously don’t know whether the authors know of A Silence of Three Parts, it is hard to imagine they wouldn’t due to the obvious similarities. It made me sit up straight right at the start of the book and had me eager to learn more. The names of the people and places had me fascinated right away. I don’t know if they were based on a specific language or simply came out of their imagination – I’m sure someone smarter than me would know better if the authors haven’t already answered that question – but they sounded beautiful to me and perfect for the world that they created.

The first half of the book though is the one that I struggled with. I very much admire the imagination of the authors but there was almost too much information to be able to keep up with the actual story. While I loved all the different elements of the book – the names, the characters, the locations, the history, etc. – it felt like they just did not blend as well together into a cohesive and well-flowing story as they should have.

The first half of the book had a relatively low amount of magic. Even some of the inhabitants of the city seemed to doubt its existence sometimes, or at least the existence of certain forms of magic. It felt like more of a side character than a main part of the story. Halfway through though, it was as if all the magic was brought out at once, which felt rather off-putting with its abruptness. It just did not flow well. I had felt before as if there was more to its validity but this was a pretty harsh reality check, so to speak.

Once I got over that bump though, I absolutely loved the rest of the book. I felt almost enchanted by it and I still find myself thinking about the characters. Something that was really fun about the story was that rather soon into the book, I had certain suspicions about different people. Renata seemed to pick up the same hints as I did and explored their implications further. While sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong, it was great to follow along with her on her journey of discovery and deceit. The complexities that in the first half were too much eventually came together perfectly in the second half and formed an ending that was both satisfying as well as left much still open to be explored in the next book. I don’t want to give away any details but suffice it to say that I feel like a jilted lover with that ending and I am now sad that the book wasn’t twice as long. I cannot wait for book 2 to come out!

Thank you to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really digging the vibes and the concept of this book but the pacing made it hard to get through. Even though the pacing was a bit, it did offer time to get to know the characters.
Ren is a con artist who is set to settle a score with the place that had betrayed her 5 years prior to the events taking place but little does she know that her con might fall through with outside forces working against her.
The book has the element of secrets upon secrets that made me want to continue reading to find what would happen and how their plans would succeed or fail. But again the pacing of this book made it difficult to muddle through the web of lies and secrets being told. There are some morally grey character, which I am a total fan of and hopefully we see more of the characters morals come into question later in the series

When I first became aware of The Mask of Mirrors I was intrigued because it promised to portray many of the elements I enjoy in a story, like a daring confidence game, many political maneuverings and an interesting social background. The book contains all of that and much more, delivering a story that went well beyond my initial expectations.

The city of Nadezra, formerly the center of the Vraszenian culture, has been for several generations under Liganti domination, the original inhabitants looked on by the conquerors as second-class citizens: in the past, the stipulation of the Accords created a sort of truce between the two factions, but social and political unrest are always ready to erupt at the slightest provocation. Ren, a former Vraszenian street urchin now graduated to successful con artist, has concocted a daring plan to insinuate herself in the powerful Traementis family posing as Renata Viraudax, the daughter of a relative who left Nadezra long ago: once accepted by these Liganti nobles she hopes to be able to enjoy all the comforts of wealth for herself and her adopted sister Tess, now posing as Renata’s maid.

Unfortunately, the Traementis are not as influential or wealthy as they used to be, and Ren finds herself enmeshed in ever-convoluted political schemes geared toward helping the Traementis regain their former status so that she can help herself in turn. This plot-within-plot game, however, turns out to be more than Ren could possibly handle, because it dovetails with someone’s malicious strategy to foment a Vraszenian insurrection whose short- and far-reaching consequences are worryingly unclear….

While I am reluctant to reveal more about the plot to avoid spoiling your pleasure in uncovering it as the story develops, I can enjoy much more freedom in the description of the fascinating background in which the novel is set, and of the wide range of characters peopling it: these two elements blend in a captivating whole, and if the pacing feels slightly on the slow side at the start of the book, I can assure you that once the avalanche starts its inexorable downward shift, it gains speed at a breakneck, breath-stealing pace until the conclusion.

Nadezra is a fascinating place: a city built on a series of islands connected by bridges and waterways, its Venice-like quality enhanced by the description of dark alleys and wide plazas, of canals hosting floating markets or covered by impenetrable fogs that conceal both beauty and misdeeds. It’s also a place of glaring contradictions where the mansions of the affluent give way to the poorest hovels or to the crumbling buildings from which crime lords direct their armies of young thugs. And where magic permeates many of the aspects of everyday life.

