Rebecca Zahabi
published: 12th May 2022
spoilers? none
On the other side of the Shadowpass, rebellion is brewing and refugees have begun to trickle into the city at the edge of the world. Looming high on the cliff is The Nest, a fortress full of mages who offer protection, but also embody everything the rebellion is fighting against: a strict hierarchy based on magic abilities, and the oppression of the Kher community.
When Isha arrives as a refugee, she attempts to fit in amongst the other mages, but her Kher tattoo brands her as an outcast. She can’t remember her past or why she has the tattoo. All she knows is that she survived. She doesn’t intend to give up now.
Tatters, who wears the golden collar of a slave, knows that this rebellion is different from past skirmishes. He was once one of the rebels, fought beside them, and technically, they still own him. He plans to stay in the shadows, until Isha appears in his tavern. He’s never seen a human with a tattoo, and the markings look eerily familiar. Despite his fear of being discovered, Tatters decides to help her.
As the rebellion carves a path of destruction towards the city, The Collarbound follows an unlikely friendship between a man trying to escape his past and a woman trying to uncover hers, until their secrets threaten to tear them apart.
A tale that questions fate and finds strength in not-belonging, The Collarbound hooks from the opening pages and will appeal to fans of magical, brink-of-war settings, like that of The Poppy War, and lyrical, character-driven writing, as found in A Darker Shade of Magic.
Galley provided by publisher
The Collarbound is a book that I thought would be a standalone fantasy, so at least part of my rating derives from that. It is not a standalone, it is definitely a series-starter. This isn’t to say it’s a bad book because of it, but it’s a book that, when you frame it as the latter, might be enjoyed more.
However, it’s also a book where, to be brutally honest, not a whole lot stuck with me. So this could end up being a quite short review.
The best part of this book was its worldbuilding and magic system. The whole idea of mind-based duelling was fascinating, and honestly, could have stood to have played a bigger role (although perhaps it will later on?). The world too was an interesting one, with the Shadowpass and a rebellion brewing. Perhaps I would have liked a bit more depth to it, just in terms of description, since it was, at times, hard to tell who or what the Nest and the Shadowpass (and beyond it) were in relation to one another. However, this is all things I could see being further explored in a sequel.
The main characters and their dynamic was also intriguing, especially with the secrets they were keeping and the reveals towards the end. That’s another thing that I would hope to see explored more in the second book, particularly that one reveal, that didn’t really show up much here. It was drip fed you to keep you interested, I suppose, but I guess I needed more to really care about the characters much. This is what I mean in part when I say the book wasn’t hugely memorable. I can remember just about who the characters were, but I can’t remember their personalities very much. They seemed to be made up of these secrets and not a lot more.
However, I did like reading this one. It was a diverting way to spend a few hours and definitely one I’d recommend as a new voice in fantasy. I just never really loved it.
moonraker 
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