Romantasy is full of tropes. Almost always. It’s a hallmark of the genre. It can all start to blend together after a while. But there are shining examples, like Cortney L. Winn’s Vesselless, that take those familiar tropes, and put them in an entirely original space and make them feel brand new.
Nizzara, a fierce warrior, is the heir to her father’s throne. A throne he seized in a brutal coup from the Kingdom’s previous ruler. He’s training her to be as ruthless and unfeeling as him, and she’s deeply conflicted between what she knows is right and the anger that seethes beneath her skin. She enters a tournament to fight for her right to end the betrothal her father has demanded for her but to win this tournament, she needs some help from a ghostly enemy.
King Dagen, murdered and usurped by Nizzara’s father, is cursed to an afterlife as a deathwalker. He’s just mostly dead, not all dead. He can shift between his spirit form and human form at will, but he’s bound in servitude to a cruel death god. That death god gives him a task, to bring him Nizzara’s soul in exchange for his freedom. The only problem is that she has to give him her soul voluntarily or the death god will take his soul in exchange.
This book is a beautiful exploration of the mixed feelings involved with an abusive parent, the love, and the rage. The characters are all deeply complex, blending all kinds of grey areas in a way that feels deeply authentic. Dagen, in many ways, is a classic romantic hero. He’s charming and more than a little dangerous. Nizzara is a classic romantic heroine who is ferocious and faces enormous battles that sometimes seem impossible to overcome.
While the characters and their journeys play on familiar frameworks, they exist in a world that is entirely Vesselless‘ own. The magical system is utterly fascinating, with each character bonded to a spirit, linked to them with a ring that sinks into their flesh. The vessels they bond with lend them extraordinary powers, both in battle and in day-to-day life. The world-building is incredibly well done. Everything is very clear to the readers, without ever being over-explained in an information dump, which is a difficult thing to achieve in a fantasy novel.
Vesselless boasts a great deal of action coupled with a tantalizingly slow-burn romance that makes for an engrossing read. This story keeps the readers hooked from the first page to the last with its clever premise, but be warned. This story ends on a bit of a cliff’s edge, so you, like me, might be waiting eagerly for book two.
Writing: 4.5
Spice: 2
Leave a Reply