If I'd known ahead of time that this was military fantasy I probably wouldn't have requested it, as that's not generally my thing. I did try to like it, but it was not to be.

The worldbuilding was... sparse. No, pretty much nonexistent actually. The character relationships are likewise not shown but sort of told about and then characters die and you're like, why should I care? I can't keep the side characters straight anyway?

The only characters with real personalities were Touraine, who can be summed up as internalized racism and a wish to keep her head down and hope to keep existing, and Luca, who is willing to sacrifice just about anything to gain her throne from her uncle. That's it.

I kept reading and reading without feeling any interest because there was the tiniest spark there - mostly just a good writing style - that kept me going, but alas I have to stop. From other reviews, I gather that none of my issues with the story really get resolved, so why keep putting myself through a book I'm not even enjoying?

*Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit books for providing an e-arc for review.

Instagram Review:

Thank you @orbitbooks_us and @netgalley for the opportunity to read an e-arc of The Unbroken by C. L. Clark ahead of its release on March 23rd!

While it is slow to start, once the action starts, it really doesn't stop.

This ended up being a sort of middling book for me, while I enjoyed some elements and the story overall, there were a lot of things I didn't enjoy, and I won't be able to explain them all well within the confines of a caption (check out my blog for a full length review). The world was interesting, if feeling flat at times, and there is a cool magic system that I would have liked to know more about.

My key problems with the book mainly involved the romantic elements and Luca as a character.

While Touraine and Luca had moments of sexual tension, I couldn't really see where Touraine's eventual soft spot for Luca came from. Touraine comes into Luca's service as a slave. While Touraine can physically overpower Luca, it doesn't bridge the gap. Luca does free Touraine, but Touraine still exists in a system and a world where she will never be equal and wherein the dominant colonial culture will never accept her as free. Not to mention that Luca still relies on slavery outside of Touraine.

Touraine understands and acknowledges the power imbalance and also admits her attraction to Luca is based on the power she wields and the opportunities it provides for Touraine. She can never truly consent because of this. When Touraine eventually has fond thoughts about Luca I was honestly confused as to where they had come from because her attraction to Luca seemed sexual at most and Luca continuously makes decisions that are often specifically designed to hurt Touraine.

And Luca. She self victimizes and is consistently hypocritical and racist. Her characterization makes sense within the colonial context of the book, but I understand how colonizers and racists justify their actions and I know there are people who will sympathize with her character and I hate that. I hate racist/colonial POV characters because they never learn, they never change, they perpetuate the ideals that the story is trying to combat.

______

Blog/Goodreads review:

3.5 bumped to 4.

The Unbroken by C. L. Clarke is the debut novel in a new fantasy series. It follows Touraine, a slave, a soldier. She was stolen from her homeland and trained within the colonial culture to be a soldier. To be disposable. She wants to be accepted the colonial culture, to receive the respect and power that acceptance holds. But, she and the rest of the colonial brigade are sent back to her homeland, to the rebelling colony, and all of her plans and ideals are stolen away.

The other POV character is Luca, the princess who should be queen. She's been sent to manage the colony, to bring it back under order, as proof of her ability to lead. Meanwhile, her uncle holds the throne.

Thank you Orbit and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an e-arc of The Unbroken ahead of its release on March 23rd!

The story is slow to start. We spend a lot of time getting into the heads of the characters and understanding their roles and positions within their society before the main story begins. But, once the action starts, it doesn't stop.

This was a middling book for me. While I enjoyed some elements and the story overall, there were a lot of things I didn't enjoy.

The world is interesting and has a detailed setting. However, the setting did feel flat at times. More like a backdrop than a real, living world. It is a city past it's prime as colonizers and colonized clash. While the empire extends far past the reaches of the city, we don't get to see or hear much of the world past the city gate. This is, of course, only book one of the series, so we may see more later.
There are also interesting magic systems. Magic systems that Luca wants access to, but cannot. We get to see and understand some of the magic systems at a surface level, but I think we will get deeper into them in the following books. This is a little disappointing, as I would have liked a bit more detail in this book.

Overall, the worldbuilding is what I would expect from the debut book of a series where a lot of the ideas introduced will be expanded on later in the series.

My key problems with the book mainly involved the romantic elements and Luca as a character.
While Touraine and Luca had moments of sexual tension, I can't really see where Touraine's eventual soft spot for Luca comes from. There is a huge power imbalance between the characters, and while I can overcome some power imbalances in fiction, we are talking about the future queen of an entire empire and a slave.

The slave owner/slave romance is a literary device that, in other books, is often used to make slave owners and colonizers overall look like better people based on one "kind" person, and to invalidate discussions of inequality. This isn't necessarily the case with The Unbroken, but I have already seen a number of people romanticizing Touraine and Luca's relationship.

Luca does eventually free Touraine. But, Touraine still exists in a system and a world wherein the dominant colonial culture will never accept her as free. And Luca freeing one slave, doesn't mitigate the fact that she still relies on slavery outside of Touraine. Her empire is built on slavery and colonization. She even says that the empire would fall apart if they started actually treating their colonial subjects as people.

Touraine understands and acknowledges the power imbalance. She admits her attraction to Luca is based on the power she wields and the opportunities it provides. Touraine knows she can never truly consent because of this. But Luca doesn't recognize the power that she holds. Luca constantly makes herself into a victim, often for reasons I can't go into without revealing the plot.

When Touraine has fond thoughts about Luca toward the end of the book I was honestly confused as to where they had come from. Her attraction to Luca seemed sexual at most. Not to mention that as the story goes on, Luca continuously makes decisions that hurt Touraine, hurt the people that Touraine cares about, and eventually are specifically designed to hurt Touraine.

And Luca. Oh Luca. I don't know if there is a POV character in a book who I have disliked as intensely as her. Part of it is because I know people IRL who are exactly like her. She always plays herself as the victim. She is consistently hypocritical and racist. Her characterizations makes perfect sense within the colonial context of the story.