The two coexisting cultures engage in different kinds of magic: the Liganti employ numinatria, which requires channeling power through a form of numerology focused by special geometrical shapes, while the Vraszenian prefer a form of Tarot based on a deck of cards that show the pattern shaping any given individual’s life. Moreover, objects can be imbued, i.e. gifted with special properties that make them more effective in their everyday use. In this world magic is so pervasive as to be almost mundane at times, but it also plays a pivotal role in the story arc, and with literally mind-bending effects and consequences.

In such a fascinating background, the characters are equally intriguing, starting with Arenza or Ren, both as herself and in the assumed persona of Renata Viraudax: she is a consummate con artist with a harsh past, playing a dangerous scheme to ensure a comfortable future for herself and her adopted sister Tess. Ren is the perfect representative of Nadezran society, one where playing a part, saying a thing while thinking another, is the rule, and she manages this feat with consummate ability. It took me a little while to warm up to Ren (even though I enjoyed her character from page one) because of the callous way in which she acts, but as the story progressed I was able to see her frailties and insecurities, to learn the horrors of her past and to understand where she comes from, emotionally.

The perfect (and quite enjoyable) foil for Ren is represented by Derossi Vargo, a powerful mobster whose ambitions of cleaning up his act and joining respectable society make him an interesting, multi-layered character whose very unpredictability is his most fascinating quality. To call him ambiguous would be a massive understatement, and he maintains this ambiguity to the very end, where an important revelation enhanced my expectations for the next book in the series, particularly in respect of my deep curiosity about the identity and role of a certain Alsius - if you read the book, you know what I mean…

On the opposite side of the personality spectrum is Grey Serrado, a Vraszenian who joined the the city’s law enforcement ranks and is forced to walk a fine line between the pull of his origins and the need to bring order and justice to a city where both concepts are too often mistreated if not ignored: the tight rope of conflicting loyalties he’s forced to walk soon managed to earn my sympathy, and I hope he will be given more narrative space in the next installments, because I feel there is still an untapped potential there, one that the final section of the novel seems to point at.

And then there is the Rook, a mysterious, hooded and masked figure whose acts in defense of the poor and the weak have become legendary - and have been for some two hundred years, hinting at a series of people taking up that mantle over time.

These are the major players, but there are other figures I was able to appreciate, like Donaia Traementis, the iron lady at the head of the failing house, whose strength of character, even in the face of many adversities, is a delight to behold; or young Tess, Ren’s sidekick, accomplice and moral support, whose skills with needle and fabric offer many delightful descriptions of the gorgeous clothes that are such a great part of the story’s background. But the list does not end here, of course…

I had a great deal of fun with The Mask of Mirrors, its skillful blend of adventure, mystery and drawing-room verbal battles creating a rich, multi-layered story I enjoyed losing myself in: the seamless transitions from day-to-day life to vicious political battles, from high-end social gatherings to drug-induced, reality-bending nightmares, proved to be so compelling that it was hard to put the book down, and I hope that authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms - working here under the pen name of M.A. Carrick - will not make us wait too long for the next installment in this very promising series.

Ren is a young woman trying to con her way into an elite family. She runs into curses, extreme revolutionaries, bureaucracy, people from her past, and more. Told mostly from her point of view, with short forays into the minds of other characters.

Set in a lush and well-built multicultural fantasy world that was based on a friend's RPG campaign. The novel deals with themes of colonization, empire, and identity. There are many real-world analogs. Nadezra seems to be a stand-in for Venice; it is a city of islands and the residents love masks. The Rook is a Scarlet Pimpernel-like figure who has been attacking malicious nobles on behalf of the locals for over 200 years. There are multiple magic systems, including one reminiscent of Tarot cards I liked the mix of languages: the imperial elite use Latin/Italian words; the local language is more Eastern European, and another character seems Welsh.

I read this as a digital ARC that was missing illustrations, including maps. At least the appendices were included. I might read the next on in the series. I suspect it will have much more romance.

I was not able to get to this before the release date, and it is not a high priority ARC anymore, so I will not be getting to it in the near future.

I HAVE TO WRITE THIS REVIEW IN ALL CAPS. WHY, YOU ASK? WELL, IT'S BECAUSE I WANT TO SCREAM HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS STORY. MAGIC. WHO DOESN'T ENJOY A STORY WITH MAGIC? I FOUND THE CHARACTERIZATIONS REALISTIC AND RELATABLE. THE PLOT HELD ME THE ENTIRE TIME. I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE BOOK IN ITS ENTIRETY. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT.

