Read THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS by Vajra Chandrasekera if you love strange & terrible things, scars, chaotic cities, laying down your parents' trauma, support groups, the unchosen ones, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, bright colors, cults, devils & the multiple versions of self.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read one of my most anticipated books of the year early!

This is a difficult book to summarise, but if you are intrigued by intricate stories that weave in complex topics of the lasting impacts of colonialism, resistance, and retribution, and follow a young man just trying to escape his past and find his place in the world, then this is the book for you.

Fetter is the kind of character that has a dark past that he only wants to escape, but only discovers more and more that he must confront it in order to move forward. Alongside all this is a mystery unfolding in the city that he finds himself a part of - and it was this mystery underlying so much of the story that kept me intrigued.

Full of intricate world-building and lush (even if at times surreal) imagery, I know that this book will be one of those that will stick with me for a long time, even if I have trouble exactly explaining why.

For fans of Martha Wells, especially the City of Bones, this one is one not to be missed!

“The Saint of Bright Doors” is a truly unique and inventive piece of South Asian fantasy that defies expectations and captivates with its mesmerizing storytelling. The protagonist, Fetter, was raised with a dark purpose, but as his skills dull and he deviates from his destiny, he finds himself exploring a city filled with mysterious doors that hold untold potential.

Vajra Chandrasekera’s writing style is both surreal and intelligible, taking readers on a journey that weaves between realism and dreamlike sequences. The blending of mystical and modern elements, along with the exploration of South Asian culture and politics, creates a rich and immersive experience. The author’s ability to evoke emotions and create vivid visuals adds depth to the narrative. The world-building in “The Saint of Bright Doors” is impressive, and despite being a standalone novel, the story is packed with intriguing concepts.

Fetter’s character is well-developed and relatable, and readers will find themselves drawn to his journey of self-discovery. While the book may polarize readers due to its unique style and pacing, those who connect with it will be rewarded with a breathtaking and thought-provoking experience. The novel’s profound introspection and concept-driven approach make it a compelling and memorable read, leaving readers with a desire to revisit its pages and explore its complexities further.

This one had an interesting premise that completely lost me halfway through. At one point in the book, I just couldn't keep up with the story and found myself losing interest and fast. I think the ending was really interesting and I liked the direction it went in, I just wish the rest of the book was as intriguing.

This is a difficult book to summarize, but the outlines of the story are fairly simple: A boy is raised by his mother to be a weapon against his father. Fetter's mother ripped his shadow away at his birth to make him an assassin, and she grooms him to murder his father, around whom a religion has grown.

The story gets really interesting once Fetter eventually escapes his mother, and ends up in the Luriat, a city of wonderful and terrible things coexisting. Fetter falls in with a group of other Chosen Ones, and Fetter builds a life for himself, even as he begins to probe the mystery of the city's Bright Doors, and has long conversations with his mother on a phone not connected to anything.

Luriat is an amazing construction. Full of bureaucracy, cults, rising rebellion/revolution, discontent, economic disparity, and possibly magical relics, and set in a world of conquest and colonialism.

Fetter grows into an interesting person as he begins building a life separate from his mother's obsession, while also trying to stay under the radar of his father's people. He and the other Chosen ones are an odd and interesting bunch, with their support meetings, messy lives, and plots.

And though there is a rising resistance, spearheaded by those Fetter knows, he's not central to that cause, or any cause. In fact, he's just trying to live his life, and not kill anyone. Much of the novel is Fetter processing things around him, and it doesn't quite follow the trope of a Chosen One who accepts and fulfills his destiny and the city/the kingdom's governing body is replaced by something else, hopefully better.

Instead, Fetter kind of bumbles around, and keeps trying to make decent choices as he learns more about his parents and their actions, and along the way author Vajra Chandrasekera treats us to the complexities of religion, politics, colonialism, bigotry, repressive governance, identity, immigrants' experience, and a lot more.

