First of all, thanks to Emily over at Tor for sending me an ARC of this title! I know Fran Wilde to be a very prolific SFF writer, but for whatever reason I hadn’t gotten around to reading one of her books yet. So this felt like as good of a time as any. I will say I wasn’t aware that this book was part of a series, but after some quick perusing, it seemed like it could also be read as a stand-alone, so I dove right in!

One of the harder things, sometimes, when picking up a SFF title that is part of a series but has also been marketed as a stand-alone is trying to center oneself in the world and any magic system that may or may not be present. Unlike contemporary or historical fiction, the reader cannot rely on a knowledge of our own world to fill in any gaps that may have been missed from previous books. So I think it’s a mark of Wilde’s talent that it was a fairly smooth process orienting myself with this world. Necessary information flowed out in a natural, timely way without any info-dumping early in the novel, and the patient reader will be rewarded by looking up about halfway through the read and realizing that they already do know everything they need to about this series even without any obvious “telling” sections.

Beyond how the information was given, I enjoyed the world and magic that was laid out here. The gems and the way they operate is clever and unique. I also really enjoyed the blending of several genres that we see here. Fantasy, of course, but there were also strong hints of the mystery and historical genres. As our main character is also a research, this book also hits on the currently quite popular “fantasy academia” subgenre. I’ve really enjoyed this resurgence and very much enjoyed this nice blending of many types of stories.

I also liked the character well enough. Though here I will say is where the story fell a bit flat for me. There was nothing wrong with any of them, but I also never felt supremely invested in our main character’s story or that of any of the side characters. Here, perhaps, is where more familiarity with the first two books could have helped, as a better sense and expectation of overall tone could have aided in my feeling invested in these stories. However, the characters were still interesting and competently portrayed, so fans of the first two books will likely be very pleased with what we get here.

Overall, this was a solid novella, and one that speaks to an interesting wider world. I’ll definitely have to go back and check out the first two books in the series!

Rating 7: Short, sweet, and with a vibrant world and magic system. The only flaw was my inability to feel incredibly invested in some of the characters.

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The Book of Gems wrapped up the lingering questions from the last few books, but also left me with a few more. It was a good ending to this series of novellas, but I would be happy to read more about this world and what happens with the gems.

Wilde's writing is rich and evocative, drawing readers into vividly imagined worlds that are at once familiar and strange. The stories range from the fantastical to the mundane, but all are infused with a sense of wonder and a deep appreciation for the natural world. From a garden that holds the memories of lost loved ones to a city built on the bones of ancient creatures, each story is a testament to Wilde's skill as a storyteller.
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The Book of Gems by Fran Wilde is the third book in the Gem Universe, a world in which a valley of powerful gems are lost and then found again as magic claws it’s way back to the surface. These gems whisper to those that can hear them, causing madness in those that can hear them and jealousy in those that can’t. In the first two books in this series we saw first the Jeweled Valley, home to the gems, to fall in another kingdom’s quest for power. In the second book we saw another kingdom years down the road attempt to harness the power of a false gem, and the power of the knowledge of history.

The Book of Gems follows our main character as she returns to the Jeweled Valley from which her family comes from and her quest both for academic redemption and knowledge. Unfortunately for me this might have been the biggest tripping point for me. Dev, this main character, is the worst kind of character archetype for me. The type that refuses to believe what’s in front of her. Magic is not real, the power of them gems is not real even though from the beginning she talks of seeing writing magically appear on a piece of stone paper. She hears constant humming and talking - but don’t worry! It’s not magic. Gems are eating a man’s body - but don’t worry! It’s not magic!!

Outside of Dev the story felt incredibly dry. I love the idea and setting of the Gem World. I’ve read all three of these novellas! Likely due to the character choices and the absolute refusal to acknowledge the actual beauty of the magic here it’s painful to read. Fran Wilde’s story’s peak briefly with intense magic and horror at about the 70% mark and then drop completely, so you have to be prepared for that dry slide to a climax.

For me the Gem Universe was strongest in the second novella, The Fire Opal Mechanism. The horror of that final third of the novella made the story dynamic and interesting. The Book of Gems attempts to capture some of that horror but the character’s refusal to see the truth, and the avoidance of the conversations that would spark leads this to feeling dry and ultimately lacking for me as a reader.

I’d recommend these in a quick succession read and only if you’re very interested in the ideas here. How history is lost, power is coveted but misunderstood, and how the mistakes of the past can cause havoc on the future. Even the whispering gems are only briefly given page time, so don’t get into these for a lot of those.

3 Whispering Opals

[Content Warnings:
Graphic: Body horror, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
Minor: Violence]

A novella that achieves world building in a small space, with a very cool science/magic system I would have liked to see explored in more depth.

I read this novella with the understanding that it could stand alone, and fortunately that is the case--although I do feel that I would have understood the last third of it better with more context, which presumably exists in the first books.

