Skullsworn Provides an Irresistible Entry Point to a Stunning Epic

Brian Staveley’s The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, which concluded last year, was a remarkably complete, compelling specimen of the epic fantasy genre. How to follow up such an accomplishment? In Skullsworn, Staveley returns to his world of immortal races, strange magic, and giant birds to explore the past of a beloved, but secondary character we met in the first three books. There, we met Pyrre Lakatur: wise, experienced, and deadly with any weapon, deadlier with her bare hands, thrumming with an ecstatic energy, as sure to dance with you as murder you. Though hinted at, her past was never the thrust of that story. That all changes here, as we follow Pyrre as a young acolyte of Ananshael, God of Death, as she embarks on her final trial in her priestess training, leaving behind a swath of broken bodies, and hopefully, a broken heart. For a priestess of Ananshael may only kill select people during her trials, and the last must be one they love, truly love. The only problem is: Pyrre has never been in love. As she heads to the city of her youth, Dombang, with two priests in tow to chart her progress, she will do her best to fall in love with a ghost from her past, and hope to kill, and not be killed, in the process.
If there was any doubt that Staveley is one of the strongest of the new crop of epic fantasy writers, this book erases them. The intricacy of storytelling and depth of worldbuilding on display here solidifies his talent and reputation. Some authors write compelling characters; others excel at creating a world. Staveley wraps both together in a story as much plot as philosophy, though it never loses itself contemplating questions about life and death, and love and loss. His is a study of the actions that move people, moving them to the brink or just back from it, one married to a dissection of fantasy as genre, even as gods and monsters and humanity struggle to coexist in a world that puts them constantly at odds. The book moves effortlessly from microcosm to macrocosm, from the beating, adrenaline-laced heart of a young assassin-priestess as she toils for her dark god, to the thrumming streets, canals, swamps, and rivers of a diverse, thriving city eager to throw off the shackles of colonization. This is a masterwork of intricate character relationships, a history of peoples and nations and gods that inhabit a world but are never bogged down by its trappings. It is a story than turns on choices born from the deepest, most fragile truths within.