Book Review of The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

Name of Book: The Unbroken

Author: C.L. Clark

ISBN: 978-0-316-54275-3

Publisher: Orbit 

Part of a Series: Magic of the Lost

Type of book: military fantasy, complex colonialism, LGBtQI+ relationship, disability, politics, coming home, belonging 

Year it was published: 2021

Summary:

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale.

Characters:

Main characters are Touraine and Luca. Touraine has been kidnapped as a young girl from her homeland of Qazal, and she is forced to become a high ranking soldier. Touraine, as someone who walks a delicate line between being seen as other versus acceptance is a very careful woman who is trying to balance regret and loyalty. She dares not question ( at first) and has little to no interest in learning about her home. Luca is a princess and a hopeful future queen who wants to replace her uncle. She is very tactical, unafraid and incredibly savvy. She also knows how to balance needs between a variety of people. Later in book though, I would say that her heart rules over her head. The other characters are also well rounded and well done, in particular the character of Jackal who is Touraines opposite. 

Theme:

There is more to colonialism than a simple binary story

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Touraines and Lucas points of view, and oh boy did I love both of them. I also loved the complex plots and emotions Touraine had to go through as someone who was forced to abandon her culture and adapt to the enemy culture. As an ethnic minority, i often imagined if that's how my paternal ancestors have felt when they were forced to serve in tsars army as extremely young boys and then come back home? Prior to reading the book, I never even thought or imagined if that is what it's like. Still, very powerful. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

C.L. Clark is a BFA award-winning editor and Ignyte award winning-writer, and the author of Nebula-nominated novel The Unbroken, the first book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. She graduated from Indiana University’s creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. She’s been a personal trainer, an English teacher, and an editor, and is some combination thereof as she travels the world. When she’s not writing or working, she’s learning languages, doing P90something, or reading about war and [post-]colonial history. Her work has appeared in various SFF venues, including Tor.com, Uncanny, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Opinion:

This was truly an amazing and eye opening read. I really appreciated the idea that colonialism and conquering was more complex and nuanced than many people believe. Quite often in stories or just anywhere, the tale of colonialism is one sided: there is the "good" side and "evil" side and quite often for both sides stereotypes are used to fill in the blanks. However in THE UNBROKEN by C.L Clark, the author paints all sorts of people from both sides, creating an absent complexity of life, that we are more than good and/or bad. I also appreciated seeing and understanding complexity of someone like Touraine, and I loved the attention of hierarchy. 

This was given for review 

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)