Set in a dystopia, the book veers into surrealism at times, and mystery, and weirdness. At the same time as it sometimes confounded me, I was intrigued and entertained.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Tor Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Saint of Bright Doors is hard to summarize, as there are many plot points that meander with little way to tell which is the main vs side plot. Fetter is a young man who has recently outgrown his childhood home and vengeful mother and moved to a new city. It is common knowledge to those who know Fetter that is father is a cult leader that he's never met, but what Fetter hides is that his mother raised him to assassinate his father. As Fetter tries to leave the life of violence behind, he meets a new group of people and gets roped into a plot regarding either his father, the magic bright doors, or some combination of the two (it was never very clear). The caper never gets too detailed as Fetter always seems to escape the notice of the higher powers, and the consequences of his (in)actions are never really discussed. Random plot facts: Fetter has no shadow, which allows him to float like helium, and he sees demons that have a foot in this world but not really.

Chandrasekera take a bold risk in creating a fantasy universe with the usual competing kingdoms, but instead of swords and sorcery, plenty of everyday technologies existing, such as telephones and email. It was a great idea, but the execution was mostly jarring. Most of the time the characters would go about as typical fantasy characters would, walking to destinations, reading physical books, fighting with knives, and witnessing hangings on scaffolds, so when they would randomly swing from this to checking their email, it felt out of place. The main character, Fetter, also meets most of his crew at group therapy, which is definitely a modern concept. This actually could have worked, but it was used mostly as a plot device.

It's taken me a long time to write this review, because it took me a long time to trudge through this book. Or, as Chaucer would put it, to trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on. Each page was a morass of energy sucking lack of plot and depth pit that stole my will to care but did not anger me enough to stop reading. The imagery was gorgeous and so full of potential, but the tone was that of a philosophy lecture by a college senior who hasn't gained the maturity to fully unlock the inner message. There was much promise in this book, but it never delivered.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera!

Reviewed on my blog:

http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-saint-of-bright-doors-by-vajra.html

The Saint of Bright Doors is a vivid, beautifully-written, unique novel that utilizes all of my favorite aspects of magic realism. Each chapter felt like its own story, but, together, the chapters wove an intricate tale of family, loss, religion, and society. The pacing was a bit slow for me at times; however, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. The Saint of Bright Doors is a perfect read for any book club or literature class. It definitely opens doors for various conversations. I'll be recommending The Saint of Bright Doors as an excellent 2023 read.

I found this book enrapturing and slightly confusing all at once. The magical realism was tied in in a way that almost lost me at points but I was grounded in the characters so that helped me through. It was stunning to read despite being hard to stay fully engaged and understanding at times. Overall, I would recommend this to fantasy lovers.

When Fetter was born, his mother tore his shadow from him and raised him to become the perfect assassin to be used against his sainted father who exiled them. Twenty years later, he's a young man now and attends group therapy with fellow unchosen.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera paints a strange tale of myth, feuding gods, and revolution that left me with mixed feelings.

The opening pages are absolutely magical and feel like a timeless high fantasy, and I wish it had stayed that way because the more the story progressed, the more confused I became at the worldbuilding. We're given names of fictional cities and continents and yet the story uses colloquial English phrases like "spam folder" and "crowdfunding" that don't seem to fit with the rest of the setting.

Now, there is urban fantasy like American Gods that skillfully tackle the subject of faith in the old gods vs modernity and technology, but in the case of The Saint of Bright Doors, the story doesn't manage to to seamlessly mesh the two in a way that's believable.

Nope. Hated it, sorry. The writing was long winded, convoluted and confusing. There were sentences that were 80-100 words long and always about boring things like filing out forms. Feter as a protagonist was endlessly frustrating, lacked any agency and any character development happened off page. He simply went along with what happened and whatever plan the people around him wanted him to do. It's not even like he was fighting for someone else, even when he agreed to help he was so half hearted about it. He could never make up his mind or do anything with any passion or agency. It was so frustrating. And while a character like this, who is searching for a purpose could work, the poor writing really let Fetter down. Fetter as a character fell flat.

This is obviously a political satire of modern (well 80s to present) about Sri Lankan society, government and politics. While I found trying to figure out the real world refrences entertaining it wasn't a great satire if you just put the same events and just change the names. The author, while not a good writer is certainly brave to so openly critisize the current environment of ethic supremacy and religious fanatasim, government corruption etc. it doesn't really blend well with the story.
I also worry about readers who aren't sri lankan. Will they understand the refrences? Will they know who Perfect and Kind and Fetter are refrences to? Will they understand the commentary? I found the story strange and confusing and I probably knew 80% of what characters and events were based on. What about a reader who knows none of that? This must be completely indecipherable nonsense.

