In this intricate debut fantasy introducing a queernormative Persian-inspired world, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease that causes political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family. Powerful and fascinating, The Bruising of Qilwa is the newest arrival in the era of fantasy classics such as the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Four Profound Weaves, and Who Fears Death.
Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.
But Firuz and Kofi …
In this intricate debut fantasy introducing a queernormative Persian-inspired world, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease that causes political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family. Powerful and fascinating, The Bruising of Qilwa is the newest arrival in the era of fantasy classics such as the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Four Profound Weaves, and Who Fears Death.
Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.
But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family.
It creates a beautiful, highly interesting Iran-inspired setting. The fantasy medical mystery is not quite the hardest to solve, but the book remains a very fun read. Learning more about its queer-normative society and the land's history kept me turning the pages. Not to mention that some very interesting thoughts about imperialism are expressed through the world building.
The audiobook version is also recommended, the reader does a very good job portraying the different characters, and it is really nice hearing all the non-English words pronounced properly (as far as I can tell, at least).
I urge anyone who feels like venturing outside western fantasy settings to give this a chance.
This book was a delight in a lot of ways. I'd describe this as a medical fantasy ~mystery with a non-binary[*] refugee protagonist Firuz, their trans brother Parviz, and the orphan Afsoneh that they've rescued and included in their family. Firuz overworks themselves in a local clinic to support their family while trying to keep their blood magic a secret and also investigate a mysterious illness.
Even though there's plenty of heavy topics here, it is refreshing how queernormative of a world this is. Firuz and Parviz are never mispronouned. There's one character that has two moms that is unremarked on. Parviz is looking for an alignment spell (i.e. magical gender transition) and Firuz has gone through the same. Firuz's Sassanian culture introduces people with pronouns almost like a title, e.g. they-Firuz or she-Afsoneh which is a fun detail.
In some ways, this reminded me in some ways of The …
This book was a delight in a lot of ways. I'd describe this as a medical fantasy ~mystery with a non-binary[*] refugee protagonist Firuz, their trans brother Parviz, and the orphan Afsoneh that they've rescued and included in their family. Firuz overworks themselves in a local clinic to support their family while trying to keep their blood magic a secret and also investigate a mysterious illness.
Even though there's plenty of heavy topics here, it is refreshing how queernormative of a world this is. Firuz and Parviz are never mispronouned. There's one character that has two moms that is unremarked on. Parviz is looking for an alignment spell (i.e. magical gender transition) and Firuz has gone through the same. Firuz's Sassanian culture introduces people with pronouns almost like a title, e.g. they-Firuz or she-Afsoneh which is a fun detail.
In some ways, this reminded me in some ways of The Witness for the Dead in terms of the urban-centered medical fantasy mystery setup. However, this book doesn't really fit into the mystery genre. It's certainly the main plot arc, but Firuz is not an investigator; if anything they are an overworked clinician who doesn't really have time to do more than worry and whose own secrets and fears prevent them from looking too closely into much until it's too late. I think the other failing on the plot front is that some of the motives of the antagonist are only revealed quite late and would have been better if there had been more room to stretch out with foreshadowing.
I appreciate that there are no easy answers to anything here. Firuz is trapped between hating the lessons of their youth but also respecting some of their wisdom. Qilwa is clearly treating Sassanian refugees poorly, but it turns out there's some historical reasons for that persecution, even if awful. (The author's notes gets into some of this, re: Persians and the idea of the historical oppressors becoming the present day oppressed and how to hold both of these things at once. It reminds me of the dynamics in Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs doing similar things.) Firuz is not a perfect character and even while they overwork themselves to support their family, they struggle in their family (and found family) relationships. The antagonist here has their own reasonable motives for what they're doing.
I enjoyed this a lot personally especially for the richness of the world and characters, but there were also some rough edges in the plot structure. I will absolutely read the next thing Naseem Jamnia writes.
[*] I know pronouns and gender are separate things, but in books without explicit identity labels it's hard to know how characters see their own gender; I do see that the author's own copy about the book says non-binary, so I think it's a fair usage. I also read Firuz as trans here, as they went through their own alignment process, which honestly makes this the only book I've read with a trans and non-binary character, let alone protagonist. Also bonus footnote aside that Firuz is also ace.
It feels like it’s taking forever to get anywhere. It’s so short that I made it over halfway through but I’m not enjoying it and I keep reading other things instead of making any progress.
