Review of The Enpirion Project: