There were aspects of this story that I loved - the magic system, the world building - but ultimately there were too many things that detracted from the experience for me and left me feeling lackluster about the whole thing, especially after how much I loved The Sword of Kaigen.

The themes of the book were perhaps thrown a bit TOO much in your face - I felt a lot of the book was dependent on characters being sexist or racist/xenophobic just to make them caricatures of bad people, if that makes sense. It was too heavy-handed.

I was riveted.
I felt entranced, disgusted, hopeful, enraged, proud - everything. I love to feel it all. Only great writing can do that, and this delivered. The characters were so complex! It touched on classism, racism, feminism, capitalism, religion - all without having to say anything too directly. The world building was new. which is an accomplishment with the fantasy genre, and it was clear. It was intellectual, but easy to follow. I’m obsessed. I admit I’m happy that this is a standalone, but also a little depressed that it’s over.

I need maybe two days to digest everything, and then I need to go find “The Sword of Kaigen” because this author is so, so amazing.

Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

Another amazing grimdark from ML Wang. A dark acadamia novel that probably did the best magical school trope in the best way I have ever read in a fantasy novel. Best of all, this is a stand alone! Everything was done to perfection in this book. Also, check out Sword of Kaigen, it is just as amazing!

Blood Over Bright Haven strikes a similar chord within me that The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin did when I first read it. I also, unsurprisingly, can see why this book has been comped to Babel by RF Kuang countless times. There’s a “perfect” utopian city, magic that seems—at its core—limitless, and a group of people who believe themselves divinely ordained and have consequently dedicated themselves to innovation and invention as a result of that. And then there’s our main character.

Sciona is an unlikeable, egotistical, and sometimes downright cruel mage scraping by in a world that spits on the idea of women holding any sort of power. And it’s her unlikeable, egotistical nature that really makes her character arc shine. Did I want to shake her for the comments she’d regularly make about Thomil and the Kwen? Absolutely. But watching her growth as she pursued truth over comfort made me so extremely emotional.

I suspected that BOBH would be a five star read the moment that chapter one had me in tears. M.L. Wang’s writing is visceral and poignant and certainly doesn’t pull any punches, especially when it comes to violence. I’m so glad that, in the wake of finishing, my hunch was correct.

I hate throwing the word perfect around, but this book really was the definition of it. In five hundred pages, BOBH manages to rip apart an unjust world and expose its bloody history all while inspiring hope. Hope for change. Hope for better days. And hope that one day, the cruel powers in charge might face their reckoning. The Tiranish built their empire on the backs of the Kwen and the way that this story unraveled was so incredibly satisfying.

My thoughts are horribly disjunct because I’m still wildly emotional over that ending, but M.L. Wang is certainly an author to keep on your radar. Her world building and magic system is so unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and, despite this book’s length, she has such an excellent grasp on pacing and what it takes to write compelling characters. Though this is my first book written by her, it certainly won’t be the last. I need her to continue to rip my heart out of my chest.

If you like:
- Babel (and, specially, the “on the necessity of violence” part of it)
- Dismantling unjust regimes
- Incredible character work
- Bloody, bloody action
- And unlikeable characters who don’t quite redeem themselves but come very close

Then I can’t recommend this book more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sciona's one goal in life has been to pass the exam to be a high mage and study magic at the High Magistracy at the University of Magics and Industry. She finally passes and is able to attend, but all is not as it seems. As she enters the school, Sciona has to navigate the many treacherous people and events. that's been going on. This book is scrumptious, intriguing, thrilling, and will leave you on the edge of your seat. I couldn't put it down and stayed up til 2am to finish it.

Engaging, immersive, and entertaining. This is a recommended purchase for collections where fantasy is popular.

This book takes place in a dystopian society where a female becoming a mage is near impossible, and once attained, unlikely to be without oppressive treatment from male counterparts. In this setting, Sciona discovers a well hidden secret that could alter the foundation of the entire civilization. Faced with mystery, political intrigue and high stakes choices, she must decide if the battle is worth fighting and whether the outcome would be preferable to the present flawed system. This is a great read for anyone that loves complex world building, strong character development as well as an intriguing and captivating plot.

