Review: 'The Saint of Bright Doors' by Vajra Chandrasekera

While it was the stunning cover that first drew my attention, it was the idea of a doomed destiny, divine revolution, cults, and supernatural doors which absolutely hooked me. The Saint of Bright Doors brings together so many different themes and ideas that my mind was whirring. Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 7/11/2023
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group; Tordotcom

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

I probably don't need to restate my love for Sci-Fi & Fantasy here, but I do want to point out that they're genres I feel very comfortable and at home in. These are the genres I go to for intelligent escapism and to have my mind expanded. A lot of the fantasy I read growing up was based on European history, but in recent years I've made an active effort to go beyond that into African, Japanese, and Chinese history and culture through fantasy. I'd say I'm pretty comfortable with the genre and its conventions and yet I was in no way prepared for The Saint of Bright Doors. What Chandrasekera does with these genres, with their tropes, with their world-building, it all honestly blew me away. I don't think this is necessarily the easiest of books to get into, because it hops around a bit and doesn't necessarily explain all the elements of its world. You're dropped into Luriat and have to figure out where you're at and what's going on. For those readers who are just getting into it, I can only recommend perseverance. Reading this novel was a very rewarding experience for me and opened my eyes to a more experimental way of writing and reading fantasy. 

Fetter was born to kill his father. At birth, his mother removed his shadow and trained him to murder. While the prologue explains all this, the novel really starts with an adult Fetter in Luriat. He has left that world behind, he thinks, and is now happy to just be, in the small way he is capable to. In Luriat Fetter has found a group of "almost chosens" who meet weekly for group therapy as well as a partner. Luriat is an odd city, though. On the one hand it provides free housing and stipends to immigrants, but on the other hand it is full of warring legal courts, competing cults, and the threat of plagues and pogroms against immigrants. While Fetter thinks he may have turned his back on his fate, fate has a way of returning. With the potential arrival of a god, a year of plague returning, and news about his mother, Fetter is becoming trapped in various webs and the conclusion threatens to be explosive. The Saint of Bright Doors is a novel about so many different things. It's about destiny and fate, about how our parents shape us, about violence, revolution, immigration, bureaucracy, racism/race theory, and so much more. And I haven't even mentioned the Bright Doors yet! I've found it really hard to summarise this novel for anyone I've spoken to about it because it is at once very complex and yet a simple story I wouldn't want to spoil. 

Vajra Chandrasekera has honestly done something amazing in The Saint of Bright Doors. It is a mix between Urban Fantasy and High Fantasy, which has both emails and mobile phones as well as anti-gods and divine powers. It is a story of a Chosen one being "unchosen" and nonetheless finding themselves on a path of destiny. It is a story about the violence committed against immigrants and the directed violence necessary for revolution. It is not an easy read, in part because Chandrasekera used words I had to Google, like haecceity, but also because Chandrasekera expects you to follow him. The Saint of Bright Doors feels based on South Asian history and culture, while also bringing modern politics into the mix. The narrative moves between realistic depictions and almost dream-like scenes and the transitions aren't always super clear. There is a sense of disorientation to a lot of the novel, as if we're almost as lost as Fetter in this world. Having been an immigrant for most of my life and having tried to make sense of bureaucracy and my own role in things, all while having the benefit of being white, a lot of this disorientation made sense to me, but I can imagine that for some readers it is off-putting. While I couldn't necessarily follow Chandrasekera everywhere he maybe wanted me to, The Saint of Bright Doors is an incredibly thrilling read and one which I know will absolutely reward rereads in the future. 

I give this novel...

5 Universes!

I was absolutely sucked into The Saint of Bright Doors from the very beginning. There is so much going on, so many different themes at play, that it's easy to get a little lost, but Chandrasekera always brought me back. I might have more lucid thoughts at a later point, but for now all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend this book!