I really love the world building and some of the ideas explored in this story. I'm a little less sold on the characters, who I found a little too uncanny valley (and I don't think that this is because some of them are neurodiverse), and who didn't seem to really interact with each other in a plausible manner.

The writing is good, and the magic system well integrated. The belief system was mostly fine -- there was obviously a lot of thought there, and things like the way that the language reflected it was great--but I didn't feel like I quite understood the relationship between the people and their faith. Where the whole story fell down for me is that I didn't find the people, their behaviour, or their motivations convincing. I think it would have been a great play or film, but it didn't work for me as a novel. ( )

A bit too much moralizing for me ( )

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

I reviewed this book as part of GeekDis 2022 an event discussing disability representation in pop culture from the perspective of the disabled and neurodivergent community.


Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of a catastrophic event which causes mass casualties and deaths of all ages on page. There are scenes of emotional abuse from a parent and flash back memories of parental neglect.

The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg is quite simply like nothing I have ever read before. It’s listed as a “Birdverse novel” and is the first full length novel set in this universe Lemberg has created. Prior to this book, Birdverse existed in the form of poems, short stories and a novella. As the name suggests, the Birdverse is a universe based around a bird deity and the world building is brilliantly crafted. This is an author at the top of their craft, with every aspect of the world expertly crafted right down to the language used for cursing. I have a fondness for curse words created for fantasy and science fiction and I love how changing a few letters has such an affect.

There are so many layers to society of islands of Gelle-Geu and at first glance their society appears to be a utopia. It’s a society where people are accepted for who they are, and is built on people doing what they want to do based on their desires, and skills. One where there are multiple non-binary identities and traditions built into their society to display their identity with hair tokens. As well find out not everything is as perfect as it appears, with identities not recognised even though there appears to be more awareness and understanding, with the healer-keepers offering free health care to everyone yet failing to help those with mental health.

This is one of the most beautifully crafted novels I have ever read with lyrical prose and characters that captivated me. Lilun and Ranra have two very different temperaments, but are also quite similar in many ways. Lilun is neurodivergent, although that exact wording is not used anywhere in the novel. Instead, Lemberg describes Lilun as needing “the world to be quieter, and less bright”, advice that is given to their fathers by the healer-keepers when they are a child. When the world becomes too much for them, they have to stop and rest. They have an outdoor pool that their fathers built for in the garden for them, and throughout the novel they have to ask Ranra to slow down.

While Ranra runs at a much faster pace than Lilun is used to and can manage, it’s fuelled by the trauma she has suffered from ongoing emotional abuse from her mother. Despite reaching the highest position in their society, Ranra still struggles with self-confidence, with the feeling that she can do the job of starkeeper. While she was given help and support to leave her mother’s home and live on her own, the healer-keepers did nothing to heal her mother, just letting her mental health deteriorate. Her behaviour towards Ranra is seen as quirks, as just how she is, and Ranra should just shrug it off.

These two people find each other in the middle of a catastrophe and as they work to try to save their island home, they grow closer to each other. Lemberg has written a wonderfully compelling book about real people with LGBTQIA representation, disability and neurodivergent representation. This is my first introduction to Lemberg’s Birdverse and I look forward to spending more time in the gorgeous world they have created.

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Very much in the vein of kind fantasy: People make bad decisions and very bad things happen, but the bad decisions are rooted in past wounds or human frailty, and the main challenge is essentially environmental. A fallen star made of magic (deepnames) keeps the people of the isles safe—except it seems to be failing, and the new starkeeper might not be the right one to fix it (or heal it—as another character says, there’s a difference). The ghost of the first starkeeper wants another person to do the job instead, but they’re unwilling to engage so much with the world. Surprisingly, when the two—actual starkeeper and could-be starkeeper—meet, sparks fly, and that both is and isn’t as important as the survival of the isles’ people, since each life is a whole world. I’m probably not the best audience for a lot of cozy fantasy, but I thought this was pretty good, even as I wouldn’t want it to be my entire fantasy diet. Bonus points for a religion based around the Bird, leading to the curse word “plucking.” ( )

One of the many reasons I find R. B. Lemberg’s writing so captivating is that they don’t weigh the reader down in details, be it their stark, to-the-point writing style, or their lack of handholding in explaining how the magic of Birdverse works. Rooted in deepname magic, the mythology of the people of this world and their deity Bird remain mostly unexplained, but Lemberg tells their stories in such a way that you feel you understand the complexities regardless.

The Birdverse is a world where queerness is the only way of life, and neurodivergency is understood and accepted. Frankly, it’s beautiful. When we are faced daily with hatred and anger, with politicians trying so hard to strip us of our rights, it’s so unbelievably refreshing to find characters and a world like this, where what makes us special and unique is celebrated instead of vilified.

With The Unbalancing, Lemberg tells a story of love, struggle, and sacrifice, but ultimately also of community, about how we are at our strongest when we can put our differences aside and work together. If you’re looking for a happily ever after, you won’t find it here. What you will find is a story of hope, even when things seem to be at their darkest. I won’t lie, I struggled through the beginning of the book; why, I’m not sure, but I didn’t find it as immediately engaging as The Four Profound Weaves, Lemberg’s previous Birdverse novella. However, I’m so glad I stuck with it, as the finale of the story, while heart wrenching, did leave me with that feeling of hope.

Can we also take a moment to appreciate the cover design and interior layout work of Elizabeth Story, because it is fantastic. I was blown away by the cover design for The Four Profound Weaves when I first saw it, and I'm so pleased to see that creativity being carried forward with The Unbalancing. I hope Story does the design work like this on all future Birdverse books!

Someday, I’d like to read more of the Birdverse. Originally told in short stories and poems published in various magazines online (The Four Profound Weaves was the first novella length story, and this is the first novel), I’d love for a collection to be published collecting all the previous works (I’m looking at you Tachyon Publications!). It is a rich and vibrant world that I hope to read more of far into the future.

The Unbalancing will be available September 20, 2022. I’d like to thank Tachyon Publications for the digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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