My main issue was how hard to follow this story was. It's hard to explain, but there was a lot going on but it wasn't coherent or compelling. Things were just happening but it felt like we weren't going anywhere. The novel lacked direction or a clear through line. Characters plans/intensions were purposely hidden from the reader which made their actions hard to follow.

Also there were too many mentions of Fetter's penis and nipples. I don't mind sex scenes in novels but he got aroused at the most random and inappropriate moments. The only proper sex scene was described in the stranges and oddly grotesque way.
Also, the sudden change in pov character 92% of the way into the novel (and shifting from third person perspective to first person perspective) was jarring and confusing.

The ending was contrived, disappointing and not worth the suffering I experienced to get to it.

I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to end up liking this book but it grew on me. I found the premise creative and interesting, the scope though may have been more than one book could cover and develop, as there were aspects that felt vague and infinished. This was a very ambitious debut that maybe would have been better served as a duology. The bright doors, which were what drew me to this book stayed closed except for close to the end, only hinting at the worlds that were possible behind them. Fetter being shadowless and what that could mean for him was something I also felt that the author could have spent more time on.

I enjoyed how Chandrasekera shaped his fantasy world in the image of our own, how colonization, religion, and politics were euphemized to create a strange and familiar landscape. As all whose lands have a history of constantly and consistently being colonized throughout history and even today can and will recognize, there are practical and elemental ways in which colonizers utilize our very existence against us, how they observe and learn our ways only to then twist them and use them to enslave and shackle.

I genuinely think that this would be better as two books, as there is still so much more that could be done in terms of character exposition and further world-building.

In THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS, Fetter is raised to kill. His world is full of cults, devils, anti-gods, and secrets, and his mother has trained him to cut down his sainted father who abandoned them. When his mother deems him ready to take on his mission, Fetter escapes into the world and leaves his mother and destiny behind. He makes a new home for himself in Luriat, a city known for its Bright Doors. The doors are tied to the novel’s central mystery, and as Fetter learns the truth about the doors, he learns the truth about his world.

This is an intriguing book that reads like a myth. Vajra Chandrasekera’s beautiful prose contains several layers of mystery and explores themes of destiny, violence, revolutions, divinity and loss. Through Fetter, the author subverts typical fantasy tropes while also following them, especially in regard to being the chosen one. Fetter’s journey is full of strife as he fights against his destiny, and his humanity is on full display as he grapples with his choices. He’s driven by his upbringing but also by his love for his friends and desire for a different world. He’s a messy and broken character living in a broken world, and his struggles and choices feel real. This is an interesting contrast—despite everything Fetter is capable of, he’s vulnerable and shows weakness throughout the novel. Fetter is a deeply human character in a strange and complex fantasy world, and that was my favourite aspect of this story.

I’m still unpacking my feelings about this book and I think I’ll have to reread it before I can fully appreciate it. There are a lot of interesting concepts and moving parts and I’ll be thinking about Fetter for a long time. Chandrasekera’s prose is what kept me hooked and I look forward to reading more from him. This book is out now; my thanks to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

The offspring of various messiahs, not chosen to follow in their parents' paths, find themselves involved in messiah-related research, art, and politics. I didn't really enjoy this, and I think that if I hadn't been reading it in order to review it, I wouldn't have finished it. There are interesting ideas, but they weren't always well developed, and the characters weren't interesting, although some of them were better-developed than the ideas. I know this is gretting rave reviews, but I can't add mine to them--I was mostly bored.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

The writing style is unique but was difficult for me to follow and relate to. I read several of the beginning chapters and was able to see Fetter’s shadow pinned down and his first kill, but I did not feel drawn to Fetter or the direction the story was taking. So, I did what I usually do and skipped to the end to see if there was a reason for me to keep reading – sorrily there didn’t seem to be. If the beginning and ending don’t grab me, I usually read a bit in the middle, as I did with this book, and at that point threw in the towel deciding to move on to another book. I decided that this story was not for me at this time but as has happened in the past, it might be perfect to read at some point in the future.

I do believe that there will be others who love this tale and some who will feel as I did when they begin to read and that is as it should be. Each author will find an audience and this book will, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

1-2 Stars

The first section of the story starts with a young boy getting his shadow torn off him and ends with prison. The second section is the young man trying to not kill his father.