But, I already understand how colonizers and racists justify their actions. How they take one step forward and two steps back. My main problem with her as a POV character is that I know there are already people who sympathize with her character. Who buy into the idea that she is trying her best. And I hate that. I hate that people can look at a colonial ruler, overlook all of the harm that they cause (whether fictional or not), and like them. Luca doesn't learn, doesn't change, and perpetuates the beliefs of her empire. In fact, Luca gets worse as the book goes on. she makes more detrimental choices.

I understood Luca's attraction and feelings toward Touraine better than the opposite. Touraine has opened up a different point of view. Touraine has introduced a spark of something new and different into Luca's world. But, Touraine is still more of a tool than a person for her. Luca's actions throughout the story focus on Touraine. Her side of the relationship is clear, but I just didn't see the same from Touraine.

And, like, I think I would have had less problems with Luca if there hadn't been the romantic undercurrent. Because Touraine's feelings about Luca inform the reader's opinions of Luca. Despite everything, despite the lack of real romantic connection, Touraine still harbours positive feelings toward Luca. And I just can't handle it.

Of course, this is realistic. Our relationships with people aren't black and white. Our relationships with the sociopolitical sphere and the dominant culture we exist within aren't simple. For me, the romantic spark between the characters isn't there, but the story relies on that connection in order for Touraine's feelings to be understandable.

Anyway. Despite what I have written, I think this is still a book that a lot of people will enjoy. It triggers a lot of issues for me, but that isn't going to be the case for everyone. But, I just want to encourage you to read critically. Not just with this book, but in general. Because when you read critically you start to see how certain narratives appear frequently. How certain ideas can be perpetuated by a work that is trying to combat them. How the narratives we read can become present in our own work. We all write in a space that exists within the dominant culture.

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

I kept on thinking "why this story?"

Throughout the book I kept on having deja-vu thinking that I had already read this book. It's an ARC, so there's no way that I could have, so I kept on thinking about stories with similar elements. The setting seems reminiscent of P Djeli Clark's Fatma el-Sha'arawi series, without the spark. The plot line reminded me of Kristen Ciccarelli's The Caged Queen, without the clear-cut motivation. The magic system reminded me of Tamora Pierce's Alanna series, even though that was written 30 years ago by a white author writing about standard fantasy cultures.

I've made a goal to start with the positive: The writing was enjoyable to read. The side characters had just a little spark of life to keep them alive. I thought we were going somewhere for the first third of the book. The actual governing decisions were quite interesting. The entire book really picked up at the last 10%. Now, we're on with the rest.

The Unbroken takes place in North Africa in a country that was colonized by France (guesses seem to be Morocco or Algeria). However, those are the only details about the country that I can really tell you, despite having spent almost 500 pages there. There are some details about the neighbouring countries (mostly regarding their religious practices), but there's nothing spectacular about this country. There's no world building depth and intricacy which I love to see in a well-developed fantasy world. There's not a realness that I love to see from books based on real places. The Unbroken takes place in a pseudo fantasy placeholder world which I've read a million times before, which was quite disappointing.

All of the character relationships were underdeveloped, which is a huge problem for me. I love the intricacies of well developed and complicated relationships and The Unbroken had all of the potential. Unfortunately, we got off to a wrong start with Touraine's relationship with her fellow Sands (conscripts taken from the colony to be trained soldiers by the colonizers). Touraine has spent the last 20 (?) years with them and undergone a number of awful campaigns. However, I, as the reader, was not there for those 20 years or those campaigns. Clark presents the Sands as having good relationships, but as a reader I never get to learn to love any of them. When characters die, I just thought, "oh, that must suck". I never formed an empathetic bond with Touraine over anyone in her life.

A lot of Touraine's choice in the later part of the book are based on her relationship with Luca. I'm not really sure when that relationship developed, they go to meeting, to thinking each other attractive, to doing absolutely stupid things "for" each other without ever having a relationship? The entire trust part of their relationship seems to be based on sexual attraction, which doesn't work for me. I never got a point in the book where they validated each other's position in the relationship, so I was continuously confused as each girl threw out common sense "for" the other girl. Where were the tender moments, the I'm going to wake up tomorrow and regret this desires, the vulnerability which are part of a relationship? Since I could not buy the relationship, I ended up not being able to buy a large portion of the plot.

I also could not sympathize with Luca. She was willing to perform a genocide so she could use an entire country as a chess piece to get her throne in another country back. I could not sympathize with Luca's plight to destroy an entire people for a chair in another country. It made me want to throw up every time Luca thought that her butt in a chair was more important than an entire people.

The Unbroken was one of my anticipated releases of the year, and it's sad to see that the concept wasn't as developed as it could have been. I won't be reading the sequel, I can't take and more Touraine and Luca pining.

The Unbroken has to be one of my favorite reads of 2021 so far. Within a few pages I had decided that I needed to slow down and take my time reading this book because it was that amazing.

The story is told from two perspectives. Touraine, is a soldier in Balladaire’s army. When she was a child, she was stolen from her birthplace, Qazal, and trained to serve. Now older, Touraine has returned to Qazal and isn’t quite sure how to feel about it. The other perspective is Luca, the heir to the Balladairan Empire. These characters tell two very different perspectives of an Empire in political conflict. There’s a underlying tension in both character’s perspectives that had me stressed for most of the book. The world is well developed and vast, the politics and the people being a central focal point. The characters are complex and flawed in a realistic way that I appreciated. The pacing is well done, and I am both excited and anxious to get my hands on the next book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinions have not been influenced by the publisher or the author.

Clark doesn't pull a single punch, and neither do her characters.

