The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family - the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors - hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.
But that god cannot be contained forever.
With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom - and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.
Staff Choice: Sophie
I’ve never read a fantasy book quite like this. The first 100-150 pages just blew me away and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The book is told through 3 interwoven narrative strands: a 2nd-person POV listening to their grandmother’s stories, that same POV watching a theater performance, and the ‘regular’ 3rd-person fantasy about the Moon Throne – and somehow Simon Jimenez never once had me confused about where I was in the story. In fact, moving so seamlessly back and forth through these layers drew me deeper into the book, Inception-style.
As for the story, it’s a timeless tale of corrupted power, godlike royals, the Moon and the Water, survival, war, and deep, yearning, devoted Love. But it’s the way that it’s told that lifted this fantasy above all else for me this year, even if the rest of the book never quite reached the heights of tension of that incredible first section.
