Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

Jen reviews Blood Over Bright Haven, a standalone dark fantasy novel by M. L. Wang.

Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

“Don’t stop doing that, please.”

“Doing what?”

“Contradicting me.”

Thomil’s sponge slowed inside the testing bowl in his hand.

“Look, Thomil, I…A highmage can’t improve without someone trying to poke holes in his claims. To quote Faene the First: ‘A true scholar thrives on contradiction and—’ What?” she said when Thomil gave a derisive huff.

“That’s not been my experience of mages—or Tiranish in general,” he said to the white swirl of soap in the testing dish. “I think that contradicting them is a good way to get fired.”

Harmony Hall by Vampire Weekend

If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you’ll know that M. L. Wang won my heart and broke it just as quickly with The Sword of Kaigen. I’ve talked about that book non-stop for a few years now, so needless to say, I’ve been pretty excited to read Blood Over Bright Haven.

Blood Over Bright Haven is quite a bit different than The Sword of Kaigen – everything about it feels different, and try as I might not to compare, I do have to a little because The Sword of Kaigen was just one of those books that hit a chord with me. It was a messy masterpiece that I loved to absolute bits, and because of that, it did set a pretty high bar expectation-wise for me for Blood Over Bright Haven.

Writing

First off, I have to say Wang’s skills are at their absolute finest here. In Blood Over Bright Haven, she has crafted a tightly written story from page one, beginning with her character work, to the magic, politics, and right through to the world-building polished to a shine, and then she wrapped it up in some pretty heavy social messages. It’s not all heaviness and gloom though, there are some nice light moments between characters, helping to keep things from feeling too heavy and dark without losing what the story is trying to tell us.

The pace is surprisingly quick too, which again, I love how clean and concise the story is laid out. Wang is great at conveying what needs to be said and felt, within just a few words.

 Characters

 Our main POV, Sciona, is a very driven character. Her goal is to be the first woman to become a high mage, and she is very focussed on that goal without much thought put towards the people’s lives around her – including her own family. I found her to be a harder character to connect to than Wang’s Misaki, from The Sword of Kaigen – just because Misaki had more places in her life that I could relate to, whereas Sciona feels much more self-centered, and singularly focused in her goals, and a lot less like me tbh, or at least less relatable to me.

Sciona feels a bit snooty in the beginning. Somewhat deservedly snooty, though, because she is super smart and has earned her place at the university through hard work, but without the experiences that are needed to broaden that narrow view of the world, she comes across as having a giant chip on her shoulder. She grows, though, and I warmed up to her eventually.

Sciona’s assistant Thomil (our other POV), on the other hand, is everything Sciona isn’t. He was much easier for me to relate to and kind of the perfect other-side-of-the-coin kind of character. He had such a great introduction in the book’s opening chapter too, that you can’t help but root for him after getting a taste of the kind of life he’d had up to this point.

Magic

The magic is a mapping magic which uses formulas to draw the magic to where it needs to go. I felt a little overwhelmed at first on how this magic worked, the mapping of it felt very math-y, which I have no head for and tend to overthink but, really, you only need to understand the logistics of “what” it’s doing and not really the “how” it does it part, and then it’s easy. Once you know that, the rest falls in place pretty quickly and sets the tone for where you know this story has to be headed.

Story

Since the summary says it nicely, and I made a few points above, and I am trying desperately to avoid spoilers – making it very hard to really go into much detail here about how it’s all tied together. I’ll just move ahead with personal opinions that you can then discard, knowing that’s all they are.


To summarize

Blood Over Bright Haven is a heck of a story. It’s definitely not messy. But it didn’t win my heart in quite the way The Sword of Kaigen did, and that really just comes down to nothing more than my built-in reading likes.

 I’ve had a lot of years to gather specific tastes in what I like in a story, and because I am an escapism type reader, I find I tend to not enjoy stories that are as heavily based in a lot of philosophical right or wrong, morality kind of judgements/arguments as much. While The Sword of Kaigen addressed some of those issues as well, I think with Blood Over Bright Haven it was more the possibility of a no clear-fit solution that would let me pretend these people are not the sh*theads they actually are… I hate taking off my rose-coloured glasses, you know? I like for the good guys to win and ride off hand-in-hand into the sunset. Like a John Wayne movie… which I did get to some degree in The Sword of Kaigen.

Anyway, all of that to say, while Blood Over Bright Haven may not have quite hit all my buttons, it is an incredibly tight story all around. It takes the risks, the characters are interesting, and the story is put together and a talking point, and while there were no hand-in-hand sunset walking moments to appease me, it does offer a better future, of a sort.

Other Notes

Because the setting, characters, and magic are completely different here, if you weren’t a The Sword of Kaigen fan, then Blood Over Bright Haven may work much better for you.