Beneath A Thousand Skies

Summary:

A bad reputation, a metal arm, and a burning need for revenge…

Once played as a pawn in a deadly game of feuding Houses, Kyrra d’Aliente now makes her living in male guise as the ruthless mercenary Kyris di Nada. Yet hidden beneath her tough exterior lies a woman driven by one thing: the belief that her lost love, killed in the war he fought on her behalf, is still alive. But when Kyrra is offered the chance to assassinate the man who betrayed her, the seductive song of revenge changes everything.

In a world of scheming gods and precarious loyalties, vengeance comes at a deadly cost. As the treacherous web of her past tries to trap her once again, Kyrra must make a choice: kill the man who stole everything from her, or risk everything to save the man she loves.

“If I live, I’ll find you. You have to believe that. And if I haven’t found you and it’s safe…I hope you’ll look for me. But my dying—that’s not enough reason for your death. Dying is easy. It’s living that’s hard.”

I am writing this book coasting on the wave of a book hangover. It has taken me far too long to pick up Fortune’s Fool, especially as I have previously read and loved Dragonmeat and Through Dreams So Dark and this series has been on my radar for a long time. It also took me a couple of attempts to get into, not through any fault of the book or the writing, but just I needed to be in the right frame of mind to focus on this epic, multi-layered book, and in the end that meant I sat and devoured Fortune’s Fool in one night. All 737 pages. No sleep and no regrets, because as soon as I really got into it, there was no putting down this book.

Boord in writing this book has proven herself a grandmaster of three-dimensional chess, because Fortune’s Fool is a sprawling, tangled web of intrigue, where nothing is ever simple, not even family or friendship or love. The depth and breadth of the worldbuilding is breathtaking There are a lot of names, in this renaissance inspired world with multiple houses and alliances, with kin ties and political and economic alliances, and history woven beneath it. Yet there is a delicate balance between details that breathed life into the world and not letting it overwhelm the story. You could feel it in the details about the silk trade, and how it was built into so many elements of life in Liera – from food and daily toil to trade and politics; but never more than was needed. It was the same with the food, with the markets, all these layers that you felt continued far beyond the edges of the pages.

My favourite worldbuilding elements though was the blend of history and mythology. The story of Fortune’s Fool itself is history in action; we get to see how the past – both Kyrra’s and Arsenault’s from before that – have shaped the present. But it went further back than that. Through the culture, through the stories shared. I especially loved the myth about Ransi, and how that had blossomed into a local economy.

Then there were the gods.

Even if I had disliked the rest of the worldbuilding – which I didn’t – anything story that involves Gods getting far too involved is always going to be up my street. Boord builds it up gradually, little clues here and there, a shift on the cultural horizon. Then we get to see the more direct involvement seeping in, through magic, through subtle – and less than subtle influences. And then the Seeing and the Dreams. I have to say some of Kyrra’s dreams were some of my favourite writing in this entire book, with Boord capturing that surreal feel of a dream, and that uneasy feeling of being in the presence of something not quite human. You could feel it building, and yet the reality of the Gods involvement and influence at the end caught me off guard, and was absolutely breathtaking, it wasn’t how I thought that confrontation would go and yet it was a brilliant culmination. I also loved that the Gods and their influence, was just a much a tangled web as that of the human politics shaping the story, and that in many ways they were a mirror of the very people they were trying to influence with the same pains and losses and desire.

The magic was even harder to define, fitting for a world where everything had multiple faces and meanings. What I did like, and hope to see more of, is that it was never without limits or costs, even if we never had a full grasp of what those were. But we see that the cost varied from person to person – from life and memories, to control, to even a complete loss of self. I think the most horrifying, but also most intriguing use was Mikleo’s at the end, where what had seemed as though it was a benign power, showed that even that had two sides. The most evident in some ways was Kyrra’s arm, and once again we get to see how magic is a blessing – getting her arm back albeit in new form, a weapon that saved her life multiple times that had allowed her to make a life as a gavaro, but also a curse, with the fact that it drew unwelcome attention, that it threatened her control of herself and on quieter level, as a memorial to her old life.

Guns. A hopelessly foreign word then. A new spice? A drug like kacin?

