Until All Curses Are Lifted is a 2019 young adult
epic fantasy novel by Tim Frankovich. It was released in August of 2019 and
published by Warpsteel Press. The author provided me with a free copy of the
book in exchange for an honest review.
The novel takes place in a fantasy world where the law is
imposed by magic. If a person breaks the law, they’re cursed in one way or
another. The only exception to this rule are the reigning six Lords of the world,
Antises, who figured out a way centuries ago to bypass that particular rule. The
story follows two protagonists: Marshal and Seri. Marshal was born cursed as
punishment for the crimes of his father. He discovers that he’s heir to immense
magical power and this leads him to flee for his life because his half-brother
wants the power for himself and hires an assassin to pursue him. No one has
ever escaped a curse, but Marshal, his mother Aelia and another boy from their
village named Victor, journey to lift Marshal’s curse so that he can truly be
safe. Seri, meanwhile, wants to become the first female mage and the most
powerful mage in history. The magic that holds Antises together is failing and
no one knows why. While the ground itself shakes, someone starts murdering
mages. In danger from all directions, Seri must learn how to use her unique
abilities before everything falls apart. As both Marshal and Seri go on their respective
journeys, neither knows they’re being watched from another realm.
Marshal might be the first main character of his kind that I’ve
read. As explained above, Marshal is cursed due to the actions of his father. His
curse is that he’s unable to communicate. He can’t speak, or make any type of
sound, he can’t use a form of sign language and the only way he can get any information
across is by nodding or shaking his head, and that’s only if he remembers what
each gesture means. This means that, while the reader sees things from Marshal’s
perspective through his narration and thoughts, we’re the only ones who know
what he’s thinking, the other characters do not. Since he can’t speak, many
characters believe he isn’t aware of what’s going on or doesn’t fully understand
things happening around him, but he does, he just can’t express that. At the
beginning of the novel, Aelia, Marshal’s mother, is the only person who seems
to care about him. Everyone in the village, and the world at large, loathe
people who are cursed, even children who were born that way. Aelia is the
driving force behind Marshal’s story and one of the strongest, most complex
characters I’ve read in a while. She doesn’t care where she has to go or what
she has to do, she’s going to get Marshal’s curse lifted. At the same time, she’s
never willing to tell anyone much about her plans, keeping things very close to
her chest. Seri is the other main character and she is committed to not only
being the first female mage, but also the greatest mage of all time. She
arrives at Zes Sivas, where mages are trained, to learn magic as magic is causing
the world to fall apart. Seri and her fellow acolytes are the highlights of the
chapters taking place at Zes Sivas. They’re dripping with personality and
agency. One of my favorite traits of Seri’s is how curious she is about what’s going
on around her and how tenacious she is about finding answers. Everyone else
just wants to stop the world from falling apart, while she wants to understand
why it’s falling apart to begin with. There’s a whole host of other characters,
both good and bad, that I enjoyed in this story, and it would take me forever
to run through all of them. Frankovich did an excellent job writing interesting
and unique characters.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is the way the alternating
POVs is used to tell the story. Marshal’s journey shows the reader the world in
the way an average person would see it. His group travels to different lands,
meets people of different cultures and gives a more down-to-earth perspective
of things. Seri’s story, meanwhile, reveals information about Antises in a
broader sense. Through her studying magic, the reader learns how magic works in
this world. Through Zes Sivas preparing for an annual ritual, the six different
lands are explained, including current tensions between the lands. Seri and Marshal’s
stories do overlap, but not until close to the end of the novel, which I liked
because it gave both storylines a chance to breathe and develop without the
plots contriving to bring them together. The story ends exactly where it needs
to, and concludes enough of the story to be satisfying while providing the framework
for the sequel, which according to the excerpt at the end, is titled Until
All Bonds Are Broken.
This book surprised me. I feel like a lot of young adult
fantasy, including young adult epic fantasy, tends to shy away from some of the
more nitty-gritty aspects of life. While
there isn’t gratuitous violence, Until All Curses Are Lifted doesn’t shy
away from it either. There’s a fair amount of violence, bloodshed and death.
The same is true for discussions of sex and other topics some books like to gloss
over or pretend don’t exist. While I found those aspects of the story
refreshing, what really surprised me was the themes of this story and how deep
some of those themes run. One of the major themes is about power and how it corrupts
those who wield it when left unchecked. That theme isn’t uncommon, but here it’s
shown, both literally and figuratively, and runs through multiple storylines, not
just one. There’s also something to be said for its message about fear of the
unknown or unfamiliar. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
While I enjoyed Until All Curses Are Lifted, I do
have some criticism to share. The pacing is a little strange. Obviously, a
fight scene or scene with a lot of tension is going to feel more fast-paced
than just two people talking, but there were parts of this story where the
pacing of a scene didn’t make sense for what was happening within a scene. Likewise,
the way the story is broken up into chapters felt weird to me. There were a few
instances where two consecutive chapters could’ve been one single chapter instead.
There are 430 pages in the book, and it’s 83 chapters when it could’ve been
closer to around 50 if some of the chapters had been combined. I know it’s not
a huge deal, but I did find that choice to be a little odd. While I enjoyed the
story overall, and the ending, I do think there could’ve been a little bit more
foreshadowing about some of the revelations at the end, but I can understand
why Frankovich might be holding off until the sequel to delve into some of
those things. I have some complaints about the novel, but they didn’t distract
from my enjoyment of the book.
Until All Curses Are Lifted is a solid epic YA
fantasy. The characters are well-written, the world is fascinating and the
story is refreshing. I look forward to seeing more of it in the sequel when it’s
released. I would recommend it to any epic fantasy fan, both teenagers and
adults. It would be especially enjoyable for readers that like hybrid magic
systems.