House Traementis has had an unexpected surprise: Renata Viraudax, daughter of an estranged family member who hasn’t been seen in decades, has arrived in Nadezra. Renata claims to hope to arrange a reconciliation between her mother and Donaia, the Traementis matriarch. But Renata’s real reason for returning to Nadezra is less wholesome: she’s a con artist posing as a non-existent daughter, hoping to land herself in the registry of a wealthy noble family. Renata knows the con will be a long one, but she’ll use every trick in her book to win the hearts of not just House Traementis, but the rest of the nobility as well. But Renata’s plans – and her life – are put into jeopardy when she runs afoul of a magical plot that will shake the city of Nadezra to its core.

Every once in a while, you come across a book that couldn’t have been more tailor-made for you if it tried. THE MASK OF MIRRORS is that book for me. I was utterly hooked by the premise, and found myself going out of my way to find time to read it, in a time when I’ve been more inclined to load a video game than open a book. THE MASK OF MIRRORS has great characters, a plot that twists and turns and surprises, and a magic system that relies as much on intuition as it does on precise mathematics.

Let’s start with the characters. There are a whole host of people that Ren interacts with. Her accomplice Tess, who poses as her maid and is the accomplished dressmaker that allows Ren to pass as nobility; Donaia, the protective matriarch of House Traementis who is single-handedly keeping her family afloat; Leato, son in the house she’s coning; Grey Serrado, a captain in the town guard; Vargo, a crime lord of dubious morality who has enough wealth to be tolerated by high society; and of course, the Rook, a mysterious masked vigilante who seems to operate in a Dread Pirate Roberts situation, given that he’s been active for a few centuries. Honestly, I ship Ren with all four of the aforementioned gentleman, as they bring such different cards to the table. And while I may be drooling over the heterosexual pairings, this book is queer inclusive, with same sex couples treated no differently than any other.

Then there’s Ren herself. Ren is fairly calculating, using her ability to read people to manipulate her way into getting what she needs. Except the family she’s forced to target (by virtue of her having worked as a maid in the estranged family member’s house) is one that is rather down on its luck at the moment. They’re still well-off compared to actually poor families, but they are far from the great house they once were. So for Ren to achieve the wealth she desires, she has to become even more embroiled in their affairs. And of course, the longer you interact with people…well, you can guess how things start to go. But Ren’s attempts to rectify the family’s political and financial standings cause a domino effect that results in Ren becoming thoroughly entangled in the politics of a city that’s a powder keg of tensions waiting to explode.

The tensions between the colonized Vraszenians and the colonizing Liganti is a large focal point of the book, and I do wish that some of that world-building had been fleshed out slightly more in the text instead of in the glossary at the back of the book. While I was aware of who had conquered whom fairly early on, Ren spends most of her time mingling with Liganti nobility, which resulted in much less exploration of the Vraszenian culture than I would have preferred. I was constantly surprised with off-handed references to clans and braids and family shawls that felt like important details I should be aware of. And yet, the fact that I wanted more details about these cultures might be a testament to how much I was invested in the world-building that DID exist.

The magic of THE MASK OF MIRRORS is for the most part a “soft” system that simply works. Numinatria is based on sacred geometry and the gods and is very precise, though most of the specifics are left to the reader’s imagination. Pattern-reading, however, draws from tarot and is a much more intuitive magic, something I personally loved. While some in Nadezra are charlatans, Ren has a gift with pattern decks, and can use her readings to get a sense of the schemes at play in the city. I also enjoyed that the names of the cards (like “The Mask of Mirrors” and “Storm Against Stone”) were chapter headings; the more you get to know about the cards and what they signify, the more you can guess at what lies ahead in the chapter.

As for the plot, this is not a book that moves at break neck speed; at the same time, I was never bored. I was endlessly fascinated watching Ren pulling levers in society to make things happen, watching Vargo investigate troubling activity in the seedier parts of town, trying to guess (largely incorrectly for most of the book) the true identity of the Rook. But at both the mid-point and the finale, the authors pull the breaks off the train and it is madcap insanity for several chapters. Honestly, the number of things that go wrong all at the same time in the finale was somewhat mind-boggling, and was one of those times when I ended up reading the final 100 pages in one sitting. And even better was the set-up for tensions in the next book. Lines are drawn in the final pages and I can see the tragic clash ahead and I am HERE. FOR. IT.

I’ve spent almost a thousand words to get across one very simple thought: go read this book. If any of the above appeals to you, if you like con artists, tarot, Venetian-flavored cities, crime lords who are as at home at a gala as they are in a back alley, vigilantes who flirt while they ransack an office, you need to read this book. It has wormed its way into my heart and I am counting the days until the sequel releases.

I wanted to like this book, but something about the narrative and the writing just didn’t work for me. I think the premise was interesting, but I just wasn’t a fan of the writing style.

