The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri is exactly what I love in a fantasy novel: immersive worldbuilding, characters who feel real enough to walk off the page, and enough plot twists to keep me riveted.

Short version: read this book.

Long version: see below.

Obligatory spoiler warning: only light spoilers, nothing major given away. 

The Jasmine Throne: Summary

The story begins in a conquered kingdom that was defeated a generation ago by a powerful empire now ruled by an unstable Emperor. That premise isn’t unusual for a fantasy novel but Jasmine Throne succeeds by layered and complex storytelling but writing that’s never so dense that it loses sight of what’s important: the characters.

Though there are many characters populating the novel, the heart of the story is Priya of Ahiranyi. She’s introduced as a servant girl determined to do something, anything, to help the helpless in her conquered city but she’s obviously more than that.

There were gaps in Priya’s childhood memories, spaces big enough to stick a fist through. But whenever pain was inflicted on her–the humiliation of a blow, a man’s careless shove, a fellow servant’s cruel laughter–she felt the knowledge of how to cause equal suffering unfurl in her mind. Ghostly whispers, in her brother’s patient voice.

This is how you pinch a nerve hard enough to break a handhold. This is how you snap a bone. This is how you gouge an eye. Watch carefully, Priya. Just like this.

The novel opens with Priya attempting to buy sacred wood that staves off the “rot” infecting so many, including children with nowhere to go and no resources. Priya eventually provides not only the wood but a place to work and live for a young boy who will eventually die of the rot.

“He was the kind of small that suggested malnourishment, his bones too sharp, his head too large for a body that hadn’t grown to match it. He had his shawl over his hair, but she could see his dark curls, and the deep green leaves growing between them.”

Priya works in the home of the Regent, a building complex that holds the center of government for the Emperor, and Ahiranyi’s revered religious temple, the Hirani, which has been abandoned–or, at least, it’s thought to be abandoned. Priya’s one of the few survivors of a horrific massacre of temple devotees. She can’t bring herself to completely break away from the pull of the Hirani, especially the magical power it promises, though her memories of her time in the Hirani are fragmented and confused. Priya returns to the Hirani reluctantly when she accepts an offer to become a servant there to help watch over Princess Malini, the sister of the Emperor. Malini has been sent into exile after a plot to overthrow her unstable brother:

The walls were still stained black, the carvings in the room blasted and faded, worn by neglect and flames. Malini looked around. Raised her head to the ceiling, as the guards and Pramila and Santosh bustled around her, and realized, with horror, that this had to have been the room where Ahiranya’s priests burned to death.

Of course it was. Damn her brother and the cruel, twisted nature of his mind. Of course he would lock her away far from all her support, all her alliances. Of course he would send her to a room in a decaying temple where dozens of children had died screaming in flame, simply for the crime of being too powerful, too monstrous—

Princess Malini and Priya are destined to become important in each other’s lives. Priya must decide whether to reclaim her power for Ahiranyi, while Malini will struggle to survive and find a way to keep her people safe from her brother.

The story includes beautiful descriptions of magic, characters from all the different factions vying for power in Ahiranyi and the Empire, several chilling action sequences, and, most of all, the kind of characters that makes the reader feel for even the supposed villains.

The Jasmine Throne: Magical and Religious Systems

There are three main systems of worship in the story and all come with an element of magic. When I call them complicated, I mean is that there is division among their adherents about how to best practice their faith and protect their people. For Priya, people and her country will always come first, but there are others in Ahiranya who believe that sacrifices must be made in order to become free and want to harness the power of the Hirani, no matter the cost to them or others. Priya herself struggles with how much power is too much. She’s first moved to act to save a friend:

Priya looked down at the ground. At the stone, carved to resemble vines and leaves, melding with the green sprouting up through its cracked surface.

She’d known the Hirani once, and it had known her.

It knew her still.

She hadn’t been sure the first night she’d climbed, when all she’d been able to concentrate on had been making her way up to the top without losing her nerve. Bushe she was sure now. As she stood and forced herself to breathe–as the lanterns shook, and Sima’s fingers slid the tiniest bit from their handhold–she felt the pulse of the wet stone beneath her feet, slithering as if the vines on its surface moved to cradle her. She had a feeling that if she pressed her ear to the Hirana she’d hear the stone heave, like the vertebrae of a great, sleeping beast. She could step out. Let that spine carry her. All it would take was a leap of faith.

I shouldn’t, Priya thought distantly. Spirits, I really shouldn’t.

But this was Sima. Her friend.

Malini’s brother, the Emperor, has twisted his beliefs to justify the burning of those who oppose him. Malini’s great sin was refusing to be burned as a willing sacrifice to the gods. She still believes in her gods, however. It’s a matter of rejecting her brother’s rationalizations.

The third religion comes into play about two-thirds of the way through the book and, it too has fervent believers that believe themselves destined to a particular fate, one that’s reflected in their private names. There’s an element of non-violence in this and there’s even a discussion as to whether non-violence best serves those who trust them or puts them at risk. (To be more specific would be giving away spoilers.)

Essentially, magic and belief are connected in The Jasmine Throne but not always interpreted in the same ways by those of the same faith. The magic itself, especially that wielded by Priya, comes with a price as well. The three systems are sometimes in conflict, sometimes unwary allies, but always one of the driving forces behind our characters.

The Romance at the Center: Priya and Malini

They are natural enemies. Malini’s part of a dynasty that nearly destroyed everything dear to Priya. Malini still wants to preserve her Empire, though she’s willing to make allies. Priya wants the Empire gone from Ahiranyi. Malini is royal. Priya is a servant, at least initially. Yet they both crave power to accomplish what they want. In Priya’s case, by finding the key to her magic in the Harini and within herself. For Malini, that means to escape from her prison and the forced drug that’s slowly stealing her will to live. Eventually, it means unseating her brother.

They want so much more than they have and they’re willing to sacrifice much of themselves to get it. They’re kindred souls. Priya recognizes it when she first sees Malini:

And met a woman’s eyes.

For a moment, Priya didn’t know where she was. She was in her own past. She was staring at another temple daughter, sprawled on the floor before her. She was staring at her own ghosts made flesh.

Wide dark eyes. The whites bloodshot with weeping. The eyebrows were thick and arched, the skin a pale teak. The sobbing eased, and Priya could hear the woman’s breath: a staccato rhythm, rattling and sore.

It was the breath that brought Priya back to herself, back to her own skin, shaking on her knees.

The prisoner. She was staring at the prisoner. The emperor’s sister. The princess.

This is a complicated relationship, the servant and the princess, though Priya initially has more power than the princess. Priya has reason to mistrust her attraction to the princess, especially given the conquering of Ahiranya. Malini has been able to trust no one for so long that she hardly knows how. And, yet, I wished for some way for them to be together. Given the end of this volume, it’s unclear whether a happy ending is in the cards for either of them, much less together, but their longing and their love is real and heartbreaking.

Conclusion: Buy The Jasmine Throne

I wrote in another post that one of the reasons to avoid going back to classic SF or fantasy is that there is so much new work being written, too many wonderful, imaginative stories being told from a point of view that is lacking in those classic stories. The Jasmine Throne is one of those stories. It’s a world that I can’t wait to visit again, though, alas, the sequel publication date is as yet unknown.