'When Ekata's brother is finally named heir, there will be nothing to keep her at home in Kylma Above with her murderous family. Not her books or science experiments, not her family's icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness.
'In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family's power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield it.'
I enjoy YA books, they sometimes get classed as a genre itself, but there is such a huge variety within the category in tone and themes that it encompasses many genres; something that The Winter Duke does too. It's part fantasy story, with an amazing setting and magical creatures, part coming of age story where a young woman must find her place in the world, and it's part political thriller full of intrigue and mystery. It's also incredibly adult, it features a complex and layered story that doesn't talk down to its readers; and there were a few times I forgot that the protagonist was a teenager because of the level of maturity brought to the book.
The story follows the Avenko family, the rulers of the tiny kingdom of Kylma Above. Kylma Above is a frozen kingdom, with a palace made out of eternal ice on top of a frozen lake; beneath that lake lies Kylma Below, an underwater civilisation of fish people and magic. Residing above this mystical land, and having an accord with them, Kylma Above uses its position to trade magic with the outside world, granting it great prestige despite it's size.
The Avenko family, however, are a bit of a strange bunch. Raised to believe that power should be earned through cunning and strength it's perfectly normal for a new Grand Duke to take the throne by killing the previous one, along with any contenders. Despite this, other kingdoms are desperate for a better relationship with Kylma Above, and as such many have sent sons and daughters to attend a brideshow, where the next in line for the throne will be picking out his future consort.
It's here that we meet Ekata, one of the middle daughters of the Grand Duke, and possibly the only member of the Avenko family who isn't a power hungry psychopath. More interested in getting away from her family and travelling south to study at university, she's more interested in science and medicine than politics. However, when on the night of the brideshow the entire Avenko family all fall into a deep coma, except for Ekata, she finds herself forced to assume the throne.
Acting as Grand Duke, Ekata must try to discover what has effected her family and try to save them. However, she soon learns that there are bigger threats than just this mysterious ailment, as she gets drawn into a web of political intrigue. Dealing with visiting dignitaries, a council of unhappy advisers pushing for democracy, and a challenge for the throne from a rival kingdom, Ekata will be lucky to survive herself, let alone awaken her family.
One of the best things about The Winter Duke is that we as the audience get dropped into things with little world building, being left to discover much of the culture of Kylma Above, and the surrounding politics, as they come up in the narrative. At first, I was a little put off because things were happening very fast, magic was introduced with no warning, and people were talking about other kingdoms and trade agreements without explanation. But after a while I began to suspect that this might have been the point. The readers aren't given explanations in the text and are left to discover things through the narrative because that's very much the same experience that Ekata has during the book.
Ekata has spent most of her life accepting that she's not going to rule Kylma Above. Even if she had desires to do so she would need to kill her father and several of her siblings, something that it becomes quite clear she would never do. As such she's poured her attentions into her studies, focusing on academia instead of political manoeuvring and policy. So when she's suddenly thrown into being the Grand Duke she's as unaware of the intricacies of the kingdom as the reader.
Instead of us having things explained to us in large blocks of text that delve into the history of this world we have Ekata asking the questions for us, she turns to her advisers and asks them who diplomats are and what they're after because she genuinely doesn't know.She not only gets to be the protagonist, driving much of the narrative forward, but becomes an audience stand in at times, something that quickly endeared me to the character. We both got to be a little lost and unsure of this world together.
There are times when this doesn't quite work, as there are things that Ekata would definitely know, such as the society of Kylma Above, their history, and their traditions. But Claire Eliza Bartlett found another good way of avoiding just having to info dump in these moments; Inkar. Inkar is one of the perspective partners being offered up to Ekata's brother at the brideshow, but when Ekata has to take over the throne, and in order to avoid the political machinations of a rival, she picks Inkar out to be her royal consort. Inkar is thrown into being Ekata's wife (on a week's trial basis) and suddenly finds herself in the middle of a kingdom she's unfamiliar with. Inkar doesn't always know things that would be taken for granted by Ekata, and as such she can also act as an audience mouthpiece by asking questions about the city, their belief systems, and where they grow their food in an ice covered kingdom.
That being said, Inkar isn't just there to ask questions, and is one of the more interesting characters in the narrative. The twenty-fifth daughter of the jarl of another kingdom, she's proven herself to be a hardened warrior and general for her people, and brings a degree of self assured cockiness with her. Where Ekata seems to be barely getting through things, often overwhelmed and close to exhaustion, Inkar always seems to be full of energy, and almost constantly has a sly grin on her face. I loved how the two of them complimented each other, and how the scenes between them would often play out. And my god, the sexual tension.
I loved that there was no heteronormativity in this book, and that a sapphic slow-burn romance was given centre stage. The relationship that built between the two of them was easily one of my favourite parts of the entire book, and I found myself desperately hoping that Ekata would throw her advisers plans away and not try to alienate Inkar out of breaking their marriage. I wanted the two of them to end up together, and craved more of these quite scenes of the two of them learning about each other and discovering that there was something real between the two of them.
This wasn't the only place where the book had good queer representation, however, and LGBTQ+ people seemed to be incorporated well into the narrative without any big fuss being made. All of the titles seemed to be gender neutral, with Duke being the rank of the ruler regardless of gender, and their being a mix of genders represented in the brideshow, both when it was for Ekata and her older brother. There were also characters with they/them pronouns in the story who weren't treated any differently from anyone else, and some even held high ranks within the political structure of Kylma Above. The simple ease at which these things were included, their lack of impact on the story, and how none of it was highlighted as being special or out of the ordinary was brilliant, and reinforces the point that representation and inclusion needn't be a hard thing, or something that writers should be afraid of having in their works.
Claire Eliza Bartlett also does an amazing job at world building with Kylma Below, and made the handful of segments of the book dealing with them some of the best. To begin with I wasn't sure what Kylma Below was, and some of the descriptions made it sound like a sub city of some kind; leading me to suspect it would be the trope of the rich and powerful living in luxury above whilst the poor lived in an 'under' city. When I discovered it was an actual underwater kingdom full of fish people and sea creatures I was hugely excited to find out more about it.
The handful of times that we get to follow Ekata below the surface of the ice and see her discovering this alien world that had been below her feet her entire life were stunning. The world below the surface was something truly different from everything above, and I wanted to spend more time there exploring and learning more. I'd love to see Bartlett return to this world, not so much to continue with Ekata's story, but with a whole book set beneath the ice.
The Winter Duke was a book that I was unsure what to expect, the narrative and intriguing world constantly kept me on my toes, and meant that I never knew what would be coming next. The characters were diverse and had believable motivations and desires, some of whom I came to adore, and others I absolutely hated. Part of me wishes that the story could have been longer, that I could have had more time in this world and with these characters, but alas, all good things have to end.
Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog
