#terapsina's race the sands rambles

[terapsina]

Holy hell, I'm only thirteen chapters into a new book called Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst and it is seriously the absolute best, most well crafted and original fantasy novel I've come across in recent memory.

The story takes place in a world where reincarnation is a fact of life and who you are in this life affects who you will be reborn as in the next one. And your auras can actually be read by augurs (basically spiritual guides) so you can find out what you will be reborn as, though it's possible to change your soul's fate by the actions and choices one makes.

A truly balanced soul will be reborn as a human. Everyone else might be destined to be a hawk, or a monkey, or if you're particularly unpleasant, a sea slug.

But only the very worst of souls, the truly evil ones, will be reborn as kehoks. Monsters who come into being fully formed, dangerous and full of hatred for themselves and the universe. Doomed to continue being reborn as a kehok for eternity.

And in this world kehoks are used in races where they are paired with riders who must be able to impose their own will over the will of the kehok to win. It is a dangerous sport however, because if they falter, even for a moment, their own racer will kill them.

The story mainly follows two women (though occasionally it switches point of view to other people, which helps expanding the world and the story in a very effective way), one is Tamra, a trainer who was once a grand champion winner but retired when her daughter was born. Now however Tamra has gone through a streak of bad luck that has lead her to the edge of her last chance. If she doesn't find and train the rider and racer pair with the potential to become the next champions, she will lose her daughter.

Because her daughter Shalla is being trained as an augur, something that is not a choice (if a soul is found with the potential, they WILL be trained, but unless their parent is able to pay for that education, the child is taken to be a ward of the temple and Tamra would not be allowed to see her again until her training was complete, and by then her daughter would be fully grown).

The other main character is Raia, a seventeen year old girl who has run away from home because of the terrible plans her parents had for her future. And unless she earns enough money that she'll be able buy out her own freedom, she's doomed to be married off to a monster. But there's not many things that someone without any particular experience or talents can do to earn that kind of money. This leads her to Tamra, and to the strange kehok with a will far stronger than that of any kehok Tamra has ever seen before.

This kehok is also extremely important in the story, in ways that I cannot describe without spoiling (though it becomes obvious to the reader if not the characters very early in the book).

The characters are all so very distinct and well rounded I kind of want to hug this book. And the heart of the story is in the relationships between Tamra, Raia and Shalla (Tamra would do absolutely anything for her daughter but already I can see that she's similarly growing to love Raia as a second daughter and it's just beautiful to read).

This is going to be one of my new all time favorite books that will be placed in my heart right beside The Queen's Thief, Imperial Radch trilogy and The Goblin Emperor, I can already tell (as you should guess from the fact that I'm not even halfway through and yet already gushing (which NEVER happens)).