The story is fantastical and lyrical, in the first section. The second feels darker and gritty, in a good way.

The plot builds nicely until the fantastical is explained, oh, that's why there's a story group for failed messiah's, I was a little impressed Chandrasekera managed to pull that off.

Overall, highly recommend

While it was the stunning cover that first drew my attention, it was the idea of a doomed destiny, divine revolution, cults, and supernatural doors which absolutely hooked me. The Saint of Bright Doors brings together so many different themes and ideas that my mind was whirring. Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I probably don't need to restate my love for Sci-Fi & Fantasy here, but I do want to point out that they're genres I feel very comfortable and at home in. These are the genres I go to for intelligent escapism and to have my mind expanded. A lot of the fantasy I read growing up was based on European history, but in recent years I've made an active effort to go beyond that into African, Japanese, and Chinese history and culture through fantasy. I'd say I'm pretty comfortable with the genre and its conventions and yet I was in no way prepared for The Saint of Bright Doors. What Chandrasekera does with these genres, with their tropes, with their world-building, it all honestly blew me away. I don't think this is necessarily the easiest of books to get into, because it hops around a bit and doesn't necessarily explain all the elements of its world. You're dropped into Luriat and have to figure out where you're at and what's going on. For those readers who are just getting into it, I can only recommend perseverance. Reading this novel was a very rewarding experience for me and opened my eyes to a more experimental way of writing and reading fantasy.

Fetter was born to kill his father. At birth, his mother removed his shadow and trained him to murder. While the prologue explains all this, the novel really starts with an adult Fetter in Luriat. He has left that world behind, he thinks, and is now happy to just be, in the small way he is capable to. In Luriat Fetter has found a group of "almost chosens" who meet weekly for group therapy as well as a partner. Luriat is an odd city, though. On the one hand it provides free housing and stipends to immigrants, but on the other hand it is full of warring legal courts, competing cults, and the threat of plagues and pogroms against immigrants. While Fetter thinks he may have turned his back on his fate, fate has a way of returning. With the potential arrival of a god, a year of plague returning, and news about his mother, Fetter is becoming trapped in various webs and the conclusion threatens to be explosive. The Saint of Bright Doors is a novel about so many different things. It's about destiny and fate, about how our parents shape us, about violence, revolution, immigration, bureaucracy, racism/race theory, and so much more. And I haven't even mentioned the Bright Doors yet! I've found it really hard to summarise this novel for anyone I've spoken to about it because it is at once very complex and yet a simple story I wouldn't want to spoil.

Vajra Chandrasekera has honestly done something amazing in The Saint of Bright Doors. It is a mix between Urban Fantasy and High Fantasy, which has both emails and mobile phones as well as anti-gods and divine powers. It is a story of a Chosen one being "unchosen" and nonetheless finding themselves on a path of destiny. It is a story about the violence committed against immigrants and the directed violence necessary for revolution. It is not an easy read, in part because Chandrasekera used words I had to Google, like haecceity, but also because Chandrasekera expects you to follow him. The Saint of Bright Doors feels based on South Asian history and culture, while also bringing modern politics into the mix. The narrative moves between realistic depictions and almost dream-like scenes and the transitions aren't always super clear. There is a sense of disorientation to a lot of the novel, as if we're almost as lost as Fetter in this world. Having been an immigrant for most of my life and having tried to make sense of bureaucracy and my own role in things, all while having the benefit of being white, a lot of this disorientation made sense to me, but I can imagine that for some readers it is off-putting. While I couldn't necessarily follow Chandrasekera everywhere he maybe wanted me to, The Saint of Bright Doors is an incredibly thrilling read and one which I know will absolutely reward rereads in the future.

I was absolutely sucked into The Saint of Bright Doors from the very beginning. There is so much going on, so many different themes at play, that it's easy to get a little lost, but Chandrasekera always brought me back. I might have more lucid thoughts at a later point, but for now all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review. I did not finish and left off at 10% of the way through. I really couldn't get into the writing style at all. :(

I really wanted to like this Sci-fi fantasy novel but I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It's an adult novel but it read like a YA. Some parts of the writing were quite interesting and drew me in, but I wasn't excited by any of the events and it wasn't enough to keep me interested since the characters felt flat.