What I'm Reading: Master of Poisons
This book has a lot going on. At its core it's a fantasy about people dealing with political and environmental catastrophe.
I'm lucky enough to work with some really cool people, and one of my coworkers shares my love of Andrea Hairston's work. She sent me Master of Poisons through the mail, and I skipped it to the top of my "to be read" book pile. This is my favorite of Hairston's books that I've read to date. It's so many things, but at its core it's a fantasy about people dealing with political and environmental catastrophe.
This book has a lot going on. It follows Djola, one of the advisors of the lord of the Arkhysian Empire (and the master of poisons) and Awa, a young woman whose family sells her away but whose calling is to become a powerful griot. It's a story of upheaval and an empire struggling in the face of disaster. It's a story of magic, and pirates, and spiritual elders attuned to nature. It's a story of political and personal betrayal and of resilience. It's the story of blood and chosen family and how strong these ties can be. It's a story of the struggle to make the world a better place.
There were times that this book was much darker than I would prefer, but the characters and the beautiful worldbuilding kept me going. There is battle, and injuries, and characters who become disabled from the injuries they sustain. Characters are tortured and sold into slavery, and the hierarchy of the empire can be hard to read about. Master of Poisons explores the horrors of political and religious corruption and the ways in which people can decimate their own environment and population because of greed. It also explores the ties of family, found family, and the complications of love.
My favorite part of the book was reading about the spirituality and magic of the characters, especially the green elders. I also appreciated the ways in which the characters' relationships were woven together, and the ways their backstories were entangled.
This is a book of magical, spiritual, and physical battles. A corrupt government whose members are jockeying for power. A father who leaves his family because of duty and fights for every inch towards home again. A young woman who has to rebuild her chosen family over and over as they are all tossed about by the sea of fate.
By the end, my heart ached at all of the loss and suffering that was packed into this book's pages. Still, I felt it was well worth the read.
