★★★☆☆ Slow, predictable

Of Light and Shadow

Tanaz Bhathena

I don't like writing negative reviews, and I will try to keep this short. On the positive side, the final climactic scene was fairly entertaining. Also, I appreciated Bhathena's perspective. In her Author's Note she writes

According to the Zoroastrian faith, good and evil, truth and lies, light and shadow are symbolized by twin spirits: Spenta Mainyu (also called Ahura Mazda) and Angra Mainyu (also called Ahriman). While modern Zoroastrians like myself worship Ahura Mazda as the Supreme God, we also believe in the concept of free will and that the twin spirits symbolize the choices we face in our daily lives.

I had not, to my knowledge, read a novel told from an explicitly Zoroastrian point of view. I also appreciated that Bhathena based her bandit chief Roshan Chaya in part on real Indian bandits: Phoolan Devi and Paan Singh Tomar.

But, but, but... If you read a lot of fiction, you may sometimes feel that there are only six stories, which get told over and over again. Thus, when I read Of Light and Shadow, I thought to myself "Didn't I just read this?" In fact, I had, more or less -- Dragonfall by L.R. Lam was substantially the same story. Now, this is not a bad thing -- some stories deserve to be told again and again, and a new story-teller can make an old story new again. As always, your mileage may vary, but Tanaz Bhathena's telling of this story didn't work well for me. It was slow. And the predictability of the plot made the slow progress harder to bear. I found myself thinking as I read, "We both know where this is headed [and I did -- nothing that happened really surprised me] -- could you not fast forward just a bit?"

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advance reader copy of Of Light and Shadow. This review expresses my honest opinions. To be released 23-May-2023.

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