This review will be available on goodreads under Penelope Rose on 4/24/2024

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6453131660

No fantasy book has ever made me think so hard about the real world. I’m blown away by M.L. Wang’s tale. It has themes of sexism, classism, racism, prejudice, and injustice.

Yes, it has magic (and it’s a phenomenally intricate math-and-science-based system, at that). However, I implore you to read this even if you wouldn’t normally read fantasy. It explores *so* many things that actually happen every day. It will cause you to do self-reflection and introspection. You will be horrified. You will shake your fist at the sky. You will weep.

Have you witnessed injustice? Did you do anything at the time to stop it?

It’s time to confront our innate prejudices and take a hard look at what attitudes we might be perpetuating, inadvertently or otherwise.

I received an eARC, but I’m already planning to preorder the hardback edition as soon as it’s published. This should be required reading.

I’m a better person for having read this.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for my copy. All opinions are mine alone. M.L. Wang—you’ve created a masterpiece.

I’m predicting this will win multiple awards. So let it be written.

You took reality and reimagined it to be a story with you at the center, all designed for you, all for your taking. Well, not today! This story is about my ego and what it will do to the world!”

Blood Over Bright Haven takes no prisoners. This book gets its teeth into you and doesn’t let go until you reach the definitions at the end.
I took multiple breaks because, especially at first, I was getting physically frustrated with Sciona and the whole of Tiran. But that in part is the point.

These characters, their beliefs, and their society is flawed. Just like we, our beliefs, and our society is flawed. And against a backdrop of dark academia we’re able to see ourselves reflected. And hopefully challenge our view of the world and make it a better place.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

5⭐️

This was my first M. L. Wang novel and man was it an amazing read. Dark academia is a genre I am just getting into and this is at the top of my list so far. I actually inhaled this book page by page.

Everything from the magic system to the characters were amazing. The plot was super engaging and fast paced while still managing to cover heavier themes of colonialism, loss, religion, human decency, racism, class structures, and misogyny. The impressive thing is that all of these themes are not explored at surface level but felt and lived in by our characters and their storylines. I was constantly kept on my toes and gladly went with M. L. Wang wherever she took the story.

It’s hard to digest such a complex world and review it in a fair manner, but this book was simply a masterpiece. It is a must read for anyone into fantasy and dark academia. I cannot recommend this book enough to all readers.

I received this book from Net Galley/publisher in exchange for an honest review of my opinion.

This book is the best fantasy book of the year. I enjoyed every moment reading this; the lore, the world building, the politics, the characters, the plot. EVERYTHING!

This is a standard-alone so you will have all your answers by the last page. If there is one long epic fantasy you pickup this year, make it this book.

4.5 stars. Harsh, but, ultimately, hopeful. An unapologetically fierce condemnation of all the harm humanity causes, in so many ways, while recognizing that we can change, we can do better. When I finished this I felt like razing boardrooms and beating world leaders, while simultaneously trying to do better, working with other people, and reaching for a better future for all of us. The romantic in me was crying, though.

This book had me hooked from the start! Finally a new and unique magic system entering the huge world of fantasy books. I love how this book covered so many themes relevant to today's society at the same time so effortlessly. Sciona being the first highmage and excelling way faster than her male coworkers but still being looked down upon really spoke me and had me hooked. I also enjoyed the budding friendship between Sciona and Tommy as it shows how people of different backgrounds can come together if they keep an open mind. I also admire how this relationship felt natural and never forced even though they wouldn't have talked if they had met in Tiran rather than the Magicentre. By the end of the book I wish the story would never end so I could stay in the world forever it was built so well. If I had to knit pick for some pitfalls of the book I would say I wish we got a more in depth explanation of the history of the magic system at one time or a glossary of the historical figures. Getting the pieces a little at a time didn't was nice for digesting the information but I often had to look back to make sure I had the names of the characters right as they weren't mentioned often.

Blood over Bright Haven serves as a wonderful example of storytelling as catharsis and reads very much like a manifesto. Wang heavily serves readers overtones of extreme violence against a certain religion and government establishment. The first half hooked me—I loved Thomil and Sciona’s very complicated and tumultuous relationship—but the last half of the book took a completely different direction from what I was expecting, though I immediately guessed what the damning nature of the source of the magic was and what the consequences for those in power would be. Though I found the read compelling and was able to get it read in under 24 hours, which is quite a feat for me, I find the overall narrative fell short a bit for me.

