Stone and Steel

July 6, 2020
Dunbar, a PW reviewer, debuts with an immersive, fast-paced fantasy novella about a general torn between love and duty. When General Aaliyah returns to Titus after years away at war, she’s shocked to see the dilapidated state of her homeland under the rule of her adopted sister and former lover, Queen Odessa. Aaliyah settles back into her life while trying to understand why Odessa broke every promise of progress she made before Aaliyah left. When Aaliyah revisits friends from her and Odessa’s childhood as orphaned street kids, the reunion opens her eyes to Odessa’s true selfish nature and she’s forced to accept that her sister does not share her same desire to raise the people of Titus out of poverty and hunger. As Odessa is consumed by the desire for power, Aaliyah teams up with her friend-turned-lover, Mercy; her long-lost father, Akil; Omar, the king of nearby Galavera; and her most loyal soldiers to save the kingdom from the queen she once loved. The plot is riveting, and readers will cheer for the cast of well-rounded Black characters, led by underdog Aaliyah, as they fights for her people. This will be an easy pick for anyone looking for queer, Black speculative fiction—and for fantasy fans more broadly.

September 1, 2020
Dunbar's novella presents a fantasy world where most people have access to one of the elemental kinds of magic: fire, water, air, earth, bone, and iron. General Aaliyah, one of the few people without a drop of magic in her veins, returns home triumphant from her successful southern campaigns. Aaliyah is troubled when she arrives in the capital city and finds that her adoptive sister and lover Odessa, whom she helped bring to power, is allowing the people of the kingdom to live in poverty and starvation. The "Queen's Champion" quickly discovers that things are very different than she imagined, as she is warned both by Odessa and other concerned friends and former lovers that speaking critically of the queen is treason. If she wants to improve her kingdom, Aaliyah must wrestle not only with massive magical and political powers arrayed against her but also her own complicated feelings for Odessa. This queer, elementally themed world should appeal to fans of Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)