Wind: To match one’s body with one’s heart
Sand: To take the bearer where they wish
Song: In praise of the goddess Bird
Bone: To move unheard in the night
The Surun’ do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But Uiziya now seeks her aunt Benesret in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay.
Among the Khana, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.
As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter.
Set in R. B. Lemberg’s beloved Birdverse, The Four Profound Weaves hearkens to Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. In this breathtaking debut, Lemberg offers a timeless chronicle of claiming one’s identity in a hostile world.
The Four Profound Weaves
R. B. Lemberg
Published: 4th September 2020
Goodreads
Rep: trans mcs, nonbinary side character, past polyamory
CWs: deadnaming, misgendering, transphobia
5 Reasons to Read this Book
ARC kindly provided by Tachyon Publications
One. The worldbuilding is incredibly intriguing, and detailed, so that you will find yourself just wanting to read more and more of the world. Good thing this is an entire 12 novella series, then!
Two. The writing is gorgeous and evocative and you will feel as though you are really in the world.
Three. It’s got a fun and creative magic system, one of the most inventive we’ve read.
Four. It’s also a magic system that considers gender and transitioning. There are so many fantasy worlds that don’t consider that, that it’s such a breath of fresh air to read one that does.
Five. If you’re looking for books with older mcs (and we mean older older), then this is one for you.
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