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'Beautifully wrought dark fantasy' NetGalley Reviewer A MAN MARKED BY MAGIC. A WOMAN MARKED BY HER PAST. On the other side of the Shadowpass, rebellion is brewing and refugees have begun to trickle into the city at the edge of the world. Looming high on the cliff is The Nest, a fortress full of mages who offer protection, but also embody everything the rebellion is fighting against: a strict hierarchy based on magic abilities. When Isha arrives as a refugee, she attempts to fit in amongst the other mages, but her Kher tattoo brands her as an outcast. She can't remember her past or why she has the tattoo. All she knows is that she survived. She doesn't intend to give up now. Tatters, who wears the golden collar of a slave, knows that this rebellion is different from past skirmishes. He was once one of the rebels, and technically, they still own him. He plans to stay in the shadows, until Isha appears in his tavern. He's never seen a human with a tattoo, and the markings look eerily familiar . . . As the rebellion carves a path of destruction towards the city, an unlikely friendship forms between a man trying to escape his past and a woman trying to uncover hers, until their secrets threaten to tear them apart. The Collarbound hooks from the opening page and will appeal to fans of magical, brink-of-war settings, like that of The Poppy War and The City of Brass. 'Zahabi deftly creates a fully-realized and richly described world, providing a quiet yet striking exploration of the way inequality and injustice often serve as the bedrock of systems of power' M. J. Kuhn, author of Among Thieves… (more)
User reviews
The Kher is another underclass in the town, bearing horns that curve into their heads and will eventually grow into their skulls and kill them; they are treated badly by many, even though they are largely immune to the mind-powers of the mages. All the trouble is building and Tatters and Isha will be in the middle of it all.
50 pages - did not like the writing style at all - it was very confusing and I did not care about the characters or the story
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When Isha arrives as a refugee, she attempts to fit in amongst the other mages, but her Kher tattoo brands her as an outcast. She can't remember her past or why she has the tattoo. All she knows is that she survived. She doesn't intend to give up now.
GSFF Book Club, May 2022. Signed by the author with yellow to orange ombre sprayed page edges. #1012 of 2000 numbered copies.