The Unbroken is a series of knife twists, each deeper and more painful than the last, but with a sweetness to it that kept me begging for more. Honey and whips are the motifs of the book, and they are ever so appropriate for this breakneck journey through diplomacy, war, trust, and betrayal. Touraine is a Sand, a conscripted soldier taken from her homeland of Qazāl, and while she has reached a sort of stable acceptance of this at the beginning of the book, it only gets worse for her from there. Luca, on the other hand, has everything going for her--she is a princess who dreams of peace and prosperity for all of her people. It also gets worse for her from there.

I don't typically read military fantasy, but I was drawn in by the cover (let's be honest, we all were) and the promise of a butch lesbian main character. I was excited by the princess/soldier trope and wanted to see how it played out. What I got was so much more than that--a masterfully crafted exploration of colonialism, education, punishment, language, and what it means to go home.

Others have described the relationships in Clark's book as raw and messy, which I think is apt. Their struggles and motivations always feel real, even when they make the wrong choices, especially in situations when there might not be any right choices. I came for romance and left with a whole world. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I received an advance e-copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

TL;DR

The Unbroken kept me glued to the page long past my bedtime. If you’re an epic fantasy fan, this is a can’t miss start to a new series. Highly recommended.

Review: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark

As much as I try to research and stay current within the SFF genre, there will always be a book or two that I miss. Some I miss the opportunity to request a review copy. Some I miss seeing altogether. Somehow, I missed The Unbroken on NetGalley when it first was posted there. But for once, I sent my request in time and was lucky enough to get a copy of this highly praised book. After I got my eARC, I avoided looking at any discussion of it. I wanted to approach The Unbroken fresh without any external biasing. When I began to read, I found out why there is such hype surrounding this book. C. L. Clark has written an impressive, smart, sophisticated first entry in an epic fantasy series. Smarter people than I will be using it in essays about colonialism, and I plan to read all of them. I loved this book. The Unbroken blends world building, politics, character, and plot in a promising opening to a new epic fantasy series.

The Unbroken tells the story of rebellion of the Qazāli people through two characters who begin the novel on the same side. Touraine is a colonial conscript in the Balladairan military, stolen from Qazāl as a child. But more than that, she’s the model conscript. The Balladairans have trained her to be Balladairan despite the fact that they’ll never consider her an equal. She’ll always be a Sand, which is a slur that the Qazāli conscripts have made their own. Touraine rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant with her eyes on being a captain. Luca, the heir to Balladaire’s throne, comes to Qazāl seeking, publicly, to prove herself worthy of throne and, privately, to find the rumored magic of the Qazāli people. Her uncle, the regent who rules Balladaire until he relinquishes the government, keeps putting off Luca’s coronation, and she believes that if she can squelch the rebellion in Qazāl, she can ensure a peaceful transition to her own rule. Luca chooses the unexpected route of seeking peace as a means to end the rebellion. But upon her arrival in the city, the rebels attempt to assassinate her. Touraine spots the attempt, saving the princess’s life. Thus Touraine twines her and Luca’s lives together in a battle over the future of a people and an empire.

Quickly, Touraine’s position is undermined by Balladaire’s racism, and Luca saves her. BUT…but Luca saves Touraine because she can be useful to the princess. Touraine, a native Qazāli, can be a courier/diplomat between Luca and the rebels. Luca, breaking with traditional Balladairan views of Qazāl, really does want peace. But her peace is that of the conqueror, not of the equal. Touraine quickly learns that she’s returned to the city of her birth, and that she has a mother out in the city. The people of Qazāl look upon her as a traitor. How will Touraine broker a peace between a civilization that considers her less than human and a civilization that considers her a traitor?

Simply put, I loved The Unbroken. I never knew where the story was going, and this kept me reading long past when I should have been sleeping. The characters are fantastic, and I wanted them both to succeed even when their goals were in direct competition. The world building is pristine, and I look forward to future books that expand upon it. The magic system was a bit unclear to me while still being cool. All in all, this is the start to a wonderful epic fantasy series.

Touraine

Touraine, poor Touraine. She starts the novel unwanted by her native people and unwanted by the people who stole her. She wants nothing more than to be seen as equal in Balladaire’s estimation despite all evidence to the contrary. Even when she does the right thing by saving the princess’s life during an assassination attempt, she earns a reward as being a decoration at a dinner party. Throughout the novel, she gives us the perspective of a colonized people. At the beginning, she wants more than anything to be Balladairan. She wants their approval and firmly believes that through merit she can rise to a position to improve things for her and the Sands. As a child, Balladaire stole her from her family, her people. They indoctrinated her with Balladaire’s morals and traditions. In addition, Balladaire taught her to look down upon her own culture’s ‘uncivilized’ morals and traditions. Balladaire is an atheist society that considers theists as backwards barbarians. Touraine grew up with these views ingrained in her. Throughout the novel, she confronts the damage that Balladaire inflicted upon her as she tries to reconnect with her culture.

I loved Touraine. She represents the struggles of a colonized people so well. From a young age, she was taught that she and her culture were lesser, and throughout her life, these lessons were reinforced. But Balladaire recognized her efforts to be ‘civilized’ and rewarded her through promotions and responsibilities. They controlled her with the promise of being able to change her circumstances, and her hope made her believe. But Balladairans structured their society such that only Balladairans matter. It’s easy to recognize American society in Touraine’s struggles. How often are African-Americans given the promise of improving their circumstances while presented with the reality of a society structured against them?

Touraine’s decision making revolves around protecting her family, which are the other colonial conscripts. She’s fiercely loyal but in a difficult position where neither society treats her well. Balladaire doesn’t consider her fully human, and Qazāl considers her a traitor despite the fact that she was taken as a child and only lived the life as a soldier pressed into the military. All she has is her fellow troops, and C. L. Clark even takes those away from her. Poor Touraine struggles to do the right thing, and that may mean returning to her roots.

