TL;DR: A novella featuring a blind protagonist and a mystery, The Labyrinth’s Archivist by Day Al-Mohamed is a short, but interesting read that I wished were longer.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Azulea is one of a long line of people who protect and catalog the information of the byways, passages, and secrets of the Labrynth. Due to her blindness, however, she is unable to fulfill her role, although she remembers everything she’s ever read. When her grandmother is murdered, she’ll do whatever it takes to find the one responsible.
This novella has a deep world, interesting characters, a (short) character arc, and a fairly obvious murder mystery. It also includes some LGBTQ+ romance (very brief). I wish it were longer, because I’d love to know more about this world and the people in it. For those reasons, I’ve given it 4 stars.
The Plot
Azulea lives in the Labyrinth, her home city, with her family, who are the archivists of all the pathways, byways, and secrets of teh city and everyone around it. They are the mapmakers and the tellers of tales. However, Azulea is also blind, which means she can’t fulfill the family duty of making maps. She is gifted with language and a perfect memory of all that she has learned, which helps when she negotiates trade and peace between different sellers who almost come to blows in the bazaar.
When her grandmother is murdered and she discovers that the cause could create a plague upon everyone in the Labrynth, she is determined to figure out who killed her and why. Along the way, she learns a few secrets and bumps into some old allies.
Can Azulea reveal the killer before more Archivists are killed?
What I liked & liked less
The world building in this short story is really good. The author describes the environment so well, I felt like I was walking the floors wiht Azulea. I also like that the world building was not shoved in my face, but was part of the immersion of the story.
Azulea was likeable and had enough challenges (not related to her blindness) to make her a likeable character I wanted to see succeed. The love interest/ex-girlfriend was solved a little too easily for me, although there is enough backstory and inner narrative to show why Azulea struggled with it.
I would’ve liked a bit more to the story – a fuller fleshing out of some of the side characters and a deeper understanding of the world. But, it’s a novella, so I can’t have everything.
The mystery was good. But the killer had a somewhat trite motivation for the killing, which wasn’t as satisfying as it could’ve been had we had more interaction with them. With a few more words and some additional scenes, this novella could’ve been amazing instead of just good.
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
If you like short stories with mystery, a decent character arc, an interesting world, and a resilient protagonist, you’ll like this novella. It features themes of inner worth, LGBTQ+ romance, interesting mythology, and a protagonist who is underestimated due to her blindness. The world building is interesting and I’d love to know more about the world. For all those reasons and more, I gave it 4 stars.
About the Author
Day Al-Mohamed is co-editor for the anthology, “Trust & Treachery” from DarkQuest Books and her first novel, “Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn: A Steampunk Faerie Tale,” co-written with Danielle Ackley-McPhail was released September 1, 2014. In addition to speculative fiction, she also writes comics and film scripts. Her recent publications are available in Lacuna Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Crossed Genres anthology “Oomph – A Little Super Goes a Long Way,” and GrayHaven Comics’ anti-bullying issue “You Are Not Alone.” She is an active member of the Cat Vacuuming Society of Northern Virginia Writing Group, a member of Women in Film and Video, and a graduate of the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop.
When not working on fiction, Day is Senior Policy Advisor with the Federal government. She has also worked as a lobbyist and political analyst on issues relating to Health care, Education, Employment, Disability, and International Development. She loves action movies and drinks far too much tea. She lives in Washington, DC with her wife, N.R. Brown, in a house with too many swords, comic books, and political treatises.
If you wish to purchase this book, it is only available on Amazon.
This fills in the BIPOC author square on my Fantasy Bingo 2022 card.