The Three Faces of Dissatisfaction by M.C. Burnell

He thought this mission was a joke at his expense, and now he’s got the fate of the region in his hands. Liath-Tamren is the largest urban center in a land around an inner sea that was all once claimed by an empire. The Cities reflect the diversity and trade that flow across the Halu, enriched by numerous immigrant enclaves and temples to foreign gods. Not all of its citizens find that pleasing, and there’s no people more misunderstood than the Malisaat, with their secretive faith, their envy-inspiring wealth, and their freaky black-eyed sorcerers, who scare them too. As one of said freaky sorcerers, otherwise known as the Azkhan Soubir, Japhet’s used to being in on the secrets. But when the head of his cabal sends him to the Cities, his orders are basically: go there for reasons. Not the usual mission. And why here? Liath-Tamren is a tame, bourgeois place (which he hates). There’s crime, but it’s ordinary shit. The Cities’ problems are the sort one expects in an urban center run by a string of incompetent do-nothing kings who still consider their subjects foreigners a thousand years after conquering them. Sorcerers are tax-paying citizens organized into guilds who sell their services to shopkeepers. So color him confused by what he finds when he arrives. It doesn’t help that his fellow Azkhan Soubir are acting hinky. Japhet’s cabal works alone and keeps their mysteries close, but the people he used to trust he doesn’t anymore. He’s going to have to rely on the help of normal folks accustomed to having normal, boring, workaday problems, who don’t yet know they have something to contribute. Top of the agenda: figure out why the Cities are being targeted by a comical profusion of metaphysical players who never took an interest heretofore. An urban center so real it must be. A labyrinthine plot centuries in the making. Laugh-out-loud dark comedy. Fall in love with Liath-Tamren! (Just don’t call it ‘a city.’ Really.)

Adult • Fantasy/Epic and High • Fantasy/Court Intrigue • Fantasy • Fantasy/Cozy, Low, Mundane, and Slice of Life

Content Warning: Violence, torture, implied sexual assault, xenophobia.