The Impostor Queen

by Sarah Fine

ISBN 978-1-4814-4190-2

“When the magic leaves our current queen and enters you, Elli, you will become the most powerful Valtia who has ever existed.”

For three hundred years the Valtias have ruled the Kupari from the Temple on the Rock, the only wielders of the unique Kupari magic who can balance both fire and ice. The Valtia uses her magic to protect and shelter her people, but the magic exacts a terrible price, and these girl-queens die young, bodies devoured by their own terrible power. Elli has been raised in the Temple as the Saadella, heir to the Valtia, schooled in service to the Kupari people, prepared to receive the magic when the current Valtia dies. Yet despite the fact that Elli is prophesied to be the most powerful Valtia who ever lived, when her predecessor dies, the magic does not enter her, leaving the Kupari vulnerable to the increasingly hostile raids of the neighouring Soturi. Exiled to the Outlands, Elli takes shelter with a group of bandits who defy the rules of the Temple, and refuse to turn their magic wielders over to the Temple Elders. For the first time, Elli has a reason to question the order under which she was raised, bringing to light the terrible abuses of the very system which she was sworn to uphold.

The opening of the book drops the reader into Elli’s day to day life as the Saadella, a relatively slow-paced sequence that allows Sarah Fine to lay out fascinating hints about the world in which the story takes place. Elli’s point of view is naïve, but there are hints early on that all is not well with the Valtia system of rule. In general, Fine spends a lot of time on the characters and the world, and the plot doesn’t truly pick up until the outlanders begin to question Elli’s appearance in their midst, and the unusual changes her presence seems to invoke in magic wielders, such as Oskar, a brooding ice-wielder who would prefer to deny his magic, despite suffering from the consequences. However, patience with this slow approach is rewarded as the truth about the Valtias begins to come to light.

Elli is sixteen when the story opens, just as rumours begin to swirl that the current Valtia is weakening, and may soon pass her power to her heir. Elli has had a sheltered upbringing in the Temple, where she must be kept safe and pure so that she is a fit vessel to receive the Valtia’s magic when the time comes. She is even kept largely separate from the Valtia, who must devote most of her time and energy to serving her people, and maintaining the balance of her magic. Elli is instead educated for her future role by the Elders of the Temple, who put off many of her most pressing questions with the excuse that she must be kept pure. As a result, Elli is a rather immature sixteen, never having had to dress or fend for herself a day in her life until she faces her exile. All she has going for her is a deeply inculcated sense of duty, which translates into a strong work ethic when she joins the community of Outland bandits who have rejected the demands of the Temple.

As Elli begins to understand why the Valtia’s magic didn’t pass to her, she finds herself caught between prophecy and free will. The stars indeed foretold her birth, but the Elders of the Temple were not in possession of the entire prophecy. With so much already decided, it is hard for Elli to believe that she can wield what little power and knowledge she does possess to shape her fate, let alone the destiny of the Kupari. Having lived a life with little control over anything, Elli is torn between her habit of accepting her fate, and the desire to finally seize control of her own path, even as others continue to be determined to choose for her. The curiosity that the Elders ruthlessly supressed in her as Saadella comes roaring to the fore, but her questioning nature does not fit in among many of the Outlanders either, especially Sig, the fire-wielder who would prefer decisive action against the Temple at any cost.

I was engrossed by the slowly peeled back layers of the world and magic system that are unveiled as Elli sheds her sheltered upbringing and begins to understand something about the history of the Kupari magic. Although Elli was understandably immature, I enjoyed her character development as she came to terms with having the future she always expected ripped away, and then grappling with the fact that people still want to control her, and how easy it would be to let them. She is also daunted by a potential romance, after expecting to live a life of chastity in service to the Kupari people. I look forward to seeing how Sarah Fine complements this with her companion novel, The Cursed Queen, and then brings the series together with the conclusion that is due out in 2018.

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Also by Sarah Fine:
Of Metal and Wishes