Sciona’s plight as a woman in a man’s academic field has been vastly overdone in literature. I can see its use often in historical fiction, but in fantasy, where we can build new worlds, I don’t really care to read it; and though it’s overt in the synopsis, I assumed Wang’s use of this trope would have some kind of brilliant twist to make it more unique. It didn’t. In fact, until Thomil’s appearance in the High Magistry, I was not quite so interested as I thought I would be. Sure, the first chapter had me on the edge of my seat, but it wasn’t until he and Sciona were forcibly thrown together that I felt any kind of propulsion through the story. From there until about the middle of the book, I was hooked.

After the midpoint, the plot got very predictable and on the nose. The theocratic establishment is not subtly done, and the characters are all very stock and flat. The complexity I expected did not appear in any of the characterizations. Sciona was marginally rounded, and I did enjoy that she wasn’t a complete angel because she was a woman. In fact, she very much acted like any of the Tiranishmen around her, and I feel, had she been a man in Tiran she would be like every other man in Tiran.

Thomil had absolutely no faults and though I imagined if this were a romantasy, he would be super dreamy because of his immense strength. He was really stock and flat, and again, I expected more subtlety and complexity from Wang but didn’t get it here with Thomil. He and Sciona, when together, were great to read, but I found myself bored when the book focused on only one character or the other, which indicated to me that the tension between the two drove the plot and not the characters themselves.

Despite the unsubtle nature of hatred toward a singular group of people, I found it a compelling read. The world was not built upon heaps of dumped info, but it’s safe to say it resembled our world closely enough that there was no need for too deep a build anyway. I wish I were more in love with the book than I am, as Wang’s The Sword of Kaigen won the SFBO award and I have both the special editions of it, but I guess I’m in the minority here. It was not lost on me what the religious/government establishment represents, and the end felt, as I mentioned in the intro, very much like catharsis. Tell us how you really feel, there—sheesh.

Overall, 3/5. Quite a long book for not a whole lot of depth and complexity. Characters felt stock and flat. Not too much there but carbs where there should be a more well-balanced meal. I may be passing on this one for my SE collection, though it pains me to say.

My thanks to Penguin Random House and Del Rey for the eARC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

I received this from netgalley. This is my honest review.

Wow! Just wow!

M.L Wang is a must buy author for me. She is original. Most all books written remind me of other stories I've read. Not her books. Her writing is original it's thought provoking it makes you question your own morals.

Blood over bright haven has great flow. It's action packed from the first chapter. It has feminist aspects, racism, social classes all rolled into a fantasy society.

Character development makes this story you have the MFC who defies the odds by making it into the high mage status. But not everything as it seems. There is a dark underbelly that she discovers and it turns her world upside down.

Trigger warning for sexual assault and mass murder.

The ending was cheff kiss**

I was so torn between 3.5 & 4⭐️ for this book as I read it but towards the end I leaned more towards 4⭐️. In the beginning I gotta be honest, wasn’t sure I would like it. The first chapter was intense & really drew me in but then the second & third chapter was so confusing. There was so much magic going on & I had no idea what was happening, but I guess that’s how most fantasy books are; just have to let the world building happen. After I figured out what was going on with the magic system though, I was hooked! It was unlike anything I’ve ever read before as far as magic goes & it was pretty cool. The stories of some of the characters were really intense & tugged at the heartstrings. May not have been the ending I was hoping for, but it was still really good and all around a good story of standing up for what’s right. Don’t want to say more & give anything away though! Was definitely surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it in the end & would definitely read another M.L. Wang book!

I would like to thank NetGalley, M. L. Wang, & Random House Publishing Group for an advance copy of Blood Over Bright Haven to give my honest opinion.

5.0 / 5.0 Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang is the best fantasy novel of the year.

The world, characters, theology, and magic of this story is unparalleled. Babel, The Will of the Many, and Empire of the Vampire are good company for this book.

The best review for this book is to just read it and let yourself become part of it. There are so many themes touched on in this book, but the way the characters develop while mirroring the social injustices of modern time, is genius. Everything is intention and designed to call out specific points of life that are going on in the world today. You can read this as fantasy, or you can read this as commentary. Either way, it is excellent.

