Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
LGBTQ+ Category: Asexual, Gay, Non-Binary, Transgender
Reviewer: Scott
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About The Book
The Nezel are refugee servants, toiling in a desert land where their culture is barely tolerated. Two friends, prowling through secret tunnels, uncover a villainous plot that places the Nezel in jeopardy. Almond and Quartz hatch a desperate plan to aid Finch, rightful heir to the throne. Even with the help of unexpected allies, their heroic efforts may not be enough—and the Time of Naming cannot be delayed. All adolescents must choose a gender and a new name for adulthood but Almond, intensely private, struggles to make this choice.
Almond, Quartz, and Finch strive to claim their true selves and protect their people in perilous times.
The Review
Although Almond, Quartz, and Finch starts out a bit slow, it’s ultimately a fascinating coming of age fantasy. It was initially pitched to me as being about a people who don’t gender their kids until they reach adulthood, and then the young human gets to choose.
That’s true, and it’s definitely an important part of the book. The main character, Nemtori (Almond in the Nezel tongue – all Nezel children are given the names of common objects until they choose their own name at maturity) doesn’t feel the pull of any gender. So vo uses non-gendered pronouns – vo, ven and veir. I’ve used non-gendered pronouns in one of my own books, and yes, it does take a while to get used to it. But just like any other grammatical convention, it soon disappears into the background, becoming just one more element in this well-drawn fantasy world.
Early on, we see a couple of the characters playing chess, and it’s an apt metaphor for the plot of the book, as the characters are set up and moved around the board in anticipation of the second half of the story.
Almond lives with veir best friend and almost-brother Quartz in the kingdom of Irzem, a desert fiefdom that’s sweltering under the summer heat. The Nezel are refugees from their own country and servants in Irzem, looked down upon by the decidedly binary Irzemi.
It’s a time of political uncertainty, as the ancient Lady Omdyun is nearing her death. Almond is gifted at finding places to hide and passing unnoticed, and one day he hears of a plot against the Lady’s grandson, the heir Zilumek. As the hot, languid summer days stretch on, so does the life of the beloved monarch, and Almond and Quartz try to figure out what to do with the dangerous information they’ve acquired.
The oppressive heat is almost another character in the story, and the slow initial pace is captured well in the dry desert environment and the weight of the torpor that has settled onto the village. But a little past halfway through, the Lady finally takes her last breath, and then all the chess pieces that have been carefully put in place by the author suddenly start to move, and things don’t stop until the satisfying climax.
There’s a wonderful, casual diversity to the story. In addition to Almond’s non-binary status, there are gay characters, a transgender character who is important to the plot (I’d tell you who it is but then I’d have to kill you), and a hint of asexuality.
At times, the story reads like a middle-grade novel, but like Almond and Quartz, it grows out of that as the story advances. The language is beautiful and the world of Irzem is fully realized, from the trees by the river bend that supply “tree eggs” that Almond likes to fondle in veir pocket when vo is worried to the secret passageways throughout the fortress that vo takes advantage of. I also loved the resolution to the story’s central conflict. Yes, maybe it comes a little easily, but it’s not the usual bloody path that fantasy books often offer.
In the end, I found Almond, Quartz and Finch to be very enjoyable reading, and the gender theories the book espouses become more a fascinating background than an ALL CAPS STATEMENT. It takes a skillful hand to manage such a feat.
Oh and did I mention how much I love the cover?
Highly recommended.
The Reviewer
Scott is the founder of Queer Sci Fi, and a fantasy and sci fi writer in his own right, with more than 30 published short stories, novellas and novels to his credit, including two trilogies.
