Fate's Bane
by C.L. Clark
Genres: FantasyPages: 166
Rating:
Synopsis:The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain’s daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last—or destroy any hope of peace. By working their intentions into leather, they can weave misfortune for their enemies… just like the Fate’s Bane that haunts the legends of the clans.
Ambitions grow in their fathers’ hearts, grudges threaten a return to violence, and greedy enemies wait outside the borders, seeking a foothold to claim the fens for themselves. And though their Makings may save their families, the legend that gave them this power always exacts its price.
I’m still digesting what I think about C.L. Clark’s Fate’s Bane as I write. I knew going in that it was a sort of vaguely ancient British setting, with a tragic sapphic love story, and a peek ahead had told me about the multiple endings… but even having finished it, I find myself not entirely sure how that sits with me.
The romance itself didn’t entirely work for me, because it wasn’t a relationship between equals, even though one party pretended it was: Agnir is barely more than a slave, even if they want to pretend she’s a “ward” of Hadhnri’s father. She wears a collar, constantly, and though she’s protected a little bit more than the others of her clan who were taken at the same time she was, they are slaves and she is definitely not free. She’s, at best, a hostage.
Hadhnri makes choices the way she does because she is free, loved, and secure. If there are punishments, they will fall heavily on Agnir and lightly on Hadhnri — but she blames Agnir for not being brave, true and loyal, despite the fact that Hadhnri’s clan have treated her like a prisoner her whole life, and constrained how they taught her and what she’s been permitted to do.
As a result, and given that Hadhnri’s brother kills Agnir’s brother and then Hadhnri gets cross at Agnir about the situation, it was hard to entirely root for the romance.
There are fun aspects of the book stylistically, and the oral storytelling mode it’s calling on (especially at the end) fits the ambiguous ending. I liked some of the details, and the close descriptions of the physical draw between the two leads. But… still. The romance didn’t entirely sit right with me: it’s not that it’s not realistic, because I think it was, it’s just that I felt I was being asked for a lot more faith that Hadhnri had earned, and I wasn’t sure the narrative knew that Hadhnri was being unreasonable. That makes some sense since it comes from Agnir’s eyes, but still, it just… it didn’t have to be quite so unequal and still ask faith from me.
Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)
