Charlotte Kersten

“Uniformity is not unity. Silence is not peace.”

So What’s It About?

Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?

What I Thought

I keep telling myself that I don’t enjoy YA fantasy anymore, but I often seem to find my way back to it when I’m in need of comfort, and every now and again I find that odd gem that proves the exception to my “I’m too grown up to enjoy this” rule. Raybearer is one of those exceptions, and it has a great deal going for it.

The characterization is generally solid within the main cast, with a number of very lovable characters. As a child who has experienced neglect, Tarisai’s longing for connection rings true, as does her struggle to believe that she can be more than her mother was and more than her mother shaped her to be; it’s wonderful to see her push through this. The mother in question, The Lady, turns out to be a refreshingly nuanced character – she was treated unjustly by her family and exiled to struggle by herself and did a number of terrible things in pursuit of her goals, from lying to Woo In about the Songland treaty to enslaving Melu and turning her daughter into a weapon. Her outer mask of elegance and efficiency hides her secret affections and stirrings of conscience, which she tries her best to convince herself do not matter with placations and lies.

The found family that Tarisai joins is well-developed when it comes to the inner circle of Dayo, Kirah and Sanjeet, but the rest of the council end up being little more than caricatures who appear briefly. I am never particularly fond of romantic subplots in YA fantasies, but the relationship with Sanjeet was one of the better I’ve read, with only a bit of requisite angst. The general concept of the Raybearer and council is a very cool one.

There are effective examinations of feminism and imperialism for the age group, with powerful women being erased from history being a recurring theme and the empire sacrificing Songland children and trying to enforce cultural assimilation with martial crackdowns. I’ll be interested to see how these themes progress in the sequel. As a final note, I thought that the mechanics of the Lady’s wish ended up being quite convenient because Tarisai only has to obey it when she is physically in Dayo’s presence and she can resist it with enough strength of will. Overall, this is a vivid, exciting story with a lot to recommend it. I’ll be reading the sequel soon.