Luca

As I said earlier, I loved the character of Luca. Even though I’m not a princess, I found her and her struggles relatable and understandable. I also recognized the privilege I share with her as a character. By right of birth, she is a Balladairan; thus in the empire, she is ‘civilized’ and a citizen. She doesn’t have to justify her existence, and the barrier to her goals are much different than Touraine’s. She can exist in spaces without anyone questioning why she’s there. Her spot at dinner parties is as guest not decoration. Yet, she recognizes some of the unfairness in her society while remaining blind to how she uses people.

Luca is attracted to Touraine, but I never was clear if it was because of Touraine’s exotic appearance or Touraine’s personality. But there’s a large power imbalance between the two, and Touraine understands this while Luca doesn’t.

As much as I loved Luca, I do recognize that she’s the type of liberal that disappointed Martin Luther King Jr. She “is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…” Luca wants change; she wants the lives of the everyday Qazāli to improve. But she wants it done through order of Balladairan society. She wants to impose improvements upon them instead of letting them choose how to improve their own lives. Small improvements in the lives of the oppressed doesn’t change the oppression. It simply decorates the cage. The Qazāli in the stone quarry may now be receiving a living wage, but their culture is still viewed as ‘uncivilized.’ Their religion is still considered barbaric. Her peace deals are geared more towards the absence of tension than recognizing the shared humanity of Qazāl.

The Cursed City

In the book, the characters talk about a cursed city with a library that potentially contains magic books. Unfortunately, we never get to see the city or the fabled tomes. I hope in future volumes we get to visit the city and learn if magic is there or not. One of my personal favorite tropes is that of the lost library; add in a cursed city and you’ve got my money. C.L. Clark, please, take us to the Cursed City.

The Writing

One of the joys of reading is to try to guess where the author is taking you. A good book for me is one where I get about half of my guesses right because I understand what’s going on but I haven’t figured out the plot. If I can’t guess anything, I usually don’t like the book because I missed something or didn’t understand what I read. (To be clear, the fault generally lies with me, not the author.) In The Unbroken, I had only one guess correct, and C.L. Clark made me doubt that guess enough to change it. I loved that I didn’t know at all where the book was going. Clark wrote well enough that I understood what was going on, and I don’t think I missed anything. Instead, the plot turned right when I was expecting it to turn left. BUT the left turn made just as much sense as my guess. The writing had enough sign posts and details that when the left turn happened it felt natural to the story.

This tension kept me turning the page because the characters dealing with the left turn was as fascinating as if they’d turned right. I enjoyed not knowing where it was going because Clark laid down a foundation early on that the writing controlled the story, not the other way around.

Politics

Yes, surprising, I know, that a book about colonialism contains politics. Okay, sarcasm aside, the political writing is wonderful. Luca’s position is fragile, and yet she tries to change the colonial occupation to be better while missing the whole ‘occupation’ point. The Unbroken contains both nuanced and blunt political actions. Luca, not only has to worry about the rebellion and the throne at home, she has to win over the local Balladairans, who do not especially like her declaration of worker’s rights. Touraine notices right away that the rebel council has factions, and that peace depends on keeping the war hawks at bay.

Clark added public broadsides criticizing Luca, and I don’t remember seeing this in other fantasy that I’ve read. This little detail of a subversive media worked so well as a thorn in the ruler’s side. Books and libraries are important in this world. Qazāli poetry is given to Touraine. So it makes sense that subversive texts exist in the fraught atmosphere of an occupied nation. I like the idea of some hipster Qazāli standing on a corner passing out anti-imperial newsletters and others walking by, trying to avoid taking one.

Conclusion

C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken is a wonderful start to an intriguing new epic fantasy series. The characters, the world, the story, all clicked to provide an entertaining, engaging read. I loved Luca and Touraine, and I can’t wait to see their future adventures. This is a promising start to a new epic fantasy series. The Unbroken lives up to and exceeds all the hype surrounding it.

8 out of 10!

The Unbroken is an ambitious adult fantasy that strives to broach important themes of colonization, racism, and privilege with an overarching story involving political intrigue, personal growth, and violent rebellion.

I definitely enjoyed this novel, and based on my rating system it’s 4 stars, but it did suffer from some middle-story lag, a romantic subplot that felt half-baked, and some of the minor characters needed a bit more time on the page.

But it's still an enjoyable, exciting, and poignant story of rebellion.

The novel revels in its queerness, with more characters than not who are part of the LGBTQAI+ community, including the two main characters. The novel also feels like the inverse of lots of fantasy novels, where you have mainly men with a few women, as the cast is predominantly female with some male side-characters. Gender parity is improving quite a lot today in adult fantasy, but traditionally it was very male-centric.

There are two main characters, as I stated before: Touraine, a loyal soldier, and Luca, heir to the throne of Balladaire. Luca is set to Qazal as a test by her uncle, who is holding the throne until Luca is “ready” to rule. Luca was interesting in that she is a royal who has to balance what she knows is morally right with her own ambitions - she tries to walk an impossible line; she knows what she should do but also tries desperately to satisfy her own plans. As such, Luca’s motivations are understandable, and despite being the head of a brutal empire, I found her a likeable character. She also has a physical disability, which is an important part of her character but doesn’t define her; this aspect was very well done.

Touraine’s story arc is a little bland in comparison, as nothing she did really surprised me, but she’s a complete badass, so I liked her. She’s one of those people who can take a beating and suffer through it with impressive stoicism.

As such, both women have different strengths and weaknesses that playoff and complement one another. It’s unfortunate the romance angle was not as developed, as they could have been a power couple.

