2023 EDIT: Screw this book and its sequels. The 'Lumatere Chronicles' is misogynistic trash.
Sorrynotsorry.
Final Score: 2/5
2019 EDIT: I don't know anymore. This book no longer makes me comfortable to reflect upon. I have grown and read better fantasy since first reading it, many years ago now, and the sequels have forever marred whatever joy I first experienced through it. I barely even remember any of the characters (aside from a few mains), what exactly happened and why, and what the stakes were. And most importantly, why I should care. I recall the writing being lovely, and the worldbuilding fantastic, at least.
I have to say it: In my opinion, Melina Marchetta's books are dated and overrated. The late-2000s-to-early-2010s are gone, and certain relevant issues need to be taken more seriously and not at all lightly. Ethics and basic human decency are held to a higher standard, and love and compassion are not to be overlooked, stepped on and brushed aside. Making an attempted rapist into the hero of the 'Lumatere' sequels - and no one seeming to care that much - is not a wise move for a supposed feminist fantasy series. This series abuses feminism more than Joss Whedon does, and it understands it just as less.
That is it. I'm done. So long, Lumatere. You will not be missed.
2017 EDIT: So this is no longer one of my favourite books of all time. I still remember it fondly, and my assessment that it is one of the best fantasies I've read hasn't changed. But I've grown a lot and read a whole lot more since, and some issues in 'Finnikin of the Rock' are too uncomfortable and serious to take lightly. Blame the sequels, which I consider to not be up to par with the first of the 'Lumatere Chronicles'. Plus they are sexist as hell. And Finnikin turns into an abusive, childish, gigantic arsehole for no real reason. He's dead to me now. Thanks, 'Quintana of Charyn', you overrated POS.
Original Review:
This was in my local bookshop one day, and the gorgeous cover and the praise heaped on it made me want it badly. And I was curious to see how the author handles story and characters while also setting up a complex fantasy setting. I wasn't to be disappointed.
'Finnikin of the Rock' left me breathless. How great the writing is, and how flawlessly Melina Marchetta seems to weave a world full of complex histories and religions with a story that deals with so many relevant themes expressed through so many three-dimensional, human characters.
Throughout reading this I felt tense, annoyed, afraid for the characters, angry, sad, VERY angry, shocked, awed, pitying...
In other words, 'Finnikin of the Rock' is one of the best fantasy stories I've ever read.
'Finnikin of the Rock''s biggest and most admirable strength is its characters. Of course, nobody should expect anything less from Melina Marchetta. I could go on forever writing about each of them - and there are LOADS of them - but to save time I'll only say: Finnikin is my fangirl-side's boyfriend, Evanjalin is one of the strongest and bravest girls I have ever come across in fiction, and Trevanion is a wonderful father to Fin in spite of the circumstances that keep threatening to drive the two apart forever. Everyone is flawed and realistic. Even Froi, whom I hated for most of the book, somewhat grew on me, probably due to feeling sorry for his eventual Butt Monkey status in our hero's travelling group.
Everything just fits together so magnificently in this book. Despite it being set in a world, here named Skuldenore, that is separate from our own, 'Finnikin of the Rock' is not your traditional fantasy. There are no magical creatures or obvious wizard figures, just human beings getting through their lives after a horrific curse (marking the "five days of the unspeakable") makes their land unliveable. There is a prophecy, but it is put into question throughout the course of the story. There are witch figures and dream-walkers, but they struggle as much as everyone else. Magic is a fickle business. The villain is someone who we never meet, and is only known as the "Impostor King"; symbolizing that enemies can come from anywhere and be anyone, and not everyone is who they appear to be at first. Evil can even come from within heroes who desperately want to do good.
I was a little concerned about how much the female characters suffer compared to the male ones, with many references to rape. But that is how Lumatere and its world of Skuldenore are in their terrible condition in which the story is set. Poverty, murder, evacuation, slavery and disease - they all affect people and so certain sicknesses and acts of barbarism are born from them. It's unpleasant, and Ms Marchetta never shies away in the slightest from showing these horrifying-but-true topics. It's a realistic world that is only fantastical on the surface, with swords, prophecies and dark magic. Just because a book is in the fantasy genre, it doesn't mean its world building shouldn't be realistic.
While simply-written with no overly-long prose, 'Finnikin of the Rock' is such an emotional and ground-breaking book, one that I keep reading passages of again and again and finding news things to love about it. The characters and their relationships and interactions with one another are perfect (I really grew to love the connection between Fin and Evanjalin; no shallow romance here), as well as the world of Skuldenore and how it's written in the story about survival and bringing people and cultures back together after those five days of unspeakableness.
With every old history and legends that come, new history can always be made; to teach us about other people's lives - symbolised clearly through Finnikin and his journal chronicling everyone he meets who have suffered horrors for which he may have been the cause of in his childhood (*hugs him!*). We make mistakes in order to learn from them, so that they don't happen again. We are each responsible for our actions. But no society is or ever will be perfect, and Ms Marchetta puts that across brilliantly.
'Finnikin of the Rock' - Melina Marchetta's first book in the fantasy field, and my favourite out of all her work.
Sequel please!
Final Score: 5/5
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