The Gossamer Mage

Julie E. Czerneda — 2019

Winner of the 2020 Aurora Award for Best Novel, this fantasy epic tells the tale of one mage who must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic. Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic. Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage. For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die. To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.

Reviews

Christian Huss@curiousquill

Feb 5, 2022

DNF: I really tried to get through this book and pushed forward to about page 100, but this book definitely wasn't for me. I found the writing style not to my taste, the names were definitely hard to remember and keep straight, and the plot was a bit of a blur and confusing.

Lauren James@storiedadventures

Aug 11, 2021

Full review on my blog, Storied Adventures ! *I received a copy from the publisher as well as an e-arc from NetGalley for an honest review.* This was actually really hard for me to get through. I loved the plot and characters and the uniqueness of the story, BUT the writing was really hard, for me personally, to read. It was choppy and and I had to re-read sentences and paragraphs to understand what was going on. It's not a very long book but it took me almost a month to read. That never happens for me! If you are interested in an extremely unique book that will definitely be unlike anything you've ever read, with writing that's very VERY different, then you might like this!