The Unspoken Name

I also noticed fairly quickly that this novel drops the reader into a mythical world without developing it for the readers. We learn that Csorwe and the other Oshaarun people are not human with their grey skin and tusks, but we never really learn anything else about their features or race. Once the story explores more of the areas, we are told that the characters travel with flying ships through a place called the Maze which connects different worlds together, but it isn’t explained or described much at all. Instead, it presents the world just as it is and expects the reader to catch up. Sometimes being dropped into an unknown world can work well in a story, at other times it doesn’t. It can depend on the writer and the reader. For me, I found it a little disappointing. I thought the concepts were very interesting, but without more attention to the world and its workings, I felt like I knew very little about the worlds or the people in it. In the end, this strategy only gave me questions I never got answers to.

However, my biggest struggle with this novel is the lack of character development. Even now that I have finished the novel, I don’t feel like I truly understand any of the characters, their emotions, or their motivations. This disconnect made it harder for me to understand the plotline, and why Larkwood chose to depict the events that she did. The novel was separated into four different sections which helped me understand how the author was trying to align the events, but I didn’t feel like the events at the beginning changed and grew the character enough for it to matter for the later events.

With all that said, I don’t feel that this novel to be a bad one. I do think that there are many interesting concepts that are explored in this story. I like how the different worlds are connected to form a giant universe as well as how each of those worlds has its own god or gods. I especially like the more hands on nature of these deities that fully interact with the characters and affect events. This makes the concept of religion more complex and intriguing. I also like how the story is very obscure on its goal. The whole story is leading you in a direction that you know very little about. In the end, things become more clear and also more complex.

I also like Larkwood’s writing style. She is very straightforward and easy to follow. A lot of high fantasy writers have a more complex or sophisticated writing style. However, this book is written with very simple language and description. Her organization of the story is not uncommon and adds more continuity. I also like how she titles each of the chapters. It adds another dynamic to the content.