★★★★☆ An intelligent debut

The Last Bloodcarver

Vanessa Le

I bought this book because of the spectacular cover, . Judge this book by its cover!

Of course you want to know what a Bloodcarver is. The best place to begin is Vanessa Le's author biography

Vanessa Le graduated from Brown University with a degree in Health and Human Biology and now resides in Portland, Oregon. Her writing is an expression of her love for medicine and her Vietnamese heritage. When not writing, she can be found studying medicine, spoiling her two Shiba Inus, or wishing she were writing.

A heartsooth, we learn, is a healer who communicates and affects the body through touch. "Bloodcarver" is a sort of slur used for a heartsooth by those who don't understand. One suspects that Le herself aspires to be something like a heartsooth.

Although Nhika grew up in Central Theumas and knows no other place, her mother and father escaped from the conquered and oppressed Island of Yarong, where all heartsooths came from. Because Theumas fears bloodcarvers, Nhika hides her abilities. But she is discovered, captured, and sold to the wealthiest family in Theumas. They want her to heal a man in a coma, whom they believe to have witnessed the murder of their father. Nhika is, as far as she knows, the last heartsooth.

Theumas is an unusual setting for a fantasy novel. Fantasy novels tend to take place in pre-technological, feudal settings, and Theumas is not that. It is comparable to twentieth century Earth in many ways: they have electric lights and firearms and automata and sophisticated medical technologies. Neither is The Last Bloodcarver Urban Fantasy, either. It is something quite new and original.

The story that ensues is a good one. I knew without reading her biography that Le had studied medicine and neuroscience. It is also an exceptionally intelligent plot. The characters are complex and interesting.

I had one complaint. Most of the novel felt emotionally flat -- if I could explain what exactly I mean by that, I would. Despite all the interesting things happening, I somehow didn't feel emotionally involved. I say "most of the novel", because the last four chapters were different. The story comes to a gripping climax. The ending is not exactly a cliff-hanger, but much is left unresolved. You'll want more.

The Last Bloodcarver is the first novel of a Duology. We must wait an entire year for His Mortal Demise, !

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