Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser (Song of the Current)
Published by Bloomsbury on June 6th, 2017
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Page Length: 384 pages
How I got my copy: Publisher
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Caroline Oresteia is destined for the river. For generations, her family has been called by the river god, who has guided their wherries on countless voyages throughout the Riverlands. At seventeen, Caro has spent years listening to the water, ready to meet her fate. But the river god hasn’t spoken her name yet—and if he hasn’t by now, there’s a chance he never will.
Caro decides to take her future into her own hands when her father is arrested for refusing to transport a mysterious crate. By agreeing to deliver it in exchange for his release, Caro finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies, with dangerous pirates after the cargo—an arrogant courier with a secret—and without the river god to help her. With so much at stake, Caro must choose between the life she always wanted and the one she never could have imagined for herself.
From debut author Sarah Tolcser comes an immersive and romantic fantasy set along the waterways of a magical world with a headstrong heroine determined to make her mark.
Note: I received an advanced copy of Song of the Current from the publisher. Some things may have changed in the final version.
Strengths:
- River god! I love unique gods and such and for some reason a god of the river just calls to my heart. Rivers are such strange things, always there but always temporary, the water always on its way somewhere else. Deceivingly simple and safe. Basically all the best things for a god and this river god does not disappoint.
- Just the right amount of sailing details to be authentic without confusing this non-sailor. Despite growing up on a lake, I know basically nothing about sailing (besides what I’ve read in fantasy books :D) and often find myself lost in detail-heavy sailing books. I was never lost in Song of the Current while still encountering enough unfamiliar words in proper context that I very much believe Tolcser did her research.
- Hate to love that actually worked! I’m suuuuuuper picky with hate-to-love romances since if either is too much of an ass in the beginning, they can never redeem themselves in my eyes. Fortunately, this romance pulled it off fabulously with neither character being mean to the other, just frustrated with the situation.
- Unique fantasy details like frogmen and shadowmen. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered frogmen like these. Shadowmen, sure, but frogmen, nope. I love it when an otherwise typical fantasy setting has these unique aspects thrown in.
- Patriarchy stomped all over the place! A major theme of Song of the Current is in fact a dismantling of the patriarchy. Caro runs into some people who don’t think that women are capable of doing everything men can, but her mother comes from a culture where women pretty much rule and expects no different from her daughter.
- Biracial MC described as dark-skinned with tightly curled reddish hair and freckles. Caro is canon bi-racial with her mother being coded as black and her father coded as white/Irish.
- Enthusiastically consensual foreplay (fade to black implied sex) showing teens a healthy model for engaging with a new physical partner. Early in the book there is a scene where Caro is kissed without her consent, to which she gets really pissed, and so I was happy that later on that misstep was thoroughly dealt with.
- Drakon! I shall say no more to avoid spoiling things, but there is a scaly friend in this book, yey!
- Female privateering! I would say pirates, but I don’t want to get skewered ;-).
Weaknesses:
- Almost too fast of pacing where the transitions to a new scene were quite abrupt or a sentence felt missing even though it was for something boring like handing over an item. Made me have to go back and reread to be sure I didn’t miss something. This perhaps will be fixed in the final version, but something to be aware of.
Have you read this one? What did you think? Are you excited for it if you haven’t gotten to it yet?
– Anya
Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser
© 2017, Anya. All rights reserved.