My book reviews for the Sands of Achten Tan series by Debbie Inacu-Haddad, including Speechless in Achten Tan and The Bone Master.  Please be aware that the review for the second book contains spoilers.

Mila hasn't spoken in the five years since she became a first-level Everfall witch. After failing the test to reclaim her voice and control her magic, her mentor sends eighteen-year-old Mila to Achten Tan-City of Dust-a dangerous desert town, built in the massive ribcage of an extinct leviathan.

To reclaim her power, Mila must steal a magical staff from evil Bone Master Opu Haku's sky-high lair.

Her only resources are the magical luminous elixirs of the cursed caverns where she grew up, and a band of unlikely allies; a quirky inventor, a giant-ant rider, a healer, a librarian's assistant, a Tar-tule rider, and the chief's playboy son.

But in the City of Bones, enemies & friends are not who they seem, and trusting the wrong person can be deadly.

If Mila fails, she will never speak again and her bones will be added to the desert.

This book includes a kick-ass tattooed witch who can't speak, giant ants, first-person present-tense narration, magic, banter, a heist by a diverse cast, and cute boys kissing.

This book was provided for free by the Author and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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Speechless in Achten Tan follows Mila, a gnome, as she heads out of her people’s cavernous home and out into the big, wide world. Alone, voiceless and armed only with a set of powerful potions, it’s obvious from the start that her quest to regain her voice and unlock her magic is going to be a bumpy road. From ghosts to a powerful bone magician and a capricious new mentor, Mila has her hands full as she adjusts to life in Achten Tan, the notorious City of Dust and Bones that was built in the middle of a desert.

Despite her former mentor’s insistence that the answer to unlocking her magic and her voice could be found in Achten Ten under the mentorship of Gerwyn, nothing seems to work. It’s only when a chance encounter with some of the magical artefacts belonging to the town’s chief, a powerful Bone Master who no one dares challenge, that Mila senses a change. With the help of a band of misfits, including the chief’s own son, she hatches a plan to grab the staff. If they succeed, they could not only get Mila her voice and unlock her magic, but also overthrow the chief’s tyrannical reign of power.

It’s an all-or-nothing plan, a daring heist, and it’s so much fun to read. With a charismatic cast of characters, Iancu-Haddad leads us on a high-stakes quest of found family and identity. Mila is a resilient and complex character, her life shaped by trauma and the weight of other people’s expectations. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t falter, and when she does, one of her friends is there to pick her up, to help her, just as she is for them.  We get to see how the bonds between the characters are forged, and then watch them grow and strengthen as they team up to take on this challenge. Each one of them is different, with an interesting background, even the quiet scholar character who only has a small, yet crucial part to play.

I appreciated the amount of diversity in this book, especially the openly bisexual character who shamelessly flirted with both male and female partners in a couple. Kaii was a delightful rogue of a character who I fell in love with very quickly, and I was very pleased to hear that he’s the protagonist of the second book in the series. There is a fair amount of romance intermixed with the adventure, and there’s a good balance of very sweet moments and sauciness, too, with intimate scenes fading to black.

Throw in an amazing magic system and great world-building, and Speechless in Achten Tan has a bit of everything that you want in a good fantasy novel. It also has enormous tortoise-like creatures that swim in tar, adorably called tar-tules, and giant ants, which, considering I have an ant phobia, were not as terrifying as I thought, and I actually found them quite cute. The gay love story sub-plot with a tar-tule rider and an ant rider was the icing on the top.

On a final note, as a disabled woman, I didn’t read this as a book about a disabled character; rather, I read it as a woman on a quest to get back something that magic had taken from her. In fantasy settings, when powerful magic, especially potions and healing, is involved, disabilities are only temporary. Magic has the power to take away, and it also has the power to fix everything. It’s a trope that has been overused many times in the fantasy genre, and while Mila uses a type of sign language to communicate, it is very important to note that she is not portrayed as disabled, nor did I feel that this was the author’s intent. I feel that the emphasis was on other themes, such as helplessness and identity, not an attempt to write about disability.

Kaii Haku has lived his whole life in the shadow of his cruel father's magic.
Rebelling against his father- the Bone Master- by drinking and sleeping around.
But when one of his best friends is kidnapped by pirates, Kaii embarks on a perilous rescue mission with two retired pleasure house workers, a shy teen bookworm, and a feisty girl from the pirate crew.
The journey will take Kaii and his allies far from Achten Tan, to a sea ruled by ships that travel on the backs of monsters.
For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference, but if he wields his emerging bone magic to save his friends, he risks losing himself and becoming like his father - a man who tried to kill him.

This book was provided for free by the Author and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

In the wake of the events of the previous book, the residents of Achten Tan are trying to return to their lives. That’s not so easy for Kaii Hakku, son of the chief, whose life was turned upside down when gnomes Mila and Geb came to town. His father, the chief of Achten Tan, tried to kill him, and Kaii found out that he’s inherited the same powerful and dangerous magic as his father. His father is now a prisoner of the town he once ruled, and the weight of what to do with him is weighing heavily on Kaii’s mind. Kaii’s sore heart almost seems the least of his worries, so when a pretty pirate walks into town, Kaii is happy for a night of distraction. What he doesn’t realise is that it’s not the type of distraction he imagined; Tara and her crew are in town to loot his father’s now unguarded treasure.

When the pirates kidnap Valla, Kaii’s friend, he ends up teaming with scholar Sozi, Tara’s long-lost brother, who had been hiding out in Achten Tan for years, Dagen, and Dagen’s girlfriend, Kiva. An unlikely group with a history of causing tension between them, things get even worse when they find one of the pirates trying to steal from them. It seems that Tara has left her younger cousin Ruby behind. Striking a deal with her for her help in catching up with Tara, they agree to work together, and when they catch up to the pirates, they’ll exchange Ruby for Valla.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy, and along the way, all manner of things go wrong for both groups.

In the previous book, Kaii was the mischievous bisexual rogue about town, and I was looking forward to a book focusing on him. Sadly, the magical balance that Iancu-Haddad wove in the first book didn’t quite make it across to this one. It wasn’t the character development that let the side down; rather, it was the overall tone of The Bone Master that disappointed me. I felt as though the author was trying for a more adult-themed tone, and for me, it just didn’t work. I like romance in books as it’s a part of life; however, at times, it felt like the characters of The Bone Master were more interested in hooking up with each other than saving their comrades.

That’s not to say that The Bone Master is not without its merits. Once again, Iancu-Haddad has written a fun-filled fantasy adventure, this time taking readers beyond the bone-enclosed desert town of Achten Tan. It was interesting reading about the lands and creatures beyond the desert, especially from the perspective of the Achten Tanians, who had only ever known life in the desert. Such a way of life is completely different to that of their pirate companions, and Iancu-Haddad did a great job writing this into the story.

Overall, The Bone Master felt a bit rushed and less edited, which made for a more disappointing read. Despite the massive cliffhanger at the end, combined with interesting characters and their development throughout the book didn’t manage to keep me interested in the series.

Thanks for reading my book review for Sands of Achten Tan series by Debbie Iancu-Haddid!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

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