My first read of 2026 was a book that, I’ll admit from the start, has quite a slow pace. But, despite that, I managed to be interested all the way.

The book has two plotlines, which seem completely separate at first.

The first plotline focuses on Tirlav, a young elf who’s the third son in his family, who is unexpectedly called to military training as human raiders are seen more often along the elven shores. Tirlav, as the third son, has been spending his life mostly with music and other artistic pursuits, as it’s typically the second son who takes the military duty (while the first becomes the heir of the family), and thus is thrust into the duty out of nowhere. Given his status, he’s given a leading position, and despite feeling unprepared for any major role, does his best to keep the small force under his command ready and takes his duty seriously.

The second plotline focuses on Jareen – an “insensitive” elf, which is a term used for elves who don’t have the same connection to the power that makes elves long-lived. With a lifespan shorter than most elves, she had left her homeland and joined the Voiceless Sisters, an order taking care of terminally sick humans in one of the port towns. The name she uses isn’t even her original name, but one she took as she joined the order to sound more human, even though she still sticks out being taller and more elegant, despite the simple clothing the nuns share.

Her story takes a change when she’s relegated to take care of an archivist who’s in the early stage of a fatal disease. However, his progress is slow, so Jareen has the time to stalk the library and starts to suspect that this isn’t an ordinary case. By chance, she finds out that the archivist was exchanging letters with Tirlav, which is the first hint of these stories being connected, roughly halfway through the book. Jareen even starts suspecting the archivist has been faking his disease, though for what reason, she doesn’t know.

Eventually, an elven ambassador arrives and orders her to follow him to her homeland, where some yet-unseen disease is affecting the elven nobility. This brings out the contrast with elves being unused to disease and death and clueless about how to handle it, while she’s been close to that for decades.

Tirlav, meanwhile, spends a good chunk of his time coordinating the drills and exercises with other groups making up the elven military, and he meets Jareen by chance after a dinner with his fellow leaders and their superiors. And they develop a strange friendship, though shortly after, Tirlav is to depart for the real fight…

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Read date: 6.-17.1.2026
Published: 19.8.2025
Goodreads/Amazon links (too few ratings so far)
My rating: 75%
Length: 339 pages
My highlights

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I guess that the main problem with this book is that I didn’t know what the grand story and conflict is, past some bare hints. I guess I’m taking it as an adventure into the unknown, but I also know this might be an issue for some readers. Let’s hope the second book shows more.