A Fellowship of Academics and Arts by J Penner
Sometimes the person you least expect becomes the person you can't imagine living without.
Returning to Adenashire after a year away was a real pleasure, and I was particularly curious about A Fellowship of Academics and Art because it takes us backwards.
This is a prequel centred on Verdreth and Ervash, two characters we already know from Adenashire, and their first meeting takes place more than thirty years before the main story.
That makes this a rather different book from the others. Rather than the more ensemble-driven cosy fantasy of the main series, this feels much more like a traditional romance: a first meeting, misunderstandings, gradually changing opinions, growing affection and, naturally, a dramatic finale.
As I thought... this is a very different flavour of Adenashire, but it works well as a story about how two people who initially seem completely incompatible can gradually discover what they have in common.
Verdreth and Ervash begin from very different places, and their relationship has plenty of the classic romance beats: misunderstandings, unexpected moments of connection and the slow realisation that the person you thought you understood may not be anything like the person you assumed.
The fact that we're hearing the story while Arleta is about to give birth also adds a lovely framing device. Verdreth is nervous about becoming a grandfather, and telling the story of how he and Ervash met gives him something to focus on while also reminding him just how much his life has changed.
It surprised me by... how strange it feels to meet characters we already know in a story where we know the eventual destination. There are some interesting side characters along the way, but because we know they won't be part of the Adenashire we have already visited, I found it harder to become quite as emotionally invested in them.
That may simply be the consequence of reading a prequel after becoming attached to the main series, rather than a problem with the characters themselves.
The central relationship, though, is the reason to be here. There is something particularly satisfying about watching two people become important to each other long before we knew there was a love story to discover.
Book Recommendation: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. It's a different sort of cosy fantasy, but it has the same warmth around relationships and the discovery that the people who become your family may not be the people you expected.
TV or Movie Recommendation: The Princess Bride. Romance, adventure, comedy, memorable characters and a story that understands that love can survive quite a lot of nonsense.
A colour palette: coffee brown, parchment cream and deep artistic blue.
A soundtrack: warm strings, quiet piano and the gentle hum of a busy café.
A season: early autumn, when the days are shortening and everyone seems to have somewhere warm to be.
A mood: intimate, playful, romantic and nostalgic.
A scent: freshly brewed coffee, ink on paper and the heavy, slightly chemical smell of wet paint.
This is a card of partnership, mutual recognition and the moment when two people realise that they can meet one another as equals.
That's the heart of Verdreth and Ervash's story. Their relationship doesn't begin with perfect understanding. In fact, it begins with plenty of reasons to think they have nothing in common. What matters is the gradual discovery that they can choose to understand each other.
The Two of Cups isn't about two people being identical. It's about two people looking across the distance between them and deciding to build a bridge.
Can love grow between people who never expected to understand each other?
Verdreth and Ervash's relationship begins with difference, misunderstanding and assumptions about who the other person is. What follows is the slow process of discovering that the person in front of you is more complicated—and more interesting—than the version you imagined.
Sometimes love isn't finding someone who fits perfectly into the life you planned.
Sometimes it's discovering that the person you never expected to choose has become the person you can't imagine choosing anyone else.
A Fellowship of Academics and Art publishes on the 24th of November. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