While at first a bit tough to get into, The Book of Gems is a diamond in the rough. While touted as a standalone, I think it would have been helpful to read a few of the other books in the Gemworld series first, as there are terms which are unfamiliar and the magic system is complicated. Still, this is a fascinating read, with a deep and complex main character, a disturbing mystery and a reminder to all that all that glitters is not, well, gems.

Fran Wilde has a knack for pulling readers under the skin of her well-crafted characters, where we intimately ride out their hopes and fears as they experience horrifyingly beautiful situations.

This would explain why my tea repeatedly grew cold as I gobbled up chapter after chapter of The Book of Gems. I just kept forgetting to come up for air.

If you haven’t read the first two books in the Gem Universe series, The Jewel and Her Lapidary and The Fire Opal Mechanism, you will still be able to sympathize with the plight of our protagonist, Dr. Devina Brunai. But, keep in mind that you’ll need to figure out what makes gems so special in this world along the way. You’ll be given enough information to figure it all out, though. And if you enjoy this adventure, you may want to read the first two books in the series.

In this adventure, “Dev” discovers that she has put her faith in the wrong person, the man who’s been acting as her mentor. When he mysteriously vanishes, the Society for Scientific Endeavors of the Six Republics denies her the right to journey to the Jeweled Valley to search for him. However, she is compelled to either find him, or finish the research he started, thus earning her standing in the scientific community. Without backing or proper credentials, “Dev” sneaks into the Jeweled Valley. From the moment she arrives in the valley and checks in at the Deaf King Inn, it’s clear that this trip isn’t going to be anything like what Dev expected it to be.

Want to come along? Steep a cup of tea to neglect and crack in to chapter one.

My thanks to author Fran Wilde, Tor Publishing Group, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital review copy of this book.

Novellas have started to grow on me so I requested this arc thinking that it'd be a great read, filled with worldbuilding and lore. While the storytelling itself was fine, ultimately, the whole thing fell short for me.

First of all, I wasn't sure which audience this novella was targeting. The synopsis didn't sound YA at all, but the writing style was very YA. Which isn't a bad thing if that was what you were looking for. I was expecting something more mature, but I got used to it eventually.

Secondly, the second half of the novella felt very rushed. I liked the slower worldbuilding in the first part, where we see Dev, the MC, go to the valley and get acquainted with the secondary characters, such as the innkeeper, Lurai, her grandmother, the dig master, and the other two Society archaeologists.

But after that, everything happened so quickly. Without saying any spoilers, what happened to Lurai wasn't explained well. She had a chatty, bubbly personality and then something huge happened to her (which was explained well enough), but the symptoms were all over the place. She could physically move but she couldn't speak? And sometimes it seemed like she was frozen and couldn't move at all, but suddenly she'd reach out and grab something. It made no sense.

And lastly, the POV changes. The first half clearly delineated between Dev's POV and Lurai's POV. Then after the midpoint, when both characters were together, the POVs became so muddled that I wasn't sure whose perspective I was reading. One paragraph would clearly be Dev's thoughts and actions, and the next paragraph would be Lurai's thoughts, and then it'd switch back to Dev. But the POV switches happened so abruptly that it was a jumbled mess to try to understand whose thoughts belonged to whom and which character was performing which action.

If the second half of the novella hadn't been such a mess, I would've loved to pick up the first two novellas in the series.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for this arc.

This book was extremely well-written. And I know I’m giving it a 3 out of 5 but don’t attribute the low rating to the writing! Wilde thrives with shorter stories and I think anything above 90 pages is probably her limit so this 140 pages book was definitely out of her sweet spot. But say what you want, you can’t say she’s a bad writer.

I just found this story to be overall extremely uncompelling. I was TRUDGING through the book even though it was so short and I really can’t believe it took me so long to finish. The first half was pretty dull and I was not drawn to any of the characters. The ending was good though, and I loved the creepiness. I think Wilde really stepped out of her comfort zone with this book, to good and not-so-good ends.

An interesting story full of twists, turns, fun characters and overall a book I would consider reading time and time again.

When this book was offered to me as an arc, the blurb indicated that it was the kind of book that could stand alone but also drive anyone new to the series to seek out the rest.

They weren't wrong, I'm definitely going to be picking up the rest of the series in the next week.

I enjoyed the blend of fantasy, mystery, and scientific/historical research, as well as the hint of what to look forward to, magically and politically, when I pick up the earlier books.

Though I didn't feel any great connection to any of the book's characters, that's no fault of the characterizations. They are well written, and we are given vast insights to Dev and Lurai with the right word choice, or the same word choice to link them, not just as cousins who'd never met before, but once who'd grown in different societies and are thus very different, but with the same foundation and parallel struggles.

The magic system, of which we merely get hints, is so deftly referred to so that it simultaneously has you wishing to know more but doesn't leave you confused about what it has revealed.

Thanks to Emily from the Tor Marketing team for sending this book my way.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.