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S THE MASK OF MIRRORS ABOUT?
What isn't it about, really? In The Princess Bride novel, the fictionalized William Goldman recounts how his father introduced the story to him:

“Does it have any sports in it?”

“Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles."


That would work as a decent start on a list of what this book is about (except the bit about Giants, maybe they'll be in the sequel), but just as a start. There's just no way to say what this book contains briefly. At times it felt like Carrick* took an "everything but the kitchen sink—and all right, we'll throw that in, too" approach.

* Yes, I know that Carrick actually equals two authors, but there's one name on the cover and it's just easier to play along with the conceit for the purposes of this post.

If you find yourself not particularly enjoying a storyline (either at all, or in a particular moment), that's fine, just wait a couple of pages and you'll be on to another that will quite possibly be to your liking.

Yeah, often this kind of thing feels unwieldy, clumsy, and hard to follow. But somehow—Carrick pulls it off. It's a grand-scale novel—focusing on several people, classes, and segments of the city, but feels very contained, very personal, and not all that difficult to take in at once.

I joked while reading this that I didn't know how I was going to be able to talk about this novel in less than 10,000 words. And I really think it's true if I wanted to do a complete job. But no one wants me to do that. So I'll set "complete" aside and go for "almost adequate" instead. The best way to do that is to start our discussion with the initial plotline:

THE LONG CON
Years ago, Ren and Tess were low-level thieves, working for a Fagin-esque character. The sisters split from that group in a fairly dramatic fashion and left the city of Nadežra. Now, they're back to make their fortune. Ren poses as Renata Viraudux, an estranged family member of one of the city's noble families, with Tess at her side as Renata's maid.

The plan is to endear themselves to the Traementis family and to be officially listed as one of them. She can then plunder their accounts and set the two of them up for a comfortable life. Ren had a good period of time working as the maid of the woman she's now pretending is her mother, so she knows her, she knows stories about her family—so she's able to pull off the con pretty well (at least at first).

But there's a catch..the Traementis family is on the verge of falling apart. Tragedy has whittled the family away to Donaia (the family's head and the sister-in-law of Letilia, Renata's supposed mother) and her two children, Leato and Giuna. And the family's material wealth has been chipped away even more. There's enough to barely sustain their lifestyle, and Donaia isn't sure how long she can continue doing that. Some nobility suspects this to be true, but no one other than Donaia knows it—Renata is very ignorant about the status of her targets. Which almost makes her doomed before she begins.

Do note that "almost," because Ren is as clever and resourceful as you could want for this situation. Once she discovers the family's situation, she's not going to let a simple thing like the verge of bankruptcy stop her.

There are times when I almost wanted Ren to get caught—protagonist or not, she has it coming and you will frequently like Leato and Giuna a lot more than her (also, it'd be a lot of fun to see Ren try to get out of it). But overall, you get sucked into her cause and find yourself rooting for her.

In many ways, this story is the heart of the novel. But the more I thought about it as I read—this story is really just an excuse to get Ren involved in everything else going on in Nadežra, and it could practically be eliminated without doing a lot of damage to the book. It is, however, a load-bearing plotline and can't be removed without doing structural damage (it just feels like it). That may seem like a criticism, but it's not intended to be one—I find myself oddly drawn to the idea that there's enough other things of interest and weight going on that you could excise the Primary Plotline and still have a novel worth reading.

THE MASKED VIGILANTE
Nadežra, like all good fictional cities, has a masked vigilante running around. The Rook has been a presence for a couple of centuries, defending the helpless, punishing the wicked—particularly if they're part Of the nobility. The Rook is sort of a Batman/Zorro-esque figure, stepping out of the shadows (or on the rooftops). We meet him first as he comes to duel with an arrogant twit over an offense straight out of Cyrano de Bergerac, and who can resist that? He remains a favorite part of the novel for me, dropping in at pivotal moments, but not becoming a focus for long.

Ren quickly becomes fixated on him and in discovering his identity. It is fun watching her try and try to either discover or figure out his identity.

THE QUEST FOR LEGITIMACY
Derossi Vargo, how do I discuss him? Think Lando Calrissian meets Michael Corleone. Vargo has spent years building and building his power base and at the time that Ren comes to the city, he's at the top of the criminal portion of the city. He's so powerful now that he's itching to shed that side of him and embrace being a legitimate businessman. He just needs the chance.

Renata sees this and forms an alliance with him. He aids her in some of her schemes to prop up the Traementis family's standings and success and she, in turn, will help him with his schemes. Neither fully trusts the other, but they can be of mutual benefit to one another, and that's enough for them. The relationship builds from this point—but both Ren and Vargo are careful enough with their secrets, their plans, and their ambitions to truly let the other see what's going on—but they have that in common and can respect that.

