Spellslinger – Spellslinger #1 – Sebastien de Castell

There are three things that earn you a man’s name among the Jan’Tep. The first is to demonstrate the strength to defend your family. The second is to prove you can perform the high magic that defines our people. The third is simply to reach the age of sixteen. I was a few weeks shy of my birthday when I learned that I wouldn’t be doing any of those things.

Magic is a con game. 

Kellen is moments away from facing his first mage’s duel and the start of four trials that will make him a spellcaster. There’s just one problem: his magic is gone. As his sixteenth birthday approaches, Kellen falls back on his cunning in a bid to avoid total disgrace. But when a daring stranger arrives in town, she challenges Kellen to take a different path. Ferius Parfax is one of the mysterious Argosi – a traveller who lives by her wits and the three decks of cards she carries. She’s difficult and unpredictable, but she may be Kellen’s only hope… 

Review:

 

Another book series by Sebastien de Castell! I now invite you to have a mental image of me excitedly dancing around my living room. I loved the Greatcoats series and honestly, it has taken me too long to pick up the Spellslinger books. Now that I have though I’m completely hooked. De Castell is a master storyteller and can get you invested in his characters and their storylines in a heartbeat. 

 

Kellen’s backstory might seem familiar: son of a powerful Jan’Tep Spellcaster who is destined to become the next Clan Prince, brother to an equally powerful sister who is living up to the potential of the family legacy. But Kellen is different. The closer he gets to his sixteenth birthday, the more his powers seem to fade. He is however very clever and uses trickery to try and pass his trials. Unfortunately that doesn’t turn out as he had hoped it would.

 

The magic system was very interesting. There are different powers connected to certain elements: Breath, Silver, Blood, etc. These elements are tattooed in bands on every child’s arms. To access the full potential of that power they have to “spark the band”. In my imagination this is something like a black tattoo suddenly becoming full, vivid colour. Their magic also seems dependent on a place they call an “oasis”. It basically seems to be a hub of power and the closer you get to it, the stronger your powers become. Every Jan’Tep city is built around an oasis. 

 

The Jan’Tep society is not a peaceful and loving community and is based around an oppressive tier system. People with no or insufficient magic who didn’t pass their trials are called Sha’Tep and become servants. Some of them even work in the mines to dig up some of the elements needed for the Jan’Tep to channel their magic. Jan’Tep themselves can’t access the mines because proximity to such a big dose of the elements makes them ill. It’s clear early on in the book that power is everything for this community and if you are not strong enough, you will be cast out. 

The bullying Kellen has to endure when it becomes more and more apparent he will probably not be able to pass his trials is heart-breaking. His only allies are an Argosi wanderer who saved his life and a creature thought to have been extinct and that the Jan’Tep fear and hate.

 

I was pleasantly surprised when the book veered away from its focus on the trials and Kellen’s personal struggles with them and instead delved deeper into the history of the Jan’Tep. Though Kellen firmly remains at the center of the story, he gets tangled up in something that runs far deeper than just his lack of magic. This made the book immediately feel more mature and brought a lot more depth. 

There is a certain part in the book where a big secret is revealed and Kellen’s parents reaction to that absolutely broke my heart into pieces. Only an extremely talented writer like de Castell can convey the surge of emotions I felt while reading this chapter. 

 

I’m once again in awe of the way de Castell crafts his stories. I thought it would be hard to keep the momentum of magnificent storytelling that we got in the Greatcoats going when crossing over to a different story, but I was wrong. De Castell has done an amazing job and I can’t recommend his books enough!