I enjoyed the fight scenes - they were gritty, at times brutal, and well-described. There were other moments of tension that kept me enthralled. The political intrigue was somewhat lacking - Luca really only had to deal with a general and an ill-intentioned lord - others of the ruling class existed only on the periphery. It’s def not a court battle novel. As such, the middle of the novel suffers slightly for pacing - I wasn’t sure how much time had passed and at that point, I wasn’t sure where the story was going. But the last quarter of the novel is fantastic, with some great fights and interesting turns. There’s a magical element that wasn’t Deus Ex Machina, and the comments the novel makes throughout about racism and colonialism are poignant but not didactic. The novel takes a stance on this issue, as there is no indication that the rebels were in any way in the wrong for their actions, which I thought was very well done given one of the main characters is part of the colonizing force.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this novel and recommend it to readers who enjoy adult fantasy.

Oh my gosh! This book is incredible on so many levels and I cannot wait for the continuation of Touraine’s story.

Unbroken is a story of colonization, rebellion, found family, and the consequences of choices and actions. The way Clark layers good intentions with harmful results and shows how colonizers think of themselves as a salvation to the colonized is both deft and subtle, leaves me in awe. This is not an easy book to read, but it’s absolutely worthwhile and I adore the characters wholeheartedly. I especially loved Touraine’s growth and her perspective shifts as her situation changes.

I loved all the ways Unbroken made me think and look at the colonial ideas and how inundated people become to them. There is so much to be said for how upbringing shapes beliefs and ideals, and how having what you’ve always been taught as absolute truth being challenged can either result in change and growth, or stagnation and a refusal to listen or learn. Seeing Tour’s growth as a child stolen from her home while young enough to be completely shaped into ideal of Balladairan military, to her being brought back to the home she was stolen from to uphold the colonist rule and being confronted with how much harm has been done to her is such a powerful journey.

I’m just, this book is absolutely incredible and so worth the time and energy to read it! I know this is a book that will stay on my mind for a while and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for Tour and Luca.

A wonderful story of rebellion, hope, and even family. I loved how casually queer and sapphic this book was, with a major side character having a wife, a smaller side character acknowledging feelings for another girl, and the main characters themselves.
The beginning was a little confusing and jumbled, but thankfully that didn’t last too long, and while it took nearly half the book to set everything up, I felt drawn to the characters, their problems and their ties. I also loved how one of the main characters, the princess is disabled, and it’s never really seen as this horrible thing, even though it makes life much harder.
I’m super excited for the next book, and can’t wait to see what’s in store for these characters!

Rating:3.7⭐
Pages: 544

The Unbroken by C. L. Clark is a gripping, fast-paced story. Filled with action, political intrigue, and mystery. The main topic this book discusses is colonialism and its effects on both the Indigenous people being colonized and the people in power benefiting from the colonists. Having read many fantasy books over the years I find this theme to be new and captivating.

We follow two characters point of view, Lieutenant Touraine and Princess Luca. Tour was taken at a young age from her home and raised by the Shālan Empire's army to be a conscript. She barely remembers her home so the Empire is all she knows. She has formed a family with her fellow conscripts in the Gold Squad and does all she can to protect them. Princess Luca feels she is ready to take on the role of Queen but her Uncle currently sits the Throne as regent. Luca must prove she's capable of leading to her Uncle so he has no reason to reject her legitimacy.

The beginning of the book starts with both characters arriving to El-Wast, a desert city where Tour and other conscripts were born. In the city some of the Qazāli people have been rebelling and Luca plans to put a stop to it in a diplomatic way. When both Tour and Luca enter the city there is an assassination attempt on Luca. "She(Tour) followed his gaze. Nothing there but the press of the crowd, her own soldiers either watching the princess or drowsily taking in their new surroundings in the early-morning light. Then she saw it: a young Qazāli woman weaving through the crowd, gaze fixed on one blond point."(Luca). From this point on the story unfold and keeps you turning the page.

Though this book grabbed me and kept me going I did feel it's was a little jumbled at times. Some action scenes could've benefitted from slowing down and explaining them more thoroughly. I felt that during those scenes things were skipped over and you were left trying to figure out what happened in between. I also feel like the author told you things rather than showed you through actual events a little too much. But neither of those criticisms kept me from enjoying the overall story, although they would pull me out of the world for the time being.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for letting be read an early copy of this wonderful book! Thank you C. L. Clark for creating this story, I look forward to the sequel!

This proved another book that didn't live up to the hype for me completely. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did really. Some parts were rather well written and had some interesting ideas. Other parts just seemed a little confused and not quite there. The magic system was a little confusing but when magic systems are based on faith and gods that is to be almost expected. This needs to be explored a little more and with a little more detail provided I think. I hate say it but there were a few chapters that I skimmed as they didn't really interest me. There were times I read page after read and found it hard to stop turning as well. The characters are sort of interesting as they are just as flawed as most people which will appeal to some readers. The whole romance part of the story was not something I was that interested in either really and I wanted more action and magic. I know there are those who will love this though. Overall I wanted more but was happy enough reading this book. At one point I didn't think I would want to read what happens next but then with the way this ended I am curios to what else will happen to these people and the world they live in.

Probably more of a 4.5 though.

CW: mentions of past rape(or attempted), violence and gore, torture

I’ve been so excited to read this book since the first time I saw the stunning cover and realized it was sapphic fantasy. And I truly never expected Orbit to approve my request for the advance copy, so I’m definitely thankful to them for being able to read this wonderful book sooner.

The writing in this book is stunning... that’s it. I don’t even wanna extrapolate more about it because the author’s words speak for themselves. The vivid descriptions of the desert city make you feel the heat and dust, the characters’ inner monologues makes you feel so connected to them, and the unfairness of the world makes you feel despair. The pacing is also perfect (though not everyone might agree with me) - it starts off slow and takes time to get interesting, but the buildup the author creates makes for excellent payoff towards the end where everything happens at breakneck speed and we are left catching our breath. But the book is also pretty grim throughout with hardly any levity nor much hope, which can make for a depressing reading experience but the excellent writing, exciting plot and complicated characters more than make up for the bleakness.