This book is the 2nd for this author and it is a 2nd stand-alone, so it is dense. I cannot recommend this enough. It is amazing and it is being traditionally published so it can receive all the acclaim it deserves.

Until Next Time,
MC

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for access to this book for review.

This was a decent read but I felt it suffered with being too long with not enough substance. I found the first half of this book really slow and when it finally picked up, it was just okay.

This book was not as good as I thought it was going to be. Which is really too bad. I was definitely expecting more to the story for as long as it was, but it felt almost dragged out. I will say, the last 15% or so of the book was amazing and made up for a majority of the story.

Thomil is a Kwen one of thousands who have escaped brutality The Blight by emigrating to the great city of Tiran, only to discover that instead of dying a quick and unimaginably horrifc death through The Blight he and the rest of his people are destined to die after decades of servitude to the Tiranese people. Slaves in all but name the Kwens only worth to the people of Tiran is how much labor they can get out of them before they die.
Sciona is a brilliant mage living in Tiran, truly one of the great of her time and the only female High Mage in history. Living under the thumb of her patriarchal society she is pariah, a woman who sees himself not just equal to men but possibly better. And when Sciona and Thomil are forced to work together, butts of a joke mean to be cruel these two will bring The High Mages of Tiran to the knees.

Holy shit! I think it's difficult to put into words just how well done, just how raw, just how furious this book was. I genuinely do not believe I stopped being mad from the moment I picked this up until the very end. Wang did an excellent, truly exceptional job of showing colonization in all of its truly ugly forms, while somehow wrapping women's oppression into it while turning through magic system into a metaphor of just not just damage to an ecosystem but the lives simply cost in sheer energy expanded by humans (by murdering them in a truly brutal fashion), while also pointing out that even in a society where one half of the population is brutality oppressed it does not mean that they are not just as guilty at oppressing others, by simply choosing to ignore it. One of my largest complaints of many books that try to tackle several social topics at once is that it's simply too much for most authors to put together and still make the story cohesive, to still give each of these incredibly important issues a voice. And somehow Wang manages to do this brilliantly. By making her main character and her heroine apart of the problem, by making her confront her own bigotry Wang is able to explore each of these topics while showing just how intermixed they truly are.

What makes Sciona's character truly remarkable and again what makes this all work is that Wang sets her up to be fallible while also being able to see the mistakes she has made, confront those mistakes and move on. For most of this Sciona actually is a horrible person. Yes, she is oppressed, omg do the women in Tiran have it truly awful I genuinely cannot even imagine, however, thanks to the inherent bigotry found in her society that is literally the basis of her religion she cannot even see how bigoted she is. Some of the remarks she makes to Thomil offhandedly are far more insidious than some of the just straight up racism exhibited by other characters towards him because it's just so casual. She just expects Thomil to understand that he's just a stupid heretic that doesn't know any better. This allows Wang to be able to grow Sciona in a way that is truly realistic. If you are white you've probably been Sciona at some point and if you've confronted that portion of your person you've probably had the same mental health crisis that she has when she realize how she is truly treat Thomil, or really any Kwen for that matter.

Thomil is, of course, an excellent character as well. Honestly, he talks a lot of not trusting people or not having hope but oddly enough I found him far more hopeful than Sciona. He puts a lot on the line to try to get Sciona to understand him while not getting raging passed every five seconds (cause I know I would) he deserves a freaking medal.

Carra is the best here though. Sorry I just loved her and she deserves her own book. I'm almost kinda sad that she can't like I don't know be like an assassin taking our rogue mages after the fall Tiran.

I can't not talk about the magic system became it was honestly one of coolest magic systems I'm more than positive that there are other books that have basically taking coding and turned it into magic but I haven't read them yet so this is easily one of my top ten magic systems now.

And the ending. I just want to say I don't believe this could have gone anything other way and oddly enough after we find out the horrific truth behind the magic I just kinda knew but I really wish there could have been another way. Desperately wish there had been another way. Sciona, Thomil, and Carra deserved better.

Overall, this easily shot to a spot in my top 10 favorite books of all time, which means there's about 200 on that list now. But seriously Wang wrote a book that is somehow so very angry and yet so very full of hope. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.

As always thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for eArc!