Review: Spellhacker

Spellhacker by M.K. England
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a little over a year since M.K. England's first novel dazzled the hell out of me, and now they're back with another unique, and uniquely cool, piece of sci-fi. But it's got a lot of fantasy too, a world where magic (called "maz") is commonplace and some are able to wield it with all sorts of elemental effects - there are fourteen types, officially, listed at the start of the book. I might have to go back to The Disasters and see if perhaps England took us back to al-Rihla in this one - perhaps not, but it'd be no surprise if they did, given that our main setting, Kyrkarta, has a similar South Asian style at least in terms of name (as does the other nearby city of Jattapore, where several of protagonist Diz's friends are looking to go to university.) Just like their first book, England gives this one a pretty diverse ensemble cast, spanning the spectra of race and gender and sexuality - though the latter is done very subtly, as the book focuses far more on friendships than relationships. It also deals with themes of struggling to rise up out of poverty by any means necessary, as well as fighting forces determined to cost future generations a livable environment. Though I do prefer The Disasters, as this one's more of a 4.5 than a straight 5, Spellhacker continues M.K. England's trend of brilliantly on-point YA sci-fi, and I'm as down as ever to see where they take us next!

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