ARC Review: The Four Profond Waves or a big bag of mixed feeling.

Hello people! How are you? Here we are sampling a bit of Autumn, and I can say that I am just so happy! But weather aside, today I’ll try to write a review for a book that made me thorn. And this is quite a feat, so… let’s see if I manage to write something that makes sense!

I received a copy of this book from the editor in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Four Profond Waves
Author: R.B. Lemberg
Page Count: 192
Publication date: September 1st, 2020

Wind: To match one’s body with one’s heart
Sand: To take the bearer where they wish
Song: In praise of the goddess Bird

Bone: To move unheard in the nightThe Surun’ do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But Uiziya now seeks her aunt Benesret in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay.
Among the Khana, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.

As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter.

Set in R. B. Lemberg’s beloved Birdverse, The Four Profound Weaves hearkens to Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. In this breathtaking debut, Lemberg offers a timeless chronicle of claiming one’s identity in a hostile world.

When I received a copy of this book to read and review I was overjoyed, because I was just so so curious! And the more time passed and the more I became curious, because I kept reading interesting things about this book so my expectations were just so high when I started this one! And sadly, I didn’t love it as much as I was expecting.

But I am glad to have read it, and even if I didn’t love it, I still think is a book that deserves to be read. I hope that many many people would read it, because we need more books like this one. I had some problems with this book, but they were all about my personal tastes, and yes, they are important too. So maybe I won’t read any other book by this author, that’s possible, but… but even if personal tastes are important, and it is important to enjoy a book that we are reading because well, why read it if you aren’t enjoying yourself? But… but this book is important. And its importance goes way beyond personal tastes.

This was not my kind of book for quite a lot of reasons: it is too much dream-like for me (I really don’t like dreamlike atmosphere or setting, and so even just a tiny bit of it it is too much for me) and I need more about the world-building to really appreciate it. And I need more from the characters too. It is not a long book, so this was somewhat expected but I have read a lot of books that were short but nearer my tastes for characterization and development of the world and the characters.

But this is a book that deserves to be read. We definitely need more book like this one, and here it is why:

1. We have older characters. To be clear here, we have books in which the characters aren’t young, and we have them in every different genre. But this is a tad different from the others. They are older than our usual characters and they knew that they are old (duh!) but they believe that they deserve happiness nonetheless. They have hope for the future. And this is a precious thing. Our characters here hope for a better future, they hope to become better people, in a sense. And they show us that, truly, it is never to late to change, to follow your dream and to become what you want to be. And this, this is the message we need!
2. It is about diversity and acceptance. And it is not only about the external acceptance. It is not only about others accepting us. But it is about us accepting us. And this is fundamental, too.

I think that those are pretty good reasons to read a book, honestly. And it wasn’t like I didn’t like it like it, it was just that, as my enjoyment of it went, it wasn’t so good. But it has a ton of good points to it, that’s for sure!

And what about you? Have you read this book? Let me know!

Happy reading!
S.