Scorpica (The Five Queendoms #1)

by: G.R. Macallister

Publication date: February 22, 2022 by Gallery Books/Saga Press

Genre: Sci Fi & Fantasy

Rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other—and new threats to each nation rise from within.

Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter’s explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends—and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive.

My thoughts:

There are plenty of epic fantasies out in the world that readers can select from. Most will give the reader inventive worlds, complex character relationships, and a good versus evil scenario. For a writer to enter into this genre they must be fantastically creative and imaginative. They also must ensure that they have the skills necessary to world build while moving the story along with a purpose. Macallister has marched herself into this genre and made a statement! For starters she creates a tale woven from not one, not two, but 5 matriarchal societies! While there is the expected Amazonian styled warrior clan, the others aren’t quite as predictable. Each character introduced provides context for her society. Every relationship is centered around the unprecedented scenario taking place within the realms, baby girls have ceased to be born. The ultimate question is why and can the societies continue to prosper or even exist if baby girls aren’t being born. The magic of The Five Queendoms has only just been revealed to us and it’s going to be one hell of a ride!

I received a copy of this title via NetGalley.