I mentioned in another review of mine recently that I seem to gravitating a lot towards fantasies these days which explore the themes of colonialism and prejudice and racism, and this was no different. The author shows through her world how centuries of colonization entrenches prejudices, which become so ingrained that people don’t wanna look past them even for the sake of their own prosperity. It just becomes easy to oppress and punish and subjugate the colonial subjects, rather than treat them like an equal part of the empire; even if it foments rebellion leading to destruction for both sides.

The author’s exploration of identity, through the eyes of the soldiers who were long taken away from their homes and trained to fight for the empire, now being turned on their own birthplace, was pretty emotional. It was heartbreaking to see these soldiers unable to forget their years of training and hope for some equality and respect, while also being conflicted about oppressing the people who are their own. Not feeling like they belonged anywhere was quite distressing and the author perfectly captured this anguish.

The cast of characters are splendid. Touraine, the conscripted soldier and Luca, the rightful queen make for an excellent source for conflict and yearning and the author does it to perfection. They are also immensely flawed, making many decisions without thinking through the consequences, leading to most of the unexpected twists and turns throughout the book. This makes them not likable at all times - there were moments I hated them and then wanted to hug them right after - but they both are immensely sympathetic characters and you hope that things go in their favor. My only gripe is that the amount of yearning and the number of loving interactions they had with each other didn’t feel proportional, and I wish their relationship was developed more.

The side characters were also equally well written and memorable, I kept wanting to know more about them. Particularly Aranen, Djasha, Bastien, Gil - I wanted to know more of their backstories coz they were so interesting. There were also quite a few who I truly despised but they were not the kind of mindless villains we sometimes encounter, so I enjoyed their portrayals too.

Truly, this is an excellent debut and I’m glad that I got to experience another new author this year. If you want rebellion and intrigue and magic interspersed with complicated characters you don’t know what to feel about, then this is perfect for you. If you can wait out the slightly slow buildup and don’t mind your fantasy worlds bleak, then you’ll be blown away by the time you reach the end. I definitely was and I can’t wait to see where the story goes next.

This is the story of the land of Qazāl, and the Balladairan Empire which has colonized it. Touraine is a soldier, born in Qazāl, taken by the Balldairan Empire as a child, and taught to fight for them. Now she’s come back to a place that she doesn’t consider home, to help protect Luca, the princess and future queen of the empire. Meanwhile, Luca is trying to avoid a full scale rebellion by the Qazāli, while also trying to make sure that her uncle doesn’t usurp her throne while she’s gone. And many shenanigans are had along the way!

This was a really great read. The world it depicted was one that I found easy to imagine. I mean, there are definitely parallels between France’s colonization of North Africa in our world and the one described here. But even aside from the parallels, it was just easy for me to picture Qazāl’s hot, desert landscape and the city within and its townhouses mixed with riad-style houses and old temples. The city took the form of Marrakech in my head, or, at least… what I imagine Marrakech is like.

I liked Touraine, even when she makes bad choices. She was an easy character to cheer for, and I just found myself wanting her to succeed in her endeavors. I liked Luca a little less, but I still enjoyed reading the bits that were from her point of view. There were side characters that I really enjoyed, like Bastien and Djasha. There were also characters that I rather enjoyed hating, like Beau-Sang, General Cantic, and Captain Rogan. There were a few times where I felt like the decisions characters made were beyond bad decisions and into ‘But why tho?’ territory, but I have to say this wasn’t often enough that it soured the experience. Sometimes people just make decisions on an emotional whim. It served to make the characters more real, to me.

One of my favorite things about this world was that even despite all other things going on, there appeared to be very little to no stigma regarding sexuality. Touraine and Luca have a relationship (of sorts – I won’t spoil the deets) with each other, and the fact that they are both women isn’t an issue that anyone seems to have with it. Luca is offered a marriage contract with one of the children of another character, who has a daughter and a son, and whether it is the daughter or the son that is chosen as the consort seems to be of no consequence to the offer at all. I found this detail to be rather refreshing. I was expecting the relationship between Luca and Touraine to have a ‘forbidden love’ spin, and it did somewhat, but it wasn’t because they are women. I also love-love-love that women in this book held positions of power without that being the exception to the rule. The general, most of the rebel leadership, and the governor of the colony are all women. Both colony and empire have women in places of power and it was just how things were. Since this world has so many parallels with our own, details like these stood out, and I appreciated them a lot.

All told, I really enjoyed my time with The Unbroken, and I eagerly await the opportunity to read further into the story. If you enjoy political fantasy, you are quite likely to enjoy this book as well! I can’t wait for more!

Recommend to fans of military fantasy. Set in a sprawling desert world. However this contains themes of slavery that can be triggering . This is a queer fantasy that can excite fans that like a bit of romance too.

The Unbroken is the epic fantasy debut of author C. L. Clark and one of the more hyped books I've seen among the authors I follow on social media for a while. It's an epic fantasy novel that deals heavily with themes of Empire and Colonialism, just like a lot of stuff I read nowadays (it's a pretty relevant topic), but it centers its story on a less usual area: conscripted soldiers from a conquered land, and the forces that tear them in so many directions. Add in the promise of a potential (F-F) romance to go along with it all, and The Unbroken was definitely on my TBR list even before I was lucky enough to land an early copy.

And The Unbroken definitely delivers a hell of a narrative, with an incredible central protagonist and a story that takes so many turns it will leave you dizzy. I'm still not quite sure whether the ending fully works - things get cleaned up a bit too tidy in the finale - but the story's turns and character developments had me gasping repeatedly in shock, and I was invested from the near start. So yeah, this is definitely one to watch for award consideration next year and - even though it has a satisfying ending - merely the start of a series which leaves a number of questions potentially open, which makes me eager to see where it goes from here.