Vargo is charming and suave, and it's easy for the reader or other characters to get swept up in that to the extent that they forget how he got to the position he's in. There's a cunning and ruthless criminal underneath his finery and smooth words. At the end of the day, Vargo is about Vargo's success, and if you're in his way—you need to watch yourself.

AN EYE FOR TAILORING
Now, while I had moments where I thought it'd be good to have Ren captured by the authorities, I never thought that for a moment about her sister, Tess. And Tess is the best argument for keeping Ren free and clear—I just couldn't stomach her being injured or imprisoned herself (and either would happen if Ren fell). She's one of those characters that readers immediately fall in love with and want to treat as a little sister. Woe betide any author who hurts her, I can't imagine readers of this series letting anyone get away with that.

She's Ren's accomplice, for sure, but she's not in her sister's league when it comes to criminal behavior. She's sweet, she's not out to get rich—she just wants enough to be able to have enough money that she could design and make dresses—maybe do a little cooking. There's a hint of a romance for her, and I found myself more invested in her happiness in that than I have been in other romances that form the central plot in several other books lately.

Tess has no magic abilities (that we know of), but she might as well have some when it comes to fabrics. She single-handedly keeps Ren at the forefront of Nadežran fashion, usually using scraps and bargain fabrics from the market. Her reactions to other people's fine tailoring are a delight (she practically swoons the first time she encounters Vargo over the cut of his jacket). Frequently this is the only source of comic relief in some pretty dark places of the novel.

THE CARDS
One of the aspects of this novel, this world, that I appreciated most is a Tarot-like practice. The cards are called a Pattern Deck. Much like Tarot, the cards are cut and dealt out, then interpreted (and there's both an art and a skill involved in that). There are people who read patterns (szoras), some of whom have the gift to truly do this and some are hucksters just making money off gullible patrons. I think it's that fact that sold me on the novel. How often in Fantasy novels do you get that? A magic system that's true, that really works, and yet many/most of its practitioners don't have the necessary ability, yet continue to practice?

THE WORLDBUILDING
As you read this and come across references to cultures and historical events/people, you almost get the impression that Carrick has a two or three-volume set of books on the history and culture of Nadežra to draw from. Not that the text approaches an info dump ever (even when you wouldn't mind a little one), and Carrick is very sparing with the details drawn from my theoretical three volumes.

The world, the various religions, and magic systems, the system of nobility and government the cultures that make up the populace of Nadežra . . . it's all so well and richly developed that it has to impress the reader. I love a good bit of worldbuilding as much as the next guy, and it doesn't get much better than this.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE MASK OF MIRROR?
Time does not permit me to keep going (and, let's be honest, this is already getting obnoxiously long), so let's try to wrap it up (if only so I can go over my notes and see what all I forgot to mention).

This is an impressive novel. At one point I was going to try to discuss the greater themes this work dealt with. But I think it would be almost as Sisyphean as trying to list the plots in this brief of a post. For a long time, I was going to talk about the futility of vengeance. But I'm not that certain it's correct (maybe by the end of the series, I'll have an idea what they're trying to say about revenge). There's a great deal said about family, loyalty, being trapped by history (personal and cultural), perception, and...you know what? I'm falling into that trap I'd tried to avoid. There's a lot to chew on while reading beyond the story and characters—and you'll easily keep mulling on the novel and whatever themes you were more interested in from it for days.

Carrick has a wonderful style, there are some very cleverly assembled sentences here—and the way the story is told is clever and impressive, also. There were times when I didn't care all that much about the characters being focused on or a storyline, but I couldn't stop reading, I had to know what was going to happen next. I'm not sure how that's possible to have no (conscious) investment or interest in people or what's happening to them, but an intense desire to know what's next for them. But Carrick does it—and does it in such a way that pretty soon I was interested in at least the story or characters again (usually both).

The plots (individually considered) are complex and layered, meticulously assembled and paced well throughout the novel's progress. Then Carrick takes them and weaves them together in an intricate and smart way to make these plotlines a rich tapestry. The skill necessary for this, and the effect this has is stunning. I am a little concerned that when the sequel is published I won't be able to remember enough of this to be able to dive in—and that's the worst thing I can say about the book.

I can't quite bring myself to give this all 5 stars, but I don't feel too bad, when I cross-post this to platforms that won't let me get away with half-stars I'll end up rounding up. It's entertaining, it's impressive, it's richly and wonderfully told, it's complex and filled with complex and developed characters. It's as difficult to succinctly evaluate the book as it is to describe it.

