Redsight by Meredith Mooring

Source: Netgalley, thank you to the publisher!
TL;DR: Though this didn’t make a lot of sense it was still interesting enough for me to read through. I’m also unsure as to the audience for this, a YA tone with very dark moments

Plot: A very weak red witch becomes very powerful and is caught up between the three Orders of witches being hunted/used by mankind.
Characters: A bit wishy/washy if you ask me. The motivations flipped at the drop of a hat as did ideas and morality.
Setting: Space – but this is definitely not a Science Fiction, this is Fantasy. With a lot of vaguely science (but not really) trappings.
Magic: Needs a lot of work. This is where this made no sense, and with the magic at the heart of this it’s… a lot to try and understand.

Thoughts:

I’m going to be honest. This one was confusing, and it takes a lot for me to say that. Redsight follows a young woman who has always been the weakest of her Order, the Red Witches who navigate space ships. She abruptly finds out that her weakness is false – engineered by another priestess to keep her safe, and she gains immense power as she is assigned out to pilot a warship against a ‘pirate threat’ in the Borderlands of space.

First up, I thought I was getting a science fiction with this. This is pure Fantasy, with the trappings of some science fiction on it. Do not get fooled. I don’t really have a problem with this, but what failed it for me was that it didn’t make a lot of sense even as a fantasy. Magic, even if it’s magic, needs some internal logic. This didn’t have any of that and the story hinged on the magic. There is a lot of it. Korrina bleeds (and a lot at that) almost nonstop while doing her job for 12/16 hours and at one point is described as having ‘lost all her skin and being nothing but muscle and tendons’ but still just needs some time and heals. How are we supposed to feel any tension or worry for this character? Additionally another PoV character we have eats planets and stars. Just… for a big meal every few days. We’re not given any clear description of how, simply that she steps out of an airlock, transforms, and chows down. Where do all these planets and stars come from? You know how long it takes those to form? And what does she turn into?

There are a lot more examples of this throughout the book. The odd religions and the way the author never seemed to know the timeline of her history, or if she did she didn’t explain it well. There was a lot of telling us, not really showing us. Yet I did finish this. The writing was compelling, I was interested in the ideas, but frustrated by the lack of execution. Either this needed to be trimmed massively, or it needed to be expanded into several books with a lot more explanation.

Finally, two notes. The first – Please can we stop with the near immortal, millennia old being ‘falling in love’ with the naive 20 year old. It’s disturbing and unsettling. The second – ‘forcing’ someone to murder a child (even one vat born and ‘recycled’) doesn’t make me like them. Nope. Sure doesn’t.

2.5 very blood fingernails that keep disappearing out of 5