Tome Thursday: Cobweb Bride

Hello everyone!

Back with the first book review of the new year, and BOY do I have a kicker for you!

I mean, to be fair, I saved it because it sort of sounded like something I might potentially enjoy, and then some, but at the time when I took it from the Kobo free book offer, I stashed it away and didn't feel like reading it quite yet.

Then after over-indulging in Christmas books and all that other gooey stuff, I needed something else to clear my head.

Oh, and I have to load Drums of Autumn again. Why did I delete it off my ereader?

I don't know, Kobo; I truly don't know.

But I digress.

Tonight's blog post is about a book that's just ... it was SO GOOD. I couldn't put it down, even though I'd spent a lot of time translating, my eyes were smarting and the letters were dancing.

But Cobweb Bride refused to let me out of her web until I got to the final dot.

I didn't know the author, Vera Nazarian, before picking up this book. Now that I DO, however, I may pick up her other books as well, because someone who was a Nebula Award Finalist (twice!) deserves to have her work read.

And reviewed.

And praised.

And then read again.

Actually, I think I need to go back to the Bride and read it through one more time just in case I missed some of the stuff from the first read-through.

But what's it about, you ask?

Well, do any of you recall the Hades and Persephone myth from Greek mythology? As in, Hades spies Persephone in the world above, he falls in love with her, he kidnaps and marries her, he and his mother-in-law Demeter get into a tantrum over who gets to have her (Persephone has no say, obviously), which is how humans get their winter months though I suspect the Austrians right now are cussing out Demeter and Elsa both.

And then it's all settled by the fact that Persephone ate three pomegrenade seeds in the Underworld, which means she spends three months below, and the other nine up top.

If you haven't guessed already, this is going to be a retelling of this myth, but with a bit of a twist.

See, the story begins when Death pops up from his deathly domain, in a few places at once (because he's cool like that) and announces to all and sundry that his bride has been taken from him. And until the mortals deliver his Cobweb Bride to him, death will cease. No one will die anymore, and no one will pass over. They have to bring his bride to his Shadow Fortress, and only then when the marriage rites are complete, will Death begin his job once more.

Er, alrighty then.

Let's review that bit first, shall we?

Do we KNOW what it means, for death to cease? Humans have been enchanted with the idea of immortality since the get-go. But has anyone actually given thought to the mechanics of it? As in the original myth, in which Hades threatened to unleash the spirits back into the world and cease his duties, here no one can die anymore.

This means a person gets stabbed ... and keeps going. Someone on the brink of death, like an elderly relative, can't die and is in death throes forever. And there's MORE.

Did you think that this applies only to humans? What about animals? The game we hunt to put on our plates, the cows we slaughter for our steaks? Well, they can't exactly die either, can they? Or the grain when you harvest it, or the berries you pick ... basically, as the book explains, any food that was set aside BEFORE Death's announcement is good to eat. But for the rest ... not so much. It kind of refuses to cook.

So then what? Starvation? You can't die from lack of food, either.

That's a hell of a conundrum right there.

Of course different people react differently to the situation.

The Realm itself wants to find this Cobweb Bride and send her over - let people die again, as it should be! This means each family must send one of their daughters on the long trek north. So that's that.

Among them is young Percy, namesake of the original Persephone, who's a middle daughter, not exceptionally pretty, apparently not bright (she is, but she hides it), but who wants to make sure her grandmother dies in peace. So she volunteers to go North and offer herself up as the Bride.

Conversely, in the Imperial Silver Court, the only daughter and heir, the Infanta, gets stabbed to death by an assassin, Vlau, whose family has apparently been torn apart by the court itself. Only, she can't die, so all she does is bleed all her blood out and then she keeps on going. But she DOES want to go and offer herself as Bride, so that the rest may live, and die peacefully.

And as for some ... there's always going to be individuals who want what they can't have. One of the northern dukes decides, hey, immortality is kind of neat! I don't want it to end!

Let's send ambushes into the forest bordering the road North so the girls don't ever reach Death.

Because that's super smart to do, yeah.

Anyway, with a little help from a woman who's either a witch or knows a thing or two about everyday logic, Percy and the rest of the girls on the way North trust to the horse dragging their wagon and find a hidden path that takes them through the forest, out of sight of the dreaded black knight who's terrorising travellers.

This black knight is none other than Lord Beltain himself, son of that duke up there who thinks immortality is so cool, and he's driven to exhaustion, which results in Percy whacking him with the skillet and knocking him unconscious when he tries to take her captive (unleash your inner Samwise Gamgee, girl!).

Instead, she takes HIM captive, and along with the Infanta and Vlau, who's now her apparent bodyguard (because in reality his 'dead' family members faked their deaths and are spies), they're all on their way North to find Death's fortress, and offer themselves as brides.

This, they actually manage, thanks to Percy who has this unique ability to see shadows - the true deaths of people who were supposed to die - and she leads them to the fortress.

There, they finally meet Death himself, who isn't satisfied, however, because NONE of the girls are his bride! So the world can keep on going. He'll chill until they find her. Tenacious Percy, however, grasps his hand and is whisked into his mind, where she sees that Death is actually a bridegroom - waiting for the wedding to commence. She also learns that each person passing over is given one of his tokens, as this is a sort of marriage rite, but that his bride was stolen from him. And only Percy can find her.

Which she does, by looking in a mirror covered with cobwebs. And Death bestows upon her something else - a piece of his heart, so that she may recognize the Bride when she sees her, and be guided to her.

And also, Percy can do something else with this piece of heart.

She understands Death a little better.

Death, dying, dead.

She can kill. Or, grant death to those she chooses.

The first one being her grandmother, after the lot of them return to her home town, along with Beltain, who has sworn allegiance to the Infanta, who will attempt to find the true Cobweb Bride to reunite her with her groom.

And at the same time, the immortal Duke receives someone of his own - a spy from the Sapphire Court, from the Domain, which wants to overrun the Realm.

So basically ... we screwed, ppl.

Tune in for book two, Cobweb Empire.

xx

*image not mine