THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH by Rachel Gillig is the beginning of a new saga series, Stonewater Kingdom. I want to mention this upfront before, like me, you read to the end and become instantly enamored and furiously hope to find out what happens next.
I have not read Rachel Gillig’s other books – One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns, but I certainly have added them to my TBR.
THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH is a slow start – Gillig’s style is gorgeously poetic, but not always as conversational as some of the other contemporary romantasy authors. The dialogue and prose often feel like stepping into a story akin to Arthur and his Round Table or Beowulf. The descriptions are rich with classical language and creatures of lore – kings and knights, mixing with sprites, gargoyles, and cursed gods.
Aisling Cathedral is the home of the Diviners – a group of foundling children raised to be dreamers – to serve as an oracle of the signs of the mythical omens. The story centers around a woman known to her fellow Diviners by only a designation – Six. Her true name is Sybil Delling. Sybil’s life is to dream for the profit of the Cathedral – so when newly throned “boy King” Benedict Castor III arrives to receive his divination – Six is chosen to foretell the fate of his reign. She is pushed down into the magical waters of the spring at the heart of Aisling to drown. When the Diviners drown, they dream. Their dreams unlock messages from The Omens – beings just as mysterious as the Cathedral itself.
King Castor brings along with him a compliment of knights, including Roderick Myndacious, aka Rory for his welcome at Aisling. Sybil and her companion Diviners live a modest life at Aisling, and all await their life after their service to the Cathedral and the abbess charged with raising and training the Diviners, is complete. With the King’s arrival, the Diviners engage in a bit of rebellious fun with the visiting party.
Afterward, however, the Diviners start to disappear around Sybil. Scrambling to find them, she is forced to rely on new friends from King Castor’s court, and a bit of help from one of the Cathedral’s gargoyles, to track her fellow Diviners, and at the same time, the mythical Omens themselves.
For me, this book has a slow start. The writing is very lavish, but I got a little lost in it at the beginning. As Gillig was bringing readers into the dreams of a Diviner, not being a fortune teller myself, I was a little mystified about what exactly the signs meant, and how the spring could drown dreamers and then bring them back to life. But the story redeemed my initial faith and then some.
Rory is roguish and swoon-worthy, the bat-like Gargoyle simultaneously has the humor of a wise old man and the wonder of a child, and the novel definitely explores the role of villainy as Sybil searches for her lost Diviners.
In the end, top marks from me. THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH is a true legendary fable, even as it left a great set-up for the journey to come. I particularly enjoyed the gender-neutral role of Knight, and how the knighthood included strong female characters. And even as I felt I was starting to divine the ending for myself, there were surprises that laid the foundation for the struggle ahead.
As I mentioned, this is the first in an unfinished series, so you’ve been warned. Prepare for the inevitable heartbreak that the next book release is still to be determined.
From NYT bestselling author Rachel Gillig comes the next big romantasy sensation, a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a young prophetess forced on an impossible quest with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight. Perfect for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Leigh Bardugo.
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
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