I guess I should just say: read The Mask and the Mirror, it's absolutely worth your time and you'll thank me for it. You'll also see why I'm having trouble crystallizing my thoughts.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This was pretty interesting but I didn't really dig any farther into my interest.

M. A. Carrick is the pen name for two authors, Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms. I’m not familiar with any of Helms’ work, but I’ve enjoyed the books by Brennan that I’ve read. Both are anthropologists as well, which I think often adds an extra layer of detail and attention to the world-building in original fantasy novels. Like so many before it, this book has been hyped with comparisons to “Six of Crows,” and based on the description alone, I can see where that would come from: any fantasy novel that features cons and has multiple POVs MUST be compared to “Six of Crows!” We all know what my record has been with those so far…

Renata is not who she claims to be, the lost cousin of a down-and-out noble family who nonetheless hold power at their finger tips. No, Renata is truly Ren, a former street urchin who has always had an eye for a con. But the plan that she and her sister conjured up, for Ren to ingratiate herself with a noble family as a long lost cousin and hence secure a future for them both, quickly goes sideways and Ren soon finds herself caught up in events that are greater than she had prepared for. What’s worse, she’s beginning to feel a bit too much like Renata, caring about and for things and people she shouldn’t.

Not only do the comparisons to “Six of Crows” feel accurate in this case, this book escapes the curse of being a massive let-down that has struck so many “wanna-be ‘Six of Crows'” imitations in the past. In a lot of ways, it’s like the adult version of that. It definitely goes to some darker places than the YA novel is allowed to, and its character more fully exist in the shades of grey between good and bad. Good people doing bad things for good reasons. Bad people doing good things for horrible reasons. It’s all deliciously complicated and prickly, making you both love and despise characters at various times and question how you, yourself, would handle certain situations.

I also liked many of the characters introduced, especially Ren. It’s always important to like the main character, and it can be especially hard to write a realistic character such as this without having her become a caricature con artist, constantly quipping and not founded in any deeper human emotion beneath it all. Not here. Through Ren’s perspective, we see the challenges she faces, trying to become part of a group of society that she also despises. And slowly grows to appreciate. And then equally begins to struggle with her own feelings towards these people and the balance between her original goals and the individual connections she’s made.

There were also a lot of twists and turns throughout the story. For much of it, the identity of the mysterious Robin Hood-like character is unknown, and it was a constant challenge trying to figure out the identity of this enigmatic force to be reckoned with. The end of the book also really kicked things up and left the story in a very primed state for the sequel.

My one ding is in regards to the length and pacing of this book. It’s over 600 pages long, which is just a lot to ask of readers taking on a new fantasy world such as this. The story did fairly well supporting this page length, but the pacing did stutter at times, and I think the entire thing would have been more approachable if it had been edited down a bit. But, in the end, I think most fantasy fans will enjoy this book, and I’m definitely curious about the sequel!

Rating 8: A complex new fantasy world bites off a bit more than it can chew in length, but makes up for it with strong characters and compelling mysteries.

Link will go live 2/19/20

This was quite the interesting book. The terms threw me a bit in the beginning (with the gentry and magic style), causing me to slow down and be a little confused but I got used to them and then this book just carried me away as I enjoyed the con of Ren in her various forms trying to keep afloat in a tumultuous city, ripe with discontent and violence. Very good worldbuilding (once you get used to all the different phrases). It was a fairly long read but very good and I want to learn more about Rook and Ren and Vargo and all the plans that are in place for the city. I hope also that a zlyzen doesn't come find me on night. They are creepy scary!

Captivating from the first page! A really twisty, mystical, and fantastic read.

The Mask of Mirrors is definitely a must-read. It brings something new to the table with its elaborate world-building, intriguing characters, and mysterious magic system. This book had me hooked within the first few pages - the characters are immediately engaging and the first scene had me gripping my kindle in anticipation! There is almost non-stop action and intrigue/espionage.
When it comes to the world-building, the author does a phenomenal job of painting the perfect picture for each scene and makes it easy to follow what is happening. Additionally, the author also makes every location -even the gutters - sound beautiful, or maybe non-repulsive, in a way. You fully grasp the level of dirt and lack of hygiene, but still can't help picturing almost being there yourself.
The only problematic thing was the names of the characters, houses, and cities. All of them are pretty elaborate and sometimes sound the same and I ended up confusing myself a few times and having to backtrack to make sure I knew who was who, and what was what.
Overall, I really enjoyed this read and will definitely be going out and buying myself a physical copy. I have already purchased it on Audible as well, and the narrator is phenomenal! Their ability to switch between each character and their accent is seamless.

