I knew when I reached the end of this book I’d be sad… sad that I would have to wait for the next installment!
The book totally pulled me into a world that I’m unaccustomed to. The Alchemists’ Council is my first novel dealing with alchemy. Personal life factoid : I studied bio-chemistry in university. So the whole alchemy part turned my reality upside down. This is not your “turn lead into gold” type book, far from it. It is not all about alchemy, just as it is rich with magical and fantastic things, there is just as much political intrigue and power struggles going on.
Alchemy being “a new to me thing”, everything was alien and I didn’t know the rules. For example, here in my reality red and green make yellow. CHECK. However in the world that Cynthea Masson created, you are going to get something completely different and most likely unexpected. Things work completely different there… and often they blew my mind. Thank you Cynthea Masson for blowing my mind. More than once.
In the Alchemists’ Council, we meet Jaden who is a new initiate at the Alchemists’ council, an in-between world of sorts that keeps elemental balance in check. As she spends time within the council, she learns of disappearing bees, she makes new friends (loses some), travels through portals and spends time in a library that I wish I could have in real life. Jaden’s been brought into the Alchemists’ Council at a critical time, the threat of war from the Rebel Branch is a heartbeat away. Difficult choices are to be made by Jaden with the fate of these worlds in the balance. In the end, free will being a huge part of the equation.
There is a considerable amount of political intrigue written into this book, but I’m guessing it is essential to have all of this in the first book as a base line for what follows in the next books.
As I said earlier, the reason I enjoyed this book was the surprise factor. If this is your genre, you may see these twists coming a mile away. Not seeing them coming was magical, simply magical. I want to get to know these characters more, I feel I’ve only skimmed the surface. For this, I must wait patiently for the continuation… until then though I can read Alchemist Council news on their blog. I love when authors do this sort of thing.
The Alchemists’ Council by Cynthea Masson
Published by ECW Press (one of my favorite publishers btw)
What a thoughtful review! Thank you “Lost in the Rain”! I am currently working on Book 2, and it truly helps me when I know I have some readers out there who appreciated Book 1. I see from the photo that you have an ARC. The final version (which was published in May) moves beyond the ARC by a few more months of editing. I’m glad the typos and minor inconsistencies that were in the ARC did not throw you off enjoyment of the plot!