The Book of Gold by Ruth Frances Long: Review by Liz Bourke
The Book of Gold, Ruth Frances Long (Hodderscape 978-1-399-73157-7, £15.99, 340pp, tp) November 2024.
Irish writer Ruth Frances Long has been publishing quite prolifically in recent years, though primarily YA and romantic fantasy under her BOURKE
pen-name Jessica Thorne. The Book of Gold is a historically inspired fantasy caper set in a version of Renaissance Europe that is strikingly different from our own. Magic and hidden gods lurk in the corners: The Roman Empire has endured in altered form as the Church Imperial, the August One the only god permitted, and in the city of Amberes (which may be either Antwerp or Amsterdam, or a combination of the two), thief and devotee of the god of thieves Lyta Cornwallis is about to be entangled in the affairs of kings.
Let me acknowledge up front that Long is a friend, so if I had not thoroughly enjoyed The Book of Gold, I would most likely be keeping a courteously discreet profile with my opinion. (Ireland is a rather small country, after all.)
Lyta’s younger brother Kit is an honest man who disapproves of Lyta’s career choices. He’s a printer, and he’s just been arrested for printing seditious pamphlets: pamphlets that protest the excessive taxation and penalties imposed by Amberes’s just-superseded governor, the Duchess of Montalbeau. The king is in town – Ferdinand, king of Castille, Aragon, and the Brabantine lands, come to power in the wake of war – and it’s the king’s justice that will define Kit’s fate. Lyta doesn’t have a plan, exactly, just a panicked hope to get into the king’s presence and beg, plead, or bargain for her brother’s life and freedom.
Sylvian Chant was Lyta’s lover, once, before she rescued Kit from prison and not him. (Before she married a much older man for safety, only to see him disappear trying to rob the Duchess.) Conscripted into the king’s army, he rose through the ranks over the years to become a captain, and now a bodyguard to the king. But he still recognises Lyta instantly when she bursts into the king’s presence.
It turns out that the king has a use for Lyta’s particular skills. The Duchess of Montalbeau is in possession of a book, the titular Book of Gold. The king – or perhaps his queen, Annika – wants this book, but the Duchess is sufficiently powerful that he cannot simply seize it. But a thief to steal the book, and a printer to print it and distribute it widely, not just taking it from the Duchess but humiliating her in the process? That would suit him nicely.
There’s not much Lyta wouldn’t do to keep Kit safe. Though Kit’s not thrilled at being roped into Lyta’s criminal undertakings, especially when the first step is to recruit (rescue) a scholar out from under the very nose of the Magister of the Church Imperial. Lyta’s not thrilled to have to work with Sylvian, whom the king has commanded to keep her on mission: There’s too much history between them. Complicating matters, other figures in the Amberes underworld have it in for Lyta, Lyta’s god is somehow invested in the outcome of their task, and the Duchess may well be even more dangerous than her temporal power implies. Oh, and Lyta really wants to find out what happened to her vanished husband, so she’s actually eager to get inside the Duchess’s fortress. Together with the aristocratic siblings Beatriz and Benito Alvarez, who have magical skills and hidden knowledge of long-lost gods, Lyta, Kit, and Sylvian might have a chance at success.
This is a hectic, fast-paced caper, one in which very few of Lyta’s plans turn out well. Impulsive and given to improvisation, it seems she tends to succeed, where she does succeed, on luck as much as skill. As a character trait, this is fantastic for a protagonist: She plunges headlong into trouble and escapes by the skin of her teeth. She, Kit, and Sylvian are The Book of Gold’s viewpoint characters. Kit, steadier and more thoughtful, makes for an interesting foil for his sister, while Sylvian is very nearly as impetuous, just along different lines. Sylvian and Lyta are still attracted to each other, a state of affairs to which their history gives an edge. Meanwhile, Kit and Benito also find each other attractive, which offers complications of its own.
In its atmospheric Low Countries city setting and appealing team of misfits on a mission, The Book of Gold recollects Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows. Long’s characters are compelling, while her worldbuilding is fascinating and hints at so much more around the edges. Her prose is breezily readable, and the tension – both interpersonal and otherwise – mounts to a set of striking climaxes and a satisfying conclusion, even though precisely none of the heists go to plan.
I’m very fond of the caper story, as a form. Fantasy could use more of them. The Book of Gold is an exceedingly fun example. There’s going to be a sequel. I can’t wait.
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Liz Bourke is a cranky queer person who reads books. She holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. Her first book, Sleeping With Monsters, a collection of reviews and criticism, is out now from Aqueduct Press. Find her at her blog, her Patreon, or Twitter. She supports the work of the Irish Refugee Council and the Abortion Rights Campaign.
This review and more like it in the December 2024 issue of Locus
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