Hello all!
I just finished rereading The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova, and it was amazing! I finished it around the beginning of January, but so much has happened since then, I felt like I needed a refresher... Honestly, it was so worth it.
(Before I get into the review I'd like to thank Keymaster Press for providing me with an ARC copy of The Alchemists of Loom. It's greatly appreciated, and thank you for supporting me and my reviews.)
Review of The Alchemists of Loom
The Alchemists of Loom was a wonderful and exceptional work, and I feel that it will serve as an excellent starting point for a continuing series. I thought that it opened up so many new fresh ideas for the Fantasy Genre. This novel is written in a multi-perspective point of view; it gives you the opportunity to piece together the story, and leaves you on the edge of your seat.
To start, I'd like to delve a little into the lore of AoL: The world is made up of 5 guilds, which I'll show down below.
The Ravens
The Alchemists
The Rivets
The Harvesters
The Revolvers
Each guild plays a special part in the world of Loom; for example The Harvesters are known for taking care of Loom's crops and harvesting them. By having these guilds the world of Loom is rather organized, as each guild-and each citizen-has a specific job.
Guild Brands
"Found on the right cheek, tattooed guild brands were imposed by Dragon Law to designate a Fenthri's rank and guild membership. The tattoo is elaborated upon as new merits are achieved."
Within these guilds, each member holds a certain rank, and there are three different kinds of ranks you could achieve. Initiate, Journey, and Master. For example you could be an Initiate Raven, Journey Raven, or Master Raven. Being categorized into these three ranks only became a practice when the Dragons took control.
Dragon Houses
"All members of Dragon society belong to one of the three Dragon houses. Ties into the house can be by blood, adoption, mating, or merit."
The Dragon houses are just as important as the guilds in Loom, and here there also three royal Dragon Houses: Rok, Tam, and Xin. In Loom, Dragons have all different kinds of powers, and many Dragons have different looks, some may have orange hair or red skin.
Characters
The female protagonist Arianna is made up of a lot of things... literally. In her world she's known as "The White Wraith", and she's a master dragon organ harvester. Throughout the whole story it's quite evident that Ari despises Dragons with all of her might. In Loom, Dragons are known to be superior in comparison to the other guilds. Arianna is strong, quick, knowledgeable, and she has an extremely caring side to her, which can be quite unnerving. Ari never stays in one location for long, as an infamous criminal has to be quick and carful to cover her tracks. Although, she can't do it all by herself, her assistant/pupil Florence has been learning under Ari for a couple of years. Flor is the most trustworthy and knowledgeable character in AoL, and I have to say her character grew on me.
Then Cvareh comes into the picture, a Dragon who doesn't settle well with Arianna. But the two must forge an agreement, and are forced to work together. (And I know that was quite vague, but I don't want to spoil you.)
I really love Cvareh, mainly because even though he's not the strongest Dragon in Loom or in his House he's still determined, and overall caring, and I think that caring aspect is what really drew me in. Oddly enough, Ari and Cvareh are similar when it comes to personality, despite the animosity.
Ari, Flor, and Cvareh begin the ultimate journey to The Alchemists of Loom, but Dragon King's assistant Leona will do anything to sabotage their journey. Leona will do anything to be the King's favorite, even if it's killing a Dragon prince and The White Wraith. In my eyes Leona has earned respect, even if she is a villain who's on the wrong side of the story. She still is extremely determined and loyal to her King, which counts for something.
Through the entire novel, we read from a multi-perspecitve POV. Which I loved because it was similar to putting a puzzle piece together. The perspectives we see from are: Arianna, Florence, Cvareh, Leona, and even a little of Petra who is Cvareh's sister.
The Alchemists of Loom is now in my top 5 most favorite fantasy novels. It met and exceeded all of my expectations, and I was silently stunned at how easy it was to decipher all the complexities. And if that's not proof enough already of how much I enjoyed this novel, I'm reading it again for the third time...
I'm ready and on point for the second novel in the "Loom Saga", called "The Dragons of Nova". If I could I'd give it a 10/10 rating, but since my review will also be posted on Goodreads and Amazon, it's a 5/5 stars all the way! I encourage you to pick it up, and hope you all enjoy it as I did.
* Thank you again Keymaster Press for supplying me with an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
* To learn more about Elise Kova and her Loom Saga, as well as her Air Awakens series please click here.
