“I feel threads, sisters. Threads connecting these events. Threads that dance me like a puppet.” This quote from R. S. A. Garcia’s new novel, The Nightward, perfectly captures its skilfully crafted, multifaceted science-fantasy world. I felt like I was being carefully guided towards an endgame I could not foresee, one that included multiple characters’ perspectives and epic scope.

The novel begins in a fantasy setting with a culture similar to Garcia’s home of Trinidad and Tobago. People outside of the Caribbean might not realize that Trinidad and Tobago has roughly the same percentage of East Indian descendant peoples as descendants of African slaves. I therefore appreciated Garcia’s description of a royal ball early in the novel, which featured characters decked in saris and watching tassa players, limbo dancers, and Moko Jumbies. The main culture of the novel, the kingdom of Gailand, is matriarchal. The people of Gailand worship Gaiea, a goddess typically associated with the Earth and life itself, but who quickly becomes a much more complex figure.

Part of the novel is told from the perspectives of the child princess of Gailand, Viella, and her Daguard bodyguard, Luka. The novel begins with a royal betrayal that forces this unlikely pair to flee Gailand and search for help, pursued by dark magical creatures. This action occurs parallel to the events of those at the court Viella and Luka have left behind. In this strand, the Royal Spellsayer, Mordach, and the Queen’s cousin, Lady Sophia, use the magic of Veilla’s twin brother, Valan, to counteract the wards that protect the court of Gailand, releasing a powerful dark magic that has spent centuries trapped in a text called the Nightward. The only magic that could combat the Nightward is known as Gaiea’s boon, a powerful magic that chooses one woman to receive the power and knowledge of past queens. Mordach and Lady Sophia work to prevent the boon from leaving Viella’s mother, Queen Elise, and passing to Viella. The princess’s life will remain in danger until she can come into her magical inheritance.

The characters of the series are sympathetic and have complex motives; they are all threads in a larger web of magical eugenics and political intrigue. In the world of The Nightward, Augurs use magic to “scry” the bloodlines of all peoples. Certain bloodline combinations are not allowed because, in Gailand’s past, there were magic users called elementals and unbound who caused an imbalance that almost destroyed the world. Garcia’s matriarchal science-fantasy world remains unusual in a genre that often still relies on kings and male hero figures, but the characters of Luka and Mordach demonstrate the issues that would naturally arise from a simple reversal of a patriarchal, gendered hierarchy. In Luka’s case, he is forced to hide his parentage because his father entered into an unsanctioned relationship with his mother. Luka believes himself to be a “mistake” and “unnatural,” a vulnerability that gives his character depth. Mordach is originally portrayed as the villain of the novel, but is eventually revealed to be in love with Viella’s father, Alain; Mordach wants to give the knowledge of the “Masters” to everyone and save prince Valan, who has a strong magical affinity that is putting his life in jeopardy. Ultimately, he wants to stop the practice of families being separated when children are found to have magical abilities. Mordach’s ideas are echoed by Viella’s mother, the High Queen Elise, in a diary entry that addresses the unfairness of past actions:

“It was Gaiea that freed us from the Masters and Designers. It is her Blessing that seals Oblivion and its Dark within the Halls of Creation, protecting Gailand from the horrors of the Age of Chaos…Because I know our Histories, because I am Her Hand, I cannot simply allow what is happening to continue. With each cruel decision to divide our peoples from their families, from their children, from each other, Neutral or Adept, we slip closer to what Gaiea saved us from.”

These descriptions call to mind historical practices of slavery and reveal that not every subject of Gailand, or the other Queendoms in the novel, is accepting of the social order that affects their ability to choose whom they love. Garcia skillfully weaves together threads of a broken history, one that may be misconstrued by those who would hold on to current magical and gendered imbalances.

I appreciate the variety of genders and relationships portrayed in the novel. Viella overhears her parents discussing the fact that their marriage was arranged to support the Queen’s plans to create new laws that encourage gender equality. Both thus gave up or conceal same-sex relations to forward a political agenda, yet both agree that their choices were the right decision. Elsewhere, Viella and Luka are aided by Eleanor, a female Dahomei (or warrior) whose mother is non-gender-conforming. The story is also furthered by Alain’s mother, the elderly Dowager Queen Francis, and Lady Sophia’s daughter, Gretchen, whose legs are magically disabled by her mother to keep her compliant; these characters are important additions that push back against fantasy depictions of elderly or disabled characters as monstrous or unable to engage in heroic acts. Likewise, while Luka and Eleanor are given a romantic arc in the novel, their relationship does not dominate the storyline; rather, it serves as one of many devices that allows Garcia to play with reader’s expectations and create several plot twists that did indeed “dance me like a puppet.”

Many chapters begin with excerpts of fictional religious writings, diary notes, and classified documents that highlight the fact that Gailand has a hidden history—one that involves advanced technologies. References to the Waters of Lethe (a phrase also used to describe the entire series) reinforce the idea of past events that have been forgotten. The peoples of Gailand use portals to travel around their world without questioning why they are present or who created them; Viella is able to read the writing on the portal, but the adults travelling with her cannot. The portals are marked as the property of Genetech, which seems to foreshadow that genetic material will become even more important in Garcia’s next novel in this series. The “threads” that connect events in The Nightward may well become strands of DNA.

Lady Sophia thwarts Morland and Queen Elise’s plans when she decides to keep both the power of the Nightward and an unknown ancient technology for herself. But The Nightward also plays with the idea of magic actually being advanced technology, and the novel leaves readers wondering if the magical creatures in the novel—which include warrior dagen-cat steeds, dragon-like dark Sycrens, river maidens, and magical spiders—are actually indicative of the gene-spliced dragons found in the work of authors like Anne McCaffrey. The Nightward left me wondering what secrets the next novel would reveal, and this anticipation makes The Nightward a strong start to the Waters of Lethe series. Garcia’s diverse worldbuilding and her skill in combining elements of epic fantasy with science fiction technologies makes this novel a must-read. As a reader who loves novels that blur the boundaries of what is possible in science fiction and fantasy, I truly enjoyed the diverse world of Gailand and its questioning of dominant social orders.