Story Review - Sun Spoken Turn
I'm actually kind of an emotional mess right now from reading some of the latest chapters to this story.
Put this on the top of your reading list or just read it now.
This is the most beautiful story I have ever read and I can't believe I'm dating the writer.
A soul of fire trapped in the wrong body, Inamatorii is branded and transformed by the vengeful Goddess of the Sun Spoken to enact the old s
I have just finished looping a few story threads from the very beginning. Chapter 89 is about as good a place as I can think of to sit down and write a review for any newcomers.
Sun Spoken Turn has delivered on everything that I have ever wanted in a sprawling fantasy story. I have always hoped a story with a transgender protagonist would come around to step into a well realized setting and find reasons to navigate the world's many traumas beyond their own. Despite everything, this story's protagonist decides to take on the burden of trying to make things a little better for everyone in a way that extends their own perspective to even the most insufferable and cruel. There are people in this setting who have used their power and sway to keep the world in the state it is in, who would rather burn people as more efficient fuel than wood to maintain the status quo.
And now that we're past that confrontation point, a little into Arc 3, this story is showing promise that it is only going to get better from here by looping itself and its themes in such wonderful ways.
Dear Prospective Readers,
I want to invite you into following the path that this story offers up. There is so much that I can show you, and so much more meaning that you will find and embrace than what has reduced me to a bumbling mess of tears wanting better for the characters who have sunk to the same depths as I.
But if were to be brief, the most glowing recommendation I can give you is this: A lot of what I adore about this narrative can be found in how this author handles heavy content that can eat characters and readers alive... without wasting anyone.
This story heavily features characters who need to figure themselves out. So when our protagonist starts out as an understandably fumbling little thing. I ask only that you understand that this is someone who has had their entire life planned out for them.
Our protagonist gets a little magical change as a shard of something old, bitter, and unpleasant gets the opportunity to read their life like a book before burrowing its way into their dreams. Within moments, this city has lost one more of its precious few breeding males.
Taken in by a chance meeting with a kind cast of some of the most endearing strangers to walk the paths between settlements, our protagonist has a lot to adapt to. And I really encourage you to be patient with her. Beyond her own traumas, there are histories, injustices, and misunderstandings of this world to uncover that stretch back an uncomfortable amount of time that will be peeled back in layers and constantly revisited with fresh perspectives.
But how we solve the problems we face now really matter.
They are going to snowball into how we treat others who we think will carry the same wounds but constantly surprise us with what this world has done to them. (For both good and ill. Gosh, there are as many heartwarming surprises as there are heartbreaking ones.)
So much of this story is learning out to take care of ourselves and each other despite encountering the unexpected. To give fairly spoiler free examples - surprise encounters with someone's family and the past constantly catching up to us. Sometimes it is the same past on multiple occasions. At some point you have to turn around and deal with it.
At other times it is important to get away, to have uncomfortable conversations with people you trust. But all of this serves to build a strong support structure for when you must confront people you can't trust and sometimes words just aren't enough. And then there are the rare moments. Moments where you can prove everyone wrong and say the right words to heal wounds that have festered for countless years.
There are also cute birds, crabs, and monsters that constantly remind me how much I adore how well this author uses every actor in its setting to deepen your appreciation for what it is like to live in this world.
But I've gone on long enough.
You've your own path to walk from this point onward.
While I can't dictate where that path will take you, I can assure you that this is your life to live.
But if I could make one recommendation, I encourage you to allow this story's many lovely girls to sweep you off your feet.
Anyway here's an alternative link to another site. (If this review isn't gay enough for you, you can read the back and forth comments the author and I left each other on Royal Road deep into the night. At some point I took those comments to patreon, and a few months after that I just started whispering my feedback directly into the author's ear. When you get to Weight of Broken Promises, my comments moved to scribblehub... but that was such a cathartic moment for me to have inspired this author to push the themes of this story as hard and raw as they get.)
A soul of fire trapped in the wrong body, Inamatorii is branded and transformed by the vengeful Goddess of the Sun Spoken to enact the old s