Everything in Fortune’s Fool is a consequence. No choice, no decision whether personal, or broader was separate from the world around it. In some ways Kyrra’s misadventure was like the fingers flicking dominoes into motion, and the rest of the book was watching those dominoes fall into a complicated maze-like picture of the world. What I liked though, was that you didn’t always get to see where the next one would fall, and the number of times I found myself focusing elsewhere, only to be surprised where the cards landed. Boord manages it all like an intricate dance. Actions in the past, raising their head in the present. A death years ago, causing a character to spiral in the present. A secret, unravelling, uniting allies, splitting families. What it also means that everything had stakes. Those impulsive decisions, changes in allegiance and even simple conversations carried a weight, because you know that is going to ripple onwards.

It meant that the fact that this was in part a story of vengeance and penance, had far more impact. Revenge is always messy, whether its humans or Gods or both, and we get to see that play out in vivid, emotional story telling. Yet, seeking to make amends, to fix mistakes, were just as likely to create the same mess in this setting.

In some ways, even more powerful than magic and Fixers, and Gods that are a little too involved in the lives of certain mortals, is the idea that truth has power. We see it most strongly perhaps with Kyrra, particularly in the present timeline. In this world where secrets are currency and lies a language spoken by everyone with stakes in the games, she is like an arrow shot straight from the bow. Not in terms of black and white, because everything in this world, and everything in her life is shades of grey, but in the sense that she knew who she was and what she wanted, even if the whole world was standing in her way. We see it even more in the climax, when she sees the truth of Arsenault and Jon, and chooses to accept all the parts of her – Gods – and all, again to fight for what she chooses to fight for. A wild card, all of her own. And we see its power in other ways, with Silva and Mikelo, where the fact that she is utterly, bluntly truthful is what brings them around to her view.

“May all the gods have pity on me for having such a stubborn daughter.

Boord’s characterisation has always been one of my favourite aspects of her writing and that remains true here, especially with Kyrra. Maybe, because we spend so much time with her and her POV. However, what I love about Kyrra’s characterisation is that there was such a distinct voice between the two lines, but the connection was always there to say. Even when we first see the young Kyrra, naïve and headstrong and spoilt, we get to see the seeds of stubbornness and strength that will shape her older self; and Kyris di nada is a world away from that young woman, and yet not, because their path, their goals are all shaped by that past. What was fascinating is that because of the way the dual timeline was used, it was almost an unravelling of self. The momentum was very much forward, with what we learned about the past, feeding into the events of the present; yet at the same time, it very gave the feel of this journey of self-discovery.

Boord gave us a young woman who made a mistake, born of impulsiveness and passion and naivety, and all that churning weight of being a teenager whose life was bound by expectations and rules. In some ways it was like watching a car crash about to happen, and yet, the consequences that rippled far beyond that moment just had me wanting to wrap her up and take her away. And that would have been a mistake, because Kyrra became so much more because of that. Strong, yes. Broken, yes. Still reckless and headstrong, and unable to listen to those around her, but always moving forward and living and fighting for what she believed in. Kyris/Kyrra was a different beast, harder,

Arsenault in some ways is a reverse mirror to Kyrra, or perhaps that blurred reflection you see out of the corner of your eye. As much as Kyrra’s past has made her, his has broken him – in ways that only truly become apparent in the latter part of the book. But whereas Kyrra’s story was one of self-discovery, it felt in some ways that his was a mystery story even to himself. I loved how Boord uses misdirection about the nature of his magic and its cost, and his memories, and also the use of journals to try and capture moments that might otherwise slip away. It was a very human touch, for a character that at times felt painfully human and yet so out of touch, a legend, a curse, and a man who had loved strong enough to break himself; and was loved enough, to potentially break a God.

I was utterly caught up in his role beyond his personal story and the romance with Kyrra. Boord not only has made him a mystery in and of himself, but he was a lynchpin in so many mysteries and there were so many moments where I truly didn’t know where his allegiances lay. Yet in the moments where we focused on him in the past and the present, he was so wholly there, that it felt as though there was no way he could be a traitor, but the secrets, the stories, the tricks and lies, all painted a different picture. There were definitely times when I wanted to bop him on the head and see if the truth would spill out. Yet, then you would get the moments when he shared memories and made himself vulnerable, when he was kind and stubborn and determined that Kyrra would live that you just wanted to love him.