------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Lieutenant Touraine of the Balladairan Colonial Brigade (the "Sands") never wanted to return to El-Wast, the capital city of Qazāl, the city she was born. Touraine was taken from the city, from her long-forgotten parents, as a child and conscripted into the brigade, where she was taught by her Balladairan to be "civilized" and to fight for Balladaire and its Empire. But Touraine and the Sands are not treated the same as the rest of the Balladairan forces - the Sands are abused and made to take the dangerous assignments and treated by the normal army officers as little more than dirt. And now they're coming back to their original homeland, where the Shālan Empire once stood, in order to help the Empire police their own people and to snuff out any trace of rebellion.

Unlike her closest allies - her best friend Tibeau and her lover Pruett, her two sergeants - Touraine never had any dreams of the Shālans rising up against the Empire for a better future. Her goal has instead always been to rise up in the ranks all the way to General, where she can use authority to protect the only family she's ever known - not the Shālans or blood family, but the Sands she's fought and bled for.

But when an act of heroism puts her on the radar of the Shālan rebellion and threatens to end her military career - and any chance of helping the Sands, Touraine finds that her only way forward is to attach herself to the Balladairan Princess Luca, a woman who wants to prove her worth by negotiating a peaceful end to the rebellion...and wants Touraine to help her make contact with the people she left behind, people who would happily kill her fellow soldiers. And so, even as Touraine begins to be a little attracted to Luca, she faces a decision of how to act to save those she cares about....a decision that could throw the whole land into chaos.
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The Unbroken is kind of the story of two protagonists: Luca and Touraine, but Touraine is really the main focus. I've read a number of books with a similar basic setup as The Unbroken seems at first to have: two potential love interests from different sides of a colonial empire, one being from the colonizers and one being from the conquered people, trying to deal with the realistic situation of oppression and discrimination while also dealing with their own growing impossible attraction (in the most ordinary of those books, the colonizing love interest learns what her people have done and changes her ways to try and do what she can to fix it). And The Unbroken begins sort of in this same manner: with Luca wanting to try and remedy the wounds of colonization from the start - albeit for selfish reasons -
but it goes in a very different direction with her character and plot. And the book makes it clear through Touraine's eyes, the main eyes we see the world through, that Luca's actions have potential impacts far beyond what Luca can imagine, impacts that Touraine can't quite accept.

And that drives Touraine to make more and more bad decisions in a way that left me utterly breathless, especially due to how tremendously well done Touraine's character is in the story. As noted above, Touraine was taken from her homeland as a child, and any loyalty to it was essentially educated out of her....except that she and her soldiers still are treated like dirt instead of as loyal forces of the Empire. And so her first loyalty is not to her homeland or to the Empire, but to her soldiers, the Sands, who she considers her first and only family. A threat to the Sands is the quickest thing to driver her to act, and as she does act, she begins to see from the rebels point of view - how the Empire will never treat any of her people, loyal or no, with respect and dignity, how the Empire will seemingly never leave and how the Empire will simply take and take rather than truly act in friendship. Luca may want peace for her own ends, but she cannot understand that what she wants in return is to take something of Shāla, and Touraine can see that right on, especially as she sees more and more of what is going on in the homeland she left behind. And YET, despite these revelations, despite these changes in her sympathies, Touraine's first priority remains throughout with the Sands, her people, despite Touraine's actions often shifting her to other sides of the conflict potentially opposite them. They are, despite everything, her family - the Empire's actions have left her with nothing else at her core to believe in.

Luca by contrast feels the need to prove herself to take back the throne from her essentially usurping uncle. She has a bum leg due to a horse injury as a child she has worked to get around, and decides that peacefully ending the rebellion will show her worth to the Empire and allow her to take back the throne: oh she believes that the way the Empire treats the Shālans is often cruel and should stop, but it's less important to her than her future as an Emperor who could possibly stop everything. And so she can't see what Touraine explains to her about freedom, about the fact that she wants Shālan magic when it is not hers or her people's right to have it, even if she does have good intentions for using it. And so when her plans start to fall apart (and this is not a spoiler because you'll see that coming) and Touraine starts throwing things into chaos, she too finds herself making more and more bad decisions for both the Empire and most devastatingly, for Qazāl as a nation with its conquered people. Luca may be good at heart, but she comes from privilege and thus her attempts at doing good, for selfish and unselfish reasons, cannot escape that.

This all winds up as you might imagine with a plot that takes an incredible amount of twists and turns, with more betrayals than perhaps in any book I can remember (I kept thinking of the Baru Cormorant books, not because they're very comparable other than being books about Empire and Colonialism, but in sheer number of betrayals). The story as mentioned above deals heavily with the impacts of Empire and Colonization from the perspectives of practically everyone touched by it - the conquerors, the children of the conquerors who live in the conquered land, the conquered adults who remember the past, the children who live in the land who don't, and the children who were taken from the land by the conquered and taught only what the conquered want....etc. It's a fascinating examination of all that, and it does not provide any easy answers (Because there aren't any).

One interesting twist incidentally that this book contains that I don't recall similar books having is its emphasis on faith. The magic possessed by the Shālans and other rivals to the Empire is tied to their faith and religion, a faith that some like Touraine have trouble with after everything bad that has befallen them. And more interestingly, it is hinted that there once was Balladairan magic, but as the Empire reacted to its enemies' powers with a hatred of religion, they decided to suppress any religion within their own borders and may have sacrificed their own magic as a result, leaving them more vulnerable to the elements. The idea of a conquering land trying to suppress all religion instead of just promoting its own is more European (French particularly) than American and Clark uses this idea to argue it is a further weakness of Empire.

This book does end up in a satisfying ending as it seeds plot elements here and there for future books....although the final act ends in a way that is perhaps a bit too tidy and reliant upon deus ex machina. But I don't really care too much, and the book ends in a tremendous fashion - just don't expect a happy ending, even if what you get is certainly not the utterly tragic one I thought this had to be building to 80% of the way through.