Thank you NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Rating 3.5

This book was incredibly well written. This story follows Ren as she tries to work her way into a noble family. While pretending to be someone she is not. Her motive is to give her and her sister a better future. Ren quickly finds she is in over her head in noble politics and schemes.

This story does have a slow build at first and the world building is very well thought and detailed. I think parts of this book were longer then they needed to be but overall I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I was absolutely enthralled by The Mask of Mirrors, which I learned was written by a duo author team, consisting of Marie Brennan (author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent)  and author Alyc Hems, under the name of M.A. Carrick. I was completely enchanted by the premise of the story, which involves main character Ren as she poses as a distant relation to a noble family in a quest to gain official entry to their family registrar, gaining her wealth, standing, and security in the process. Unfortunately, this long con is the hardest act she has ever put up, and Ren finds herself in a tangled web of politics reaching from the highest echelons of government in the city to the lowest of the Lower Bank, facing off with uprisings, magical terrorism, and more. And to make matters worse, Ren finds herself developing feelings for the very family she seeks to con, the Traementis family. 

“Because she was not Atla Renata Viradudaux, daughter of Letilia Traementis. She was Arenza Lenskaya, half-Vraszenian river rat, and even with a forged letter of credit to help, pretending to a Seterin noblewoman wasn’t cheap.”

I adored the main character Ren from the very beginning. She is intelligent, cunning, observant, persuasive, beautiful, and unafraid to get her hands dirty. These character traits aren’t limited to when she plays her role as a noble known as Atla Renata either. Ren, who slips into many roles and disguises throughout The Mask of Mirrors, is at her heart the poor street urchin who lost her only family, her mother, to disease, and had to make it on her own for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, she wound up as  “Finger” for a group of child thieves ran by a monstrously abusive woman named Ondrakja. The only good thing that came out of this horrendous childhood, were Ren's ability to develop and master a unique set of skills and for her to find a new family of her own in other Fingers. Ren forms a family with a brother named Sedge and a sister named Tess, who goes above and beyond pretending to be Ren's maid and seamstress during her plan. 

“Tess would be happy in that life. But Ren wanted more. This city owed her  more. It had taken everything: her mother, her childhood, Sedge. The rich cuffs of Nadezra got whatever they wanted, then squabbled over what their rivals had grinding everyone else underfoot. In all her days among the Fingers, Ren had never been able to take more than the smallest shreds form the hems of their cloaks.”

If Ren’s con didn’t have high enough stakes, she’s literally sleeping on a kitchen floor on a house she rented beyond her means and will face extreme consequences if found out, she soon becomes entangled with Vargo, a notorious businessman from the Lower Bank, the Rook, a masked vigilante who seeks to right the injustices of the city, a terrorist group, and even more scheming nobles. I have read from many other reviewers that they found the pacing of The Mask of Mirrors to be quite slow, but I did not find that to be true to my own reading experience at all. There was so much going on at all times that I could never be bored. Other readers who are bored with political intrigue might struggle a bit though.




For me though, Ren’s growing feels for the family she originally only wanted to be a part of for security and wealth, combined with the high risk and high reward situation kept me on the edge of my seat the entire novel. I was constantly trying to figure out who was behind what scheme and why, and what they might gain from it. I was also very interested in discovering the identity of the mysterious Rook throughout the entire read, scanning for clues and possible motives. The relationships between all of the characters were fascinating, and the world-building was extremely multi-layered. I felt that I inhabited the very same world as Ren and that her con, and possible downfall or rise, was my own. And as Ren’s conflicted feelings about her con grew, so did mine. I think it was really a feat that the authors were able to make the readers’ feelings change with Ren’s own. At times, I wished Ren wouldn’t succeed in her con and would be found out, and that the family would somehow still love her despite her deception. 

“Atla Renata, I’d far rather have a woman like you as an ally than a competitor.”

But Ren has her hands full with more than just her con and the Traementis family. Street children begin disappearing or dying on the street, claiming lack of sleep. Legend tells of creature known as the zylzen that feed off dreams. And at the same time, a deadly new drug known as Ash pervades the city of Nadezra, killing some of its users. Ren not only becomes caught up in both of these things, but also a Vrasenzian extremist cell. She also begins moonlighting as a potential ally to the Rook, who quite frankly, interests the hell out of me.  I want to know so much more about the position of the Rook, something that always has existed for ages, as a hero to the poor and a menace to the nobles. I was delighted that I was able to finally guess his identity, but the authors did a truly great job of misleading both Ren and their readers from the truth of it. As the series is called The Rook and the Rose, I can only hope that Ren and the Rook will team up again in the future, and I have no idea how I’m going to wait for that to actually happen.