Lobardin was one of those characters that grew on me, but I still have such conflicted feelings about. When he was introduced, it was like all the hairs stood up on the back of my neck; and it stayed that way, even when he seemed to be reaching out, trying to be a decent gavaro and to do the right thing. It’s so easy to look at him and see what Kyrra could have been if the dice had fallen a different way; and it is easy by the end of the book to see how he ended up how he was. I felt sorry for had been done to him, and yet at the same time, there is so much in this book about choice – even with Gods muddying the water – and I never truly got the sense of what he would choose to be, beyond a rock caught in raging river, breaking through anything in its path.

Mikleo – oh I have so many suspicions about him, and I can’t wait to be ‘probably’ proven wrong, as Boord has kept me on my toes with everything else. In some ways it was like Kyrra had found an echo of her young self in him and dragged him along for the ride, and it was so easy to believe this was a young man caught in a web he didn’t want to be involved with, dragged into a mess he didn’t want. But there were hints, more than his magic, that there was a lot more to him, another player on the board, but one that didn’t want the spotlight like the rest of the Prinzes. I did love how they built trust between the two of them, and again how truth was what broke down walls that they both had every reason to keep up.

Cassis. Oh, I wanted to smack him, both at the start and at the end. Had he changed by the end? Maybe. Life and reality have a way of doing that, but the man that broke Kyrra’s life and the one that sought to use her as a pawn even at the end, was ultimately a creature who wanted nothing more than his own survival, and freedom and triumph. I did like the fact that even though Kyrra was the one who lost family and name, in the end, could it be said that he kept his? I still feel like he needs a bigger comeuppance though…

I think even with everything that the Prinzes’ have done, and the various misdeeds and mistakes of many characters, the only character I truly ended up despising was Pallo d’Aliente. This a man bound by honour, and the past, and in many ways the same naivety that cost his daughter her name and arm; but whereas it shaped Kyrra, like a whetstone turning a blunt edge into a sword that can cut through anything, that naivety became an almost, twisted desperation to believe that if you followed the rules and played the game in the right way, you could survive. I was railing against his blindness as the story built, and we could all but see the jaws of the trap waiting to spring, but to see what it became, a father asking the unthinkable just to stay in the game and how his story ended, had me raging. Yet at the same time, it was so utterly heartbreaking to see how it had come to that; and again, it comes down to that idea that truth was the real strength. Would the Aliente’s have survived if he had listened, if he had played the cards he was being offered to shape the game more in their advantage? We will never know, but to see what Kyrra pursuing her truth achieved, makes you wonder.

There were many other secondary characters, and while the way this book focused very much on Kyrra and Arsenault meaning that there is less spotlight for the others, it never felt as though they weren’t as much as part of the world. It also grounded the intrigue, and again goes back to those consequences, because it was not always those making them that paid the price – but those close to Kyrra from her life as a gavaro, whose bond was well done even in the short time we had; to those in her past, that showed there was more than family, like Verrin and Marguerite. They might not have stolen the show, but they shaped in in their own way.

At its heart, Fortune’s Fool is also a love story, and in its own way that is a truth that breaks through everything else. We see the slow, messy build up of the early days, of two hurt and broken people trying to work out how to fit their jagged edges together. It was a slow burn of a build, with setbacks and natural leaps forward; and even when I occasionally wanted to bang their heads together, I was so invested in seeing what they could become together. But I loved that Boord gave is us this tentative, blooming relationship, after the speed and passion of the relationship that gone scorched earth on Kyrra’s life; and that it was all about choice, and truth and consequence; no step of their relationship was done in isolation from connections with other, from the past or the present.

As much as I loved how it built up in the past POV of the dual timeline, it was the messy relationship of the present that ultimately sold me on these two. To have a promise to find someone that is so strong you will face the past, and risk your life, is something…to then find that the man you loved is there but not, was a whiplash I wasn’t expecting. I loved that it wasn’t simple. That it was messy and painful, with new jagged edges from their time apart meaning they couldn’t fit together as well as they once had. That they were both so stubbornly determined to protect the other, even if it cost them anything. There were twists that I didn’t expect, wounds that I look forward to seeing play out after that ending, but it was a relationship that felt so very earned at the end.

I’ve already picked up both Fool’s Promise and Smuggler’s Fortune because I desperately want to spend more time in this world, and I have some lingering suspicions from this first book that I want to see play out. Although, if the rest of the series is like Fortune’s Fool, then what I think I know will probably be turned on its head in the best way possible. This is a chonk of a book, and it demands focus, but the payoff was absolutely spectacular, and I cannot wait to continue with this series.