So yeah, the Unbroken is an incredible story of Empire and Colonialism and the impossibilities of people trying to choose to move forward once touched by it to do so in a way that results in happiness and order. The past cannot be returned to, and I could talk a lot more about other choices of this book, the minor characters on both sides of the conflict for example and how they illustrate more of this theme, but well honestly you should just read this instead and think about it yourself. Definitely a highlight of 2021 to start.

4 stars for racial, LGBTQ, and disability representation! Fantasy is my favorite genre, and it’s been gratifying to see underrepresented groups start to be placed front and center. The Unbroken breaks away from a lot of other fantasy books that are set in thinly veiled European locales, and is instead set in a version of Northern Africa. The world building and secondary characters help the book stand out, though I would have liked more explanation on how the area’s historical conflicts impacted the main story, as some of that was unclear to me.
The romance between Luca and Touraine takes a backseat to the military and social upheaval, which suited me fine because I thought that their “connection,” was the one real weak point of the book. Even though Luca’s motives and intentions are deliciously complex, the societal differences between her and Touraine felt too big for the book to overcome.
I would definitely recommend this as a palate cleanser from your “usual” fantasy read, and it would be a great entry point into the genre for readers who prefer non-fiction, historical books.

The Unbroken
By. C.L. Clark
P. 464
Format: eArc
Rating: ***3/4
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I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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The Unbroken is the first book in the adult fantasy series Magic of the Lost. Touraine was taken from her people as a child. They trained her, and the other stolen children, to be soldiers. Her birth culture was taken away from her and Touraine desperately wanted her adoptive culture to acknowledge her worth. Instead, they were used as fodder in the many wars. Except now they brought the stolen children back to their birth country. Touraine finds that she has nothing; she doesn’t fit with her countries conquerors or with her own people.

I predict that The Unbroken will become the most talked about adult fantasy of 2021. The writing is excellent and the plot is amazing. If you love books that are strong in plot then you will fall for this book. There is so much going on, it is beautiful crafted, and it will leave you hooked from beginning to end. Colonizing is, tragically, nothing new. However, the way that Clark presents it in this book makes you connect to the trauma. Not just of death and war, but also having your entire identity taken from you.

I am a strong character reader. I found the pacing to be a bit overwhelming at times. So much happened in one sentence that I would have to go back and find when an event took place. It was also harder for me to connect to the characters. The characters themselves were vivid, dynamic, and memorable. They just take second place to the plot. I had to put the book down a few times and read something else. I always wanted to come back.

Also, the main relationships are f/f, so LGBTQ rep. It is a natural part of both cultures which was great.

If you are looking for a good fantasy then this is a great pick. I ended up pre-ordering the book, and plan on picking up the sequel.

I am so sad that I didn't enjoy this book. It's exactly the kind of story I gravitate to and the concept and cover art is awesome. Unfortunately though, I got lost while reading the story and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on. The world building in terms of language used was complicated to the point where I was second guessing the phrases used and which character we were talking about. I kept reading in hopes that I would begin to understand what was going on but it didn't help. I can absolutely see readers who love the complicated spec fic world loving this book, but it just wasn't for me.

The Unbroken is a North-African inspired military queernorm fantasy following Luca and Tourraine, a princess (soon to be queen) and soldier. Tourraine is a member of the Sands, a group of Balladarian soldiers from the empire's colonies kept separate from the rest of the ranks. She's worked her way up to Lieutenant but is still held with disregard by some Balladarian soldiers who see her Quazali heritage as problematic. As Quazali (a colony) is on the brink of rebellion, Tourraine's company is sent to manage the territory in wake of Princess Luca's visit. Mere minutes after stepping off the ship, an assassin attempts to murder Luca and is thwarted by Tourraine, setting up a plotline that results in Tourraine becoming a member of Luca's staff and a liason to the rebels. On the magic side of things, Luca is also desperate to find magic to stop a plague in her empire.

The central plot of this book is embedded in the theme of colonialism (as well as imperialism to a certain degree). This is by far the strongest part of the book, as the theme goes beyond plot to impact Tourraine and Luca's relationship as well as Tourraine's inner thoughts and relationship with nearly every character. I think Clark really understands how to weave themes into fantasy well - I often get annoyed when fantasy plots lack a greater message, but I have no qualms here with that!

I thought that Quazali itself was really well constructed. The worldbuilding was honestly lacking a bit beyond that, but the issue may also be that this is an arc and I had no map :/ I rely on maps a fair deal for fantasy books. Quazali itself though - the culture, the political context, etc. were great!! C.L. Clark had a very clear view of it.

Tourraine and Luca are really well developed characters. Even though they infuriated me at times (Luca especially) and made me want to throw my e-reader because of the choices they were making, they were also defined well and their frustrating actions made sense for who they were. I can't wait to see more from them in book 2. I definetly think the romance was lacking a bit. Besides the mutual attraction, the two didn't have many scenes that built on the romance (conversations beyond ones about the rebels). I almost wish this book left it at mutual attraction with the hint of something more here, and possibly explored a complicated romance in book 2. I can't say I'd be rooting for it since I think their relationship is toxic as hell, but I think it would explore an interesting dynamic

One complaint I have is that the magic system is very confusing. Probably because it's book 1 in a series, but even so, I felt like the Taargen's and the different magic of different areas was very loosely explained. I expect this to pick up more in book 2, I just think it lacked a lot of clarity in here.

I think my main downside to this book was that some scenes felt underwritten. Patchy is the word I use. It wasn't something I always noticed but some scenes felt like I was missing important details, minor things, but things nonetheless that were important to scene clarity.

I have a few other thoughts but I'll save them for a recent reads or a full review.

3.5/5