Review: The Sorcery Code, by Dima Zales
I’m not normally a fan of fantasy, but when I saw this book on sale, I decided to give it a go. Ultimately, I thought it made for a pleasant downtime read: nothing too complicated or revolutionary, but complex and interesting enough to keep me engaged.
The book takes place in a world where magic is the norm – for only the population’s upper classes and nobility. Otherwise, commoners and “peasants” are discouraged and prevented from learning the magical language and are made to live and work on the territories of powerful landowners, typically sorcerers. An ongoing drought has sparked rebellion and heightened tensions between these two groups of people. Enter our main character, Blaise; once regarded as a member of the elite sorcerers but cast out after the council’s trial and execution of his brother, Blaise is skilled sorcerer who seeks to make magic accessible to everyone by creating a magical object able to translate regular language into workable spells for any purpose. After days and nights of working with the Spirit Realm (the plane of reality responsible for the existence of magic), he eventually causes this object to manifest in the form of Gala, a young, beautiful woman whose naivete about the real world is as impressive as her ability to absorb knowledge and solve complex computations in her head almost instantaneously.
The pair’s efforts are set at odds to another duo: the seductive sorceress and Blaise’s former lover, Augusta, and Barson, a military man and Augusta’s current lover. Blaise and Augusta’s opinions stand on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the accessibility of magic, and their beliefs remain just as contrasted with the creation of Gala, whom Augusta believes is a host of “unnatural life” and remains paranoid that the powerful Gala may not mean entirely well for the mere mortals of the real world when once she does learn how to wield her powers.
The writing is simple, easy to follow, and easy to read. Each chapter of the book is a point-of-view switch between Blaise, Gala, Augusta, and Barson interchangeably over the course of the story. Sometimes, these chapter breaks felt a little bit fragmented – especially considering that the majority of the book’ action takes place only within about a week. The romance element was interesting as well if, in my opinion, somewhat stilted. Gala’s feelings for Blaise seemed to come on too strong, too soon; for being so aware of the limitations of her own knowledge ( “ I’ll meet other men…” ), she seemed far too quick to commit herself to him ( “… but it won’t change my feelings for you.” ).
Despite that, the highlight of the story was definitely the likeability of the characters. I especially loved the brilliant and forward-thinking Blaise, who despite everything always had his heart in the right place. I came to like Gala as well, even in the face of my fears that she would be played into the “Airhead” or the “Pure and Innocent” tropes. On the contrary, Gala was intelligent, curious, and occasionally even selfish in her desires to experience the rest of the world. As a living, breathing, thinking human fresh entered into the real world, she anxiously desires to experience everything she possibly can and craves life experience. She has believable moments of anger and frustration in the face of Blaise’s warnings that her discovery may put the both of them in danger. I also appreciated the multilayered effect that the multiple points of view had on character development; just as we understand Gala’s frustration as she expresses her desires to life her life during her more self-centered moments, we are given an idea of Augusta’s fear during her weaker moments and rationale for her misguided way of thinking. It balances well and gave me a sense of understanding and three-dimensionality, even for our antagonists.
Overall: while nothing ornate or thought-provoking, The Sorcery Code was simple and engaging enough to be a pleasant read for an idle day, and I wouldn’t mind sitting down with the sequel and revisiting this world sometime soon.
*I received this book at a discounted price for an honest review, and make it a priority to keep it that way. I will return to update this review is any aspect of my opinion should change over time.
