Saint Death's Daughter

December 13, 2021
World Fantasy Award winner Cooney (Bone Swans) underwhelms with this lugubrious tale of political assassinations between necromancers and bird-wizards, which sees a potentially breathless sword-and-sorcery fantasy bogged down by a torrent of exposition. Miscellaneous “Lanie” Immiscible Stones is a necromancer with an unusual allergy to physical harm, showing symptoms at even the mention of violence, while her sister, Amanita “Nita” Muscaria, is an assassin with the power to compel others to do her will. Queen Erralierra of Brackenwilds commands Nita to assassinate the Parliament of Rooks, Queen Bran Fiakhna of Rook’s harem of 24 wizards. But after Nita kills 22 of the wizards, Queen Bran takes her revenge, and it’s up to Lanie to save Nita’s annoying, sociopathic daughter, Datu, and keep Queen Bran from taking over Brackenwilds. Though Lanie’s bittersweet romance with nonbinary fire priest Canon Lir adds some charm and the magic system is meticulously worked out, it isn’t enough to balance the constant overexplaining of the novel’s worldbuilding and character relationships, with info dumps and backstory often interrupting moments that are crucial to the plot. It makes for a slog only suited for Cooney’s most devoted fans. Agent: Markus Hoffmann, Regal Hoffman & Assoc.

Starred review from January 15, 2022
In this debut novel, the first of a trilogy, a previously reclusive young necromancer ventures out into a dangerous world. Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is born into a family famous for its executioners and assassins; she herself has a violent allergy toward, well, violence and violent death...a sign that she is destined to have the power to reject death itself (up to a point) as a necromancer. As her abilities increase over the years, so do her responsibilities and troubles. Her ancestral home is on the verge of being lost to creditors. Her only reliable teacher in necromancy is the ghost of her great-grandfather, whom no one else can see and who absolutely cannot be trusted. Her glory- and money-seeking sociopathic sister, Amanita Muscaria, has accepted a commission from the Blood Royal for a series of assassinations that results in Nita's own brutal murder, leaving Lanie with a (justifiably) resentful brother-in-law and a willful, vengeance-minded young niece. The murderer, the sorcerer-queen Blackbird Bride, is after Lanie's niece (to kill her) and Lanie (to enthrall her into becoming one of her many spouses). Can Lanie keep herself and those she loves safe, trust the new friends she's found, and possibly find happiness with her beloved pen pal, the nobly born fire priest Canon Lir, who has their own considerable store of secrets? Cooney's stories (such as in her World Fantasy Award-winning collection, The Bone Swans, 2015) typically include violence, abuse, death, ghosts, and the afterlife--elements which in other hands would also be accompanied by gloom and dreary cynicism. But Cooney also always infuses her works with joy, (often literal) lust for life, improbably lighthearted humor, and the possibility of hope; it is an unusual and surprisingly charming and poignant admixture. The concept of a kindhearted necromancer who is a friend to death (and Death, in the persona of the goddess Do�denna) rather than its foe makes perfect sense in this context. Grisly, dark, lovely, funny, heartfelt.

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