Review: 'Blood Over Bright Haven' by M.L. Wang
Pub. Date: 10/29/2924
Publisher: Random House; Ballantine; Del Rey
For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.
When Sciona finally passes the qualifying exam and becomes a highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome—and, instead of a qualified lab assistant, they give her a janitor.
What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago, he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power.
At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first.
I have to confess that I went into Blood Over Bright Haven expecting something of a TikTok Romantasy/Dark Academia and I can only apologise to M.L. Wang because Blood over Bright Haven is a different beast altogether. At its best, Dark Academia interrogates the stories we tell, the things we tell the next generations, and the secrets we keep from them. Blood Over Bright Haven does that. At its best, Fantasy and Science Fiction create a secondary world in which themes and issues of our own world can be discussed. Blood Over Bright Haven does that. This is a novel about power, who is allowed to have it, and oppression in all its forms. Through the stories of Sciona and Thomil, M.L. Wang confronts the reader with how women, even upper-class ones, are stifled and denied access, and how minorities, including the working class, are used and abused, oppressed and ridiculed. The novel reminded me a little of R.F. Kuang's Babel, as I have seen other reviewers mention as well, in part because these themes are obvious. I know some readers prefer a subtler approach, but I think that occasionally we do need to be hit in the face with them. That is not to say that Blood Over Bright Haven is unsubtle, but when it wants to make a point, it makes it clearly. You'd have to really read past most of the novel to not walk away with questions and thoughts regarding power structures and how we might be benefiting from or playing into them.
Sciona Freynan has dedicated her entire life to studying the magic that keeps her city, Tiran, going and flourishing inside its dome. Outside awaits nothing but the Blight, which ravages all life, and endless winter and darkness. Inside, Sciona is about to take the exam to become a highmage, something no other woman has been allowed to become. Once a highmage, however, Sciona realises she still has to fight for the respect that should come with the title. Given a janitor, Thomil, rather than an assistant, she sets out to prove everyone wrong. Thomil is a Kwen, more precisely a Caldon, a tribe which died from the Blight when they tried to reach Tiran. While Sciona faces difficulties as a Tiranish woman, Thomil shows her the oppression the Kwen experience as second-class citizens. Together, they explore the secrets of Tiran's magic, stumbling upon a horrifying truth that will change everything. Blood Over Bright Haven switches back and forth between Sciona and Thomil's perspectives and I felt that they were mostly well-balanced. I cannot necessarily speak to the representation of minorities through Thomil and the Kwen, but reading it I did feel that Wang built in space for the varieties of difficulties that minorities face. The moments in which Thomil had to make himself small horrified me and yet they felt recognisable from what I have heard from friends.
I adored Sciona, but I also had my issues with her, and all of it had to do with how recognisable she was to me, as a white, middle class woman. See, one thing I was worried about, once the novel's themes started becoming clear about a third in, was that Sciona's POV would hinder Wang's development of them. Sciona is, after all a highly-educated young woman who has reached the highest echelons of society through her own hard work. Through her own struggle, she is blind to those of others. But Wang made Sciona's initial blindness a part of the book in a way which raised it to new heights in my estimation. This is also why her characterisation was something difficult for me to read. In my early adulthood I was a staunch (middle class) Feminist entering academia and for me the gender conflict was the defining one of my life. Meeting new people at university and experiencing more of life, I came to truly realise the continuing heavy influence of class and ethnicity. I am slightly ashamed that it took me until university to fully grasp this and seeing Sciona going through the same realisation was slightly rough to read. I wanted her to be smarter, but only because I wish I had been smarter. By making Sciona's learning process a component of her story, Wang crafts a complex story that avoids falling into the "how could she have known, poor girl"-trap, forcing readers like myself who recognise themselves in Sciona to sit with our own accountability and culpability in the oppression of others.
This is my first time reading anything by M.L. Wang, but I've added her The Sword of Kaigen to my TBR. Blood Over Bright Haven was initially self-published and I am very glad it found a traditional publisher and thereby its way to me. In this novel, Wang crafts a world which felt rich to me, from its history to its practices and customs. Wang also employed history and religion themselves for her world-building, crafting entire philosophies which back the actions of her characters. I also loved getting snippets from these texts throughout because I love books within books. Her characterisations are also solid and I appreciated that she let her characters be flawed. In her single-minded drive for highmage-dom, Sciona is frequently unlikeable, but in a way that felt realistic. Thomil is equally complex, torn between a desperation and a fury he cannot always balance. Again, I cannot speak to the representation as much as with Sciona, but it came across as well-informed. I do recommend taking the Blood in the title seriously. This is a bloody book, with murder and death taking place on page explicitly. Similarly, discrimination, racism, misogyny, and (attempted) sexual assault feature in the book. However, none of this is included for sensationalism's sake, but rather because these horrors exist in our own world and we need to face them head on.
I give this novel...
5 Universes!
Blood Over Bright Haven was not what I expected, but it was exactly the kind of book I needed to read. A stunning, bloody discussion of power and oppression, but also of hope in the face of it all. I did read most of Blood Over Bright Haven in 2024, so it would have been one of my favourites of that year, but now that I finished it in 2025, I can continue talking about it for a whole other year.
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