#vanessa roades

[wisegurlll]

Fan Fridays

Not very good at drawing people but here's my favorite Moonscript fanart of my girl Tellie by Vanessa Roades. She captured Tellie perfectly! I LOVE IT SO MUCH😭🥰 Go give her a follow on Instagram:)

(Vanessa Roades Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vl_roades/)

[oliverferrie]

IN WHICH I REVIEW DEEP ROOTS BY VANESSA ROADES

FIRST OFF: I am so sorry @vanessaroades-author that this took such a long time to review, I had truly meant to do so earlier in the year. Things got a little chaotic, though. I forgot to mention in my previous post, but amidst all the other drama, Madainn took a crack at my farm during the summer storms and p much ruined my crops ;_; *This is why you never trust a water god*

Anyway, here is my review, and a.) I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR THE CHANCE TO READ THIS WHILE I WAIT FOR DRAGON AGE 4, it scratches an itch that is very hard to scratch, and b.) I cannot stress enough how happy I am to read about a fantasy world that is so different from usual. Like it's making me do fanart for the first time in AGES.

THE REVIEW

Note: I received this as an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback, but am so thrilled with it I have also bought a personal copy.

Rekindled my love of imaginary worlds!

Deep Roots was such a delightful read. It's rare for me to get so fully engrossed in fantasy stories about elves outside of Dragon Age and Tolkien, and this is partly because no world seems truly alien enough for me. In Deep Roots, the elves are so different, on such a fundamental level, from their physiology (horns, multiple arms and eyes were a lovely touch) to their societal norms to their methods of magic and worship, and the humans in this universe also have a pantheon of gods who are truly fascinating. I honestly felt as though I was experiencing something new, for the first time in a long time. I was the lucky anthropologist from our world getting a crazy peek into the Realmweaver universe, and oh boy. Some of these concepts are going to stick with me for a long time.

The way the novel is written has big Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy energy. The political out-manouevring and the thick sense of conspiracy really makes you feel tense, and you just know multiple layers of play are going on at once, without fully knowing what they are. The characters just get on with it, as well, refusing to treat the reader like a child. I've read Brandon Sanderson's attempts at politico-religious strife but I feel it works far better here as, in the Realmweaver world, I was unable to overlay it with a real-world blueprint. It remains completely its own thing, and that's outstanding.

I loved having a main character who is also nonbinary be the focus of attention in the plot, but also that their gender was not a focus. I was rooting for Irving so much during this tale, as I see a lot of myself in them.

Also, surprisingly, I cared more about Eirjatal than I expected to. It's probably the way his PTSD was handled, which was unnervingly realistic.

Favourite god: Madainn. I'm a sucker for that big kelp energy.

I'm glad this is merely Book 1, because hoo boy, the way it ends!! Political machinations to bring Henry Tudor to shame are brought firmly to light after a climax of colossal proportions, and there's going to be a hell of a lot to play with in the second book.