The Silver Forest is as compelling as it is imperfect. The wizards are fascinating – inscrutable and detached, almost inhuman. And terrifyingly powerful. The first chapter illustrates this magnificently. I was breathless as Malzus made his attempt. It’s also where the first cracks show. It can’t be helped that there are nine members of the council and it does an admirable job of not overwhelming you. However that doesn’t remain the case with chapter six throwing eight characters your way. And seven characters in chapter twelve. 

Malzus is detestable and pitiable, and I enjoyed reading his chapters but they stood out instantly as some of the weakest parts of the book. Not all prologues are set in a different time than the story proper but having it as one rather than the first chapter would have signalled that more clearly. Better yet – a subheading. We find out that’s the case when the narrative returns to Malzus and there’s a mad dash to recount all the years that have passed. It almost makes you breathless trying to keep up. This does improve with each of his chapters but it’s not the only time this happens. 

Chapter six and twelve are overloaded with characters. Some of whom I expect to become more relevant as the series progresses but some of whom are just thrown in to die. It’s hard to keep up for that reason alone but I have never skipped a stone across water as much as this chapter does across locations. There are fantasy novellas, yes. But the image conjured by the mention of them tends to be longer works. A few more chapters would have given both the narrative and readers more space to breathe. 

The longer chapters don’t entirely escape this sense either. They encompass such spans of locations and progress that they often read like run-on paragraphs. It leaves the pace uneven. But while our first meeting the Aris is frustrating and unclear the world building does find its feet. The Tulanders by virtue of having connection to Asmar and Remer but finer details come through with time. I do love that craftsman are so happy to tell Asmar about their work, for instance. It does toe the line of infodumping but their pride in their work saves it. 

Asmar and Remer are the strongest portions of the book. They have the most internality and their characterisation is strong. It spends the most time focused on them so their sections have the strongest sense of consistent pacing. Asmar’s identity is obvious but the reveal comes at a well paced point in the story where the mystery has built but not overstayed its welcome. And there’s a quiet tragedy in Asmar’s journey as he becomes the person who can face Malzus and ever less the boy from Tuland. 

Through the book is carefully woven doubt in the way wizards are and are seen. It truly is excellently done. Whether this is a tragedy of falling short of ideals or it leans into the aspects most resembling colonialism will be riveting to see play out. 

Thanks to iRead Book Tours and J.D. Rasch. I leave this review voluntarily.