Thank you to NetGalley the arc! I’m going to be honest, it’s been months since I picked this up. I didn’t get far before putting it down. I don’t remember anything I read, either. Unfortunately, not for me

This was the first book I got from Netgalley but I have no idea why a book from 2022 is still here in 2024? I didn't realize it until after requesting it and I regret that decision because I wholeheartedly disliked this book.

This book makes absolutely no sense. There is zero emotional depth. I'm so pissed off at this book especially for the lack of any actual conclusion???? It's like there was too much info dumping without giving you any info. And too much world-building that it made the world make absolutely no sense. It was weirdly misogynistic in the sense that the main villains are a misandrist society of TERF women who just have sex slaves galore? I'm so confused by what the actual message the author was trying to make about this because nothing makes sense, nothing was clear. Why was this book written? The author apparently spent 22 years working on it but like...how? None of it makes sense. I'll give it two stars because like, grammatically it's correct and the cover is cool. Also I don't get why they felt the need to use other languages from Earth and there is an author's note about using it but I don't get why they used that? Especially so much Japanese, and as someone who speaks Japanese and lived there for five years why did you pick that language to make your villains? Why not make a whole new one if you were going to use that many goddamn footnotes that are inaccessible while reading the ebook? And then when you finally find them in the back they don't reference the original word so I couldn't even clarify if I got a meaning correct without having to go back and find that word?

I got so mad at this book throughout it I kept have to voice message rant to my friends because so much of this just made me angry with the lack of explanation for ANYTHING and when it tried to explain it only made things MORE CONFUSING. WHY?

Thank you NetGally and Shadow Spark Publishing for the free ARc of "Merchants of Knowlege and Magic" by Erika McCorke.
Due to the fact I could not acces the glosary from my Kindle I had such a confusing time with the multitude of terms from this story.
I would recommend a phisical copy where you can see what each term means. I also belive that fans of RPG games will realy love this story.
I decided to DNF for now.

Will give this 4.5/5 stars!

Let me give you a list of why I like this book:
- As a high fantasy book theme, the complex world-building is well-crafted here. Wow. I really like how the author wrote down and detailed its world-building. Not easy to understand, I know, but once you get into the story, you'll know that it is superb!
- The tense atmosphere and the explicit adult themes that surround the plot everywhere. In short, it's the plot as a whole! Daaaamn. I like it!
- A lot of LGBTQ representation here. And the difficulties they face, too, are written in detail.

I kinda don't like where the glossary is placed, though. And even though it's beautifully written, it tends to make me sleepy.

This is an epic book that I found intriguing because of its strangeness and the seemingly obsessive level of world-building it contains. Calinthe, a "merchant of knowledge" and also a rare creature cross-bred between two races, must carry out several missions across worlds and through magical portals. She engages in various games of knowledge and intrigue, until the time she is caught in the web of some nobles of the diabolical female-dominated Ophidian people. At the three-quarter mark, the book then makes an abrupt shift into some outlandish and often disturbing content, which may not appeal to all readers.

The novel does flow well, however, and it is hard to not become swept up in the swelling display of imagination and detail in its universe, the Pentagonal Dominion. I felt close to the main characters, especially regarding Calinthe's relationship with Zakuro and the quirky Demon Lord, Williford, and also the outrageous Requiem (a "merchant of hedonism"). I haven't read anything so outlandish and odd since finishing A Wrinkle in Time or Perdido Street Station. Because of its strangeness and elaborate magic system, this fantasy series could likely become one with a cult following.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in return for a review of this book.

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a solid start for an intriguing fantasy series.

What I loved
-complex world building
-good dialogue use
What didn't work as well for me
-the pacing was exceptionally slow
Who I recommend this title for
Fantasy readers who enjoy a slower paced story with complex world building in a similar writing style to Lani Taylor.

Did not finish book.

Stopped at 7%.
As an avid fantasy reader, I understand that there are times where you will not always understand each word that's uttered before the world building is a bit more complete. That said, the first few chapters felt needlessly complicated with made up words.

The version of the book I have, it's marked for footnotes/endnotes, but I was unable to find where the explanations actually were. In the beginning of the book, there is an author's note explaining there are notes on the language if you follow a link. The link went to content warnings. By the end of the first chapter, there were already 13 words marked that remained a mystery. [Upon further investigation, the glossary of these words was in the back of the book, marked as "Credits", which is unintuitive.]

I loved the idea of having an intersez character as a protagonist, we love representation here. But when she lifts her skirt to show her genitals (or lack thereof) to a complete stranger, I wasn't entirely enthused. Intersex people face enough issues in real life about "what's in their pants" that this felt unnecessary, and called attention to her body, where it just didn't need to be called.

I tried to move past that, but my mind kept going back to it.

It just felt overly complicated out the gate, and there weren't enough positives, for me personally, to keep going with it.

(Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this. It may not have been for me, but it's good to give books a chance regardless.)