Rating: ★★★★☆
Author: Tasha Suri
Title: Empire of Sand
ISBN: 0316449717
Genre: Young Adult & High Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit , 2018
Page Count: 496 pages
Synopsis: A nobleman’s daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri’s captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy. The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda. Should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance…
The Plot
Empire of Sand doesn't have a bombastic story. If you're looking for the next epic, you won't find it here. What this story does provide is enticing world-building, a dynasty of cultures, a slow burn of a romance, and a story about one woman's journey to finding her own cultural identity and taking control of her life. The story follows Mehr—a nobleman's daughter and Amrithi—who spends most of her time concealing part of who she is for her own safety. The Amrithi were a colonized and disappearing clan, migrating across the sands to escape the empire's clutches and mire. Meanwhile, there is Maha, the godlike force in this world, keeping the remaining Amrithi, the mystics, and the empire's city-state on a short leash.
I was really enticed by an Indian author's take on tribal colonization and eradication, and what it's like to connect to one's ancestry and culture. At all times, this story forces its characters to confront limitations and teaches them how to grow and fight for their rights to be more.
The Characters
This story has a lot of characters, and some of whom we only seen in the first act. So, I'm going to focus on just a few here and keep it moving. Otherwise, we'd be in for a very long review, and I'm already incredibly late to getting this one up.
Mehr's mother, father, and stepmother. Okay, I'm going to say something controversial about all three, but I actually didn't fault any of these people.
Was Maryam caustic and awful? Absolutely. She was the evil stepmother trope. That was her gig. But, every time I saw how much she fought to push against Mehr and Arwa's Amirithi blood, I saw a woman who was terrified and tired. Being a stepmother isn't an easy task, and she married into a life with two young girls who were destined for an awful life without the empire's protection. I think, in spite of every awful thing she said to Mehr, there was truly fear lying beneath it. Though, I don't discredit the amount of bigotry she showed Mehr—who was far more "obviously" Amirithi than Arwa.
Mehr's father was a man who fell in love with Mehr's mother, an Amirithi who by nature is not monogamous and doesn't marry. In spite of his traditions and hers, he never tried to hold her back—didn't fight her when she wanted to be among her tribe, her people, and leave him and Mehr if that was her way. So, when his daughter Mehr started to show much of that same free spirit, and a desire to understand her culture, all that he asked was that she be careful because he knew the danger it posed. While inaction can lead to continued oppression, a father's duty is to protect. He is in high enough standing that defying the empire could be the means to a violent end for his family. He was a father desperate to just make everyone happy. I think this also blinded him to how he engaged with the Maryam and Mehr conflict. Maryam was manipulative, and it wasn't always clear if he could see that, but the last thing he wanted to do was to let Mehr get herself hurt while also ruffling the feathers of the court or his marriage. He always just seemed like a man stuck who didn't know how to break free of that.
Mehr's real mother... I won't say too much about for fear of spoilers, but let's just say I was somewhat underwhelmed by how hands-off and disinterested she seemed to be. But she was a woman who set her goals and boundaries upfront with people. She never seemed like a woman wandering lost in the sands waiting for the day she could be reunited with Mehr. So, when she was more focused on the tribe she led than she was for reconnecting or helping Mehr, that seemed more inline with everything I'd learned about her so far. Thus, everyone else's upset about Mehr's mother seemed as though they were hoping to meet a completely different character. In fact, I found it more intriguing that we didn't get the frayed threading of some mother dying to reconnect with her daughter again and pull her into the tribe to neglect the life she knew before. We've seen that dynamic and trope before. This felt more honest and less fairy tale. Not to mention, it was yet another metaphorical security blanket Mehr had to let go of to continue on her path.
Mehr is a sympathetic and competent protagonist. When we meet her, she's practicing her own rituals in private before leaving her room to tend to her younger sister where we see a mixture of who she is as a friend, family member, and protector. Her life has been a cycle of conceal and survive, and that informs how she interacts with the world and submits to the worst throughout the story. She's a perfect representation of how colorism and caste are cemented forms of oppression in this fantasy world.
As you watch her grow into her powers and identity, everything feels earned. She goes along with the engagement to Amun, to meeting the Maha, and to surviving far outside of the walls of the privileged home from which she was raised, and you can completely understand her inner conflict and her actions.
Amun. Oh, Amun. I've seen some reviews say he's "boring" or "too stoic," but I fear those readers are missing the entire point. Amun has hardly known a life where he is allowed to flourish or have a voice. He's a man with his head low—not to keep from looking ahead, but to avoid Maha's gaze. He wants nothing more than to be his own person, but he knows he has to tread lightly. He's the embodiment of the oppressed. I appreciated so much how patient, respectful, and strong he was either in spite of or for Mehr throughout the story. It felt very much like a man who's lived a life of enslavement buying his time.
The Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding was so easily accessible. You're met with the magic and caste system within the first chapter. And Suri introduces both without needling, exhaustive exposition. Her story takes you through every relationship Mehr has—from her family to the expanse of sands beyond her bedroom window—and opens the world up to you bit by bit. The layered politics of the governor to emperor to Maha all fold into each other to convince you of its complexity and drama. Everyone feels unsafe, but no one feels as unsafe as the person beneath them.
Dance being a major form of power to the Amrithi was such a delightful change to the usual fantasy magic system. It's something that feels organic to a tribal, nomadic culture. Dance is a language that transcends all tongues, and using that as a means of communing with the world and the gods just works so well for this story. The descriptions for the dances felt fluid and mystical, moving with the sands.
The Romance
Mehr and Amun have such a slow burn. Mehr is lost and distrusting of everyone around her. She isn't keen on the farce of an engagement that they are united into, but she recognizes that if Maha has come to fetch her that she has to abide to protect her family. Amun takes his time being mindful of the space between them, not letting slide any of his true feelings about the situation they're both in. He carefully and considerately finds companionship with her. His motivations come in small gestures—warning her against the strange pull of Maha, giving her space until she wanted to be with him.
I honestly think that anyone who couldn't appreciate how stoic Amun was—when they were given a bevy of reasons as to why—or how he wasn't ready to sweep Mehr off her feet the moment they were together, sincerely missed the point of how much was working against them.
Empire of Sand's love story isn't a tale of romance and high conflict. It's a story about finding your voice and place in a world that doesn't want you to feel as if you have either. For me, it only made sense that Amun would be so cautious, and that Mehr would take time to learn to trust him—or anyone.
Conclusion
I'm pretty interested to see where this story goes in the next book. The climax may not peak quite as high as the typical fantasy story, but the tension is there. It's believably grounded in the world that Suri has created.
Have you read this one yet?
