TL;DR
The Unbroken kept me glued to the page long past my bedtime. If you’re an epic fantasy fan, this is a can’t miss start to a new series. Highly recommended.
From the Publisher
Review: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark
The Unbroken tells the story of rebellion of the Qazāli people through two characters who begin the novel on the same side. Touraine is a colonial conscript in the Balladairan military, stolen from Qazāl as a child. But more than that, she’s the model conscript. The Balladairans have trained her to be Balladairan despite the fact that they’ll never consider her an equal. She’ll always be a Sand, which is a slur that the Qazāli conscripts have made their own. Touraine rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant with her eyes on being a captain. Luca, the heir to Balladaire’s throne, comes to Qazāl seeking, publicly, to prove herself worthy of throne and, privately, to find the rumored magic of the Qazāli people. Her uncle, the regent who rules Balladaire until he relinquishes the government, keeps putting off Luca’s coronation, and she believes that if she can squelch the rebellion in Qazāl, she can ensure a peaceful transition to her own rule. Luca chooses the unexpected route of seeking peace as a means to end the rebellion. But upon her arrival in the city, the rebels attempt to assassinate her. Touraine spots the attempt, saving the princess’s life. Thus Touraine twines her and Luca’s lives together in a battle over the future of a people and an empire.
Quickly, Touraine’s position is undermined by Balladaire’s racism, and Luca saves her. BUT…but Luca saves Touraine because she can be useful to the princess. Touraine, a native Qazāli, can be a courier/diplomat between Luca and the rebels. Luca, breaking with traditional Balladairan views of Qazāl, really does want peace. But her peace is that of the conqueror, not of the equal. Touraine quickly learns that she’s returned to the city of her birth, and that she has a mother out in the city. The people of Qazāl look upon her as a traitor. How will Touraine broker a peace between a civilization that considers her less than human and a civilization that considers her a traitor?
Simply put, I loved The Unbroken. I never knew where the story was going, and this kept me reading long past when I should have been sleeping. The characters are fantastic, and I wanted them both to succeed even when their goals were in direct competition. The world building is pristine, and I look forward to future books that expand upon it. The magic system was a bit unclear to me while still being cool. All in all, this is the start to a wonderful epic fantasy series.
Touraine
Touraine, poor Touraine. She starts the novel unwanted by her native people and unwanted by the people who stole her. She wants nothing more than to be seen as equal in Balladaire’s estimation despite all evidence to the contrary. Even when she does the right thing by saving the princess’s life during an assassination attempt, she earns a reward as being a decoration at a dinner party. Throughout the novel, she gives us the perspective of a colonized people. At the beginning, she wants more than anything to be Balladairan. She wants their approval and firmly believes that through merit she can rise to a position to improve things for her and the Sands. As a child, Balladaire stole her from her family, her people. They indoctrinated her with Balladaire’s morals and traditions. In addition, Balladaire taught her to look down upon her own culture’s ‘uncivilized’ morals and traditions. Balladaire is an atheist society that considers theists as backwards barbarians. Touraine grew up with these views ingrained in her. Throughout the novel, she confronts the damage that Balladaire inflicted upon her as she tries to reconnect with her culture.
I loved Touraine. She represents the struggles of a colonized people so well. From a young age, she was taught that she and her culture were lesser, and throughout her life, these lessons were reinforced. But Balladaire recognized her efforts to be ‘civilized’ and rewarded her through promotions and responsibilities. They controlled her with the promise of being able to change her circumstances, and her hope made her believe. But Balladairans structured their society such that only Balladairans matter. It’s easy to recognize American society in Touraine’s struggles. How often are African-Americans given the promise of improving their circumstances while presented with the reality of a society structured against them?
Touraine’s decision making revolves around protecting her family, which are the other colonial conscripts. She’s fiercely loyal but in a difficult position where neither society treats her well. Balladaire doesn’t consider her fully human, and Qazāl considers her a traitor despite the fact that she was taken as a child and only lived the life as a soldier pressed into the military. All she has is her fellow troops, and C. L. Clark even takes those away from her. Poor Touraine struggles to do the right thing, and that may mean returning to her roots.
