The Enchanter's Counsel by Thalib Razi

SPFBO10

All compasses point to Fridheim, a holy city at the north pole of a spinning, coin-shaped planet called Quatrain. A hundred years after the millennium-long “Old War” between the coin’s faces over its sacred and gemstone-rich rim, the city’s “New Peace” is threatened by earthquakes, extremists, and tensions between its goblin, elf, and dwarf inhabitants. The son of immigrants who run a café in Fridehim’s goblin quarter, Mizan al-Wasati has just graduated with a degree in gemstone enchanting and is determined to prove to himself (and his overbearing parents) that he’s worthy of a job in that prestigious, modern field of magic. But his journey home in search of work and love ends up putting him in the middle of his hometown’s postcolonial politics, a religious feud between mystic traditionalists and violent literalists, an awkward reencounter with his childhood crush – and a strange magical disaster that suddenly falls upon him and his friends to fix. The debut fantasy novel of Sri Lankan American Muslim writer and singer-songwriter Thalib Razi, The Enchanter’s Counsel turns the tropes of the high fantasy genre on their heads (or tails, if you will) and explores a world where East and West literally cannot see eye to eye, where the epics of good versus evil are just biased accounts from a forgotten era, and where people rely on convenient magical devices instead of the power in their bones. Nothing like our world, of course… Turn the pages to find out more!

Young Adult • Fantasy/Epic and High