The Mountain of Kept Memory, Rachel Neumeier, 448 pages

The king of Carastind has somehow offended the Kieba, the last living remnant of the dead gods’ power. When unrest in the neighboring kingdom leads to a threat of invasion, Prince Gulien must travel to the Kieba’s mountain in hopes of regaining her favor. Meanwhile, Princess Oressa, who has spent her life pretending to be meek and avoiding her father’s baleful eye while secretly learning everything she can of statecraft, must step out into the light and use her knowledge and skills to save the kingdom.

I’m of two minds about this novel. On the one hand, the worldbuilding is very cool – the gods’ death unleashed plagues across the land, as well as leaving powerful artifacts scattered around, ready for mortals to misuse. The Kieba averts the plagues and works to reclaim the artifacts – but is she doing so in the best interests of humanity? And the Kieba’s doorkeeper/secretary/AI, the kephalos, is very interesting. However, the racial and gender politics at play weren’t really critically engaged with: Tamarist, the enemy kingdom, is full of dark-skinned people with a brutal method of ensuring succession and a penchant for keeping women in literal golden cages; meanwhile, Carastind, a land of light-skinned people, has a very cookie-cutter patrilineal succession, and Princess Oressa has never left the palace in her life, a parallel which could be powerful if it felt deliberate. Additionally, the pacing is very odd. Each section feels like, “Oh, this is the real plot. Oh, THIS, is the real plot,” until the book ends. And to my eternal frustration, the cover was clearly designed by someone who hadn't read the book (and didn't understand that that arched window looks like an A).

As I wrote this review, my opinion has shifted. I don’t think I really liked this book. There are certainly much better paced and better thought out fantasy novels out there, and a reader should look for those instead.