Luca
As I said earlier, I loved the character of Luca. Even though I’m not a princess, I found her and her struggles relatable and understandable. I also recognized the privilege I share with her as a character. By right of birth, she is a Balladairan; thus in the empire, she is ‘civilized’ and a citizen. She doesn’t have to justify her existence, and the barrier to her goals are much different than Touraine’s. She can exist in spaces without anyone questioning why she’s there. Her spot at dinner parties is as guest not decoration. Yet, she recognizes some of the unfairness in her society while remaining blind to how she uses people.
Luca is attracted to Touraine, but I never was clear if it was because of Touraine’s exotic appearance or Touraine’s personality. But there’s a large power imbalance between the two, and Touraine understands this while Luca doesn’t.
As much as I loved Luca, I do recognize that she’s the type of liberal that disappointed Martin Luther King Jr. She “is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…” Luca wants change; she wants the lives of the everyday Qazāli to improve. But she wants it done through order of Balladairan society. She wants to impose improvements upon them instead of letting them choose how to improve their own lives. Small improvements in the lives of the oppressed doesn’t change the oppression. It simply decorates the cage. The Qazāli in the stone quarry may now be receiving a living wage, but their culture is still viewed as ‘uncivilized.’ Their religion is still considered barbaric. Her peace deals are geared more towards the absence of tension than recognizing the shared humanity of Qazāl.
The Cursed City
In the book, the characters talk about a cursed city with a library that potentially contains magic books. Unfortunately, we never get to see the city or the fabled tomes. I hope in future volumes we get to visit the city and learn if magic is there or not. One of my personal favorite tropes is that of the lost library; add in a cursed city and you’ve got my money. C.L. Clark, please, take us to the Cursed City.
The Writing
One of the joys of reading is to try to guess where the author is taking you. A good book for me is one where I get about half of my guesses right because I understand what’s going on but I haven’t figured out the plot. If I can’t guess anything, I usually don’t like the book because I missed something or didn’t understand what I read. (To be clear, the fault generally lies with me, not the author.) In The Unbroken, I had only one guess correct, and C.L. Clark made me doubt that guess enough to change it. I loved that I didn’t know at all where the book was going. Clark wrote well enough that I understood what was going on, and I don’t think I missed anything. Instead, the plot turned right when I was expecting it to turn left. BUT the left turn made just as much sense as my guess. The writing had enough sign posts and details that when the left turn happened it felt natural to the story.
This tension kept me turning the page because the characters dealing with the left turn was as fascinating as if they’d turned right. I enjoyed not knowing where it was going because Clark laid down a foundation early on that the writing controlled the story, not the other way around.
Politics
Yes, surprising, I know, that a book about colonialism contains politics. Okay, sarcasm aside, the political writing is wonderful. Luca’s position is fragile, and yet she tries to change the colonial occupation to be better while missing the whole ‘occupation’ point. The Unbroken contains both nuanced and blunt political actions. Luca, not only has to worry about the rebellion and the throne at home, she has to win over the local Balladairans, who do not especially like her declaration of worker’s rights. Touraine notices right away that the rebel council has factions, and that peace depends on keeping the war hawks at bay.
Clark added public broadsides criticizing Luca, and I don’t remember seeing this in other fantasy that I’ve read. This little detail of a subversive media worked so well as a thorn in the ruler’s side. Books and libraries are important in this world. Qazāli poetry is given to Touraine. So it makes sense that subversive texts exist in the fraught atmosphere of an occupied nation. I like the idea of some hipster Qazāli standing on a corner passing out anti-imperial newsletters and others walking by, trying to avoid taking one.
Conclusion
C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken is a wonderful start to an intriguing new epic fantasy series. The characters, the world, the story, all clicked to provide an entertaining, engaging read. I loved Luca and Touraine, and I can’t wait to see their future adventures. This is a promising start to a new epic fantasy series. The Unbroken lives up to and exceeds all the hype surrounding it.
The Unbroken by C. L. Clark is available from Orbit Books on March 23rd, 2021.
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