“We don’t kill,” the Rook whispered to the oblivious city. “But we can destroy”

There is literally so much going on in The Mask of Mirrors that I don’t know how Ren keeps all of it, and her many aliases straight. It’s both amazing and makes me feel like I need to reread the novel again in order to grasp all of the many layers of it. Though I did not find the pacing in The Mask of Mirrors slow at all, I honestly had a lot of trouble keeping the entire cast of characters straight. As I received an e-copy of the book, it wasn’t easy for me to flip back to the list of characters and their family tree at the very end of The Mask of Mirrors. If you have the opportunity to buy a physical copy of the novel, I recommend it for the purpose of this list and for that of the appendix, which lists all of those pesky magical terms that I honestly could not for the life of me decipher from the context. Perhaps I missed something extremely important to these magical terms somewhere in my reading, but I felt that the novel just introduced terms such as “numinatra” and “numina” like I should know what they meant, but I certainly didn’t. 




It wasn’t until I got to the end of The Mask of Mirrors  and read the appendix that I learned what these terms were for certain. I was right only in that both terms involved the magic, with the former being the channeling of it and the latter being a series of numbers used in this channeling. And apparently the magic system is sort of a sacred geometry. It pains me to admit that I had no idea what the heck was going on when characters were saying the numina, aka counting. I wrongly assumed that characters were referring to a magic circle or something at times. Seeing as I, a huge fan of the fantasy genre was so confused about the magic system, I think I can safely say it wasn't as well explained as others fantasy novels. In my opinion though, the spectacular character development and political intrigue more than makes up for this lackluster description of the magic system.

Thankfully, there was plenty besides the magic system to keep me occupied in The Mask of Mirrors. I am honestly so excited to pick up the next entry in the series and it is going to be quite painful waiting for it. I can’t wait to see what trouble Ren will find herself embroiled in during the next novel. Honestly, The Mask of Mirrors is the best novel I’ve read so far this year, even beating out both of the novels I’ve read by one of my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, and I’ll certainly be rereading the novel and snapping up future entries in the series. If the rest of the series reads like The Mask of Mirrors, it could easily become one of my all time favorites.

#themaskofmirrors #netgalley

The Mask of Mirrors was quite the fascinating read! I loved every bit of the story!

Stayed up late a couple nights in a row to finish this book. It's long, but the pacing is consistent and fast, and the story and suspense dragged me under.

Ren is a con artist from a poor and troubled background who has returned to her native city after five years with her blood sister to play a long con: become adopted into a noble family, and be safe and have money thereafter. Only, the con doesn't go quite as smoothly as she plans. She becomes entangled with the shady and mysterious Vargo and high court politics from the beginning. There's something suspicious going on in the halls of power, too, and nightmares have become real. While she suspects who's behind it, she has to race against time to figure it out and save the city. All while she's trying to carry two identities and convince a noble family to take her in.

This is a world where two cultures struggle against each other, have two different magic systems and two different religions. The competing magic systems are based in numerology and astrology and tarot, which I found fascinating. I found myself intrigued from the very beginning with the world and getting to know the characters, and had no trouble following along with the beginning of the con, mostly because I was trying to figure out the motivations and agendas of all the characters Ren gets entangled with as she establishes her character, and trying to understand the magic systems. It is a long book and some may find it difficult to wade through at first.

There are several mysteries that kept me guessing, especially the identity of the Rook, and some surprising twists. I loved the way this book ended and set up the next adventure. I can't wait for the next one.

Advance copy provided by NetGalley.

While it started off a little slow, it picked up quickly, and once it did I could not put it down!

The politics, mystery, illusions, and magic had me HOOKED and I just had to know what was going to happen next.

I absolutely love when characters in books have to conceal their identities and this gave me that and so much more.

The writing was fantastic, and I could really feel and imagine this world, and the characters were all very complex and multi-dimensional!

I think I wanted to like this one a lot more than I actually did: magic, mysticism, politics, a city of mixed heritage and socioeconomic status, and one grand scheme at the center. This sounds exactly like the sort of thing I'd be into. However, the first 50% was slow and things didn't really kick off until halfway through the story - with so many characters and a few at the center taking on multiple personas, it was an invitation for confusion and frustration.

But when we start getting answers (after a bit of a pacing lull around 70%) the unraveling of the plot becomes compulsive and extremely engaging. Armed with a map, character/clan/noble house lists, and maybe a calendar (it took me until almost halfway through the book to realize that the gibberish at the beginning of each section was a date), I think we could go far.