Friday Friyay: 'Silk Fire' by Zabé Ellor

Happy Friday! I recently got some amazing news and I'm just waiting for it to be a little bit more official before I share it here, but basically things are good here! The news also means I can kind of relax for the coming month, so I'm lining up my reading. One book I'm planning on reading next week is Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor. From its stunning cover to its setting in a matriarchal city, I'm so down for Silk Fire. This book also has a names and pronunciation guide at the beginning, so I'm already here for it!

Set in a planet-sized matriarchal city where magic and technology freely bleed together, a male courtesan’s quest for vengeance against his aristocrat father draws him into an ancient struggle between dragons, necromancers, and his home district’s violent history.

In the world-sized city of Jadzia, magic and ancient science merge into something dark and wondrous.

Koré’s life is consumed by power, politics, sex and vengeance, and as courtesan to the wealthy and powerful, he is privy to all manner of secrets. He knows meddling in politics is dangerous─still, he is willing to risk everything to stop his father from seizing the Imperial Throne of the War District. But Koré soon finds the corruption runs far deeper than just one man.

During a tryst in an ancient tomb─in the pursuit of political influence─Koré encounters a dying god, who imbues him with the powers of one of the city’s sacred dragons. Suddenly Koré finds himself a hunted man, threatened with becoming a pawn by whoever finds him first.

If the wrong person discovers his secret and lays claim to his powers they would plunge their world into war, unleash untold horrors and destroy the city─and the two people he has come to love.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'The father of the groom stopped halfway up the aisle to spit in my face.' 1%

Ok, that's not how I woulnm swaqd hope a walk down to aisle would go. I wanted to share more, but then this opening line in and of itself is so provoking that no more is needed. Which makes it perfect.

F56:

'"You're a fucking hypocrite," he groused. "Loathing yourself while worrying I'll catch survivor's guilt. Like it isn't already four-fifths of my brain."' 56%

I mean, yessssss. I don't know what's going on, who is saying this to whom, but I'm here for these kind of confrontations. From the blurb it sounds like Silk Fire will be an intense read, full of potential trauma and body politics, so perhaps there is no better time to read this than now.

BBH:

This week's question has been submitted by Billy himself:

In there a hard-to-find first-edition that you would love to own? If so, why?

Ooh great question because trawling through secondhand and antique stores for books is one of my favourite things to do. I don't know, though, if there is one that is specifically hard to find but I would love a first edition of Wuthering Heights. If we want to get really outrageous I would love to own a facsimile of the Beowulf manuscript or something like that, but not a real medieval manuscript because those should be in libraries and archives where they can be accessed by everyone. So I guess a bit of a boring answer this week!

That's me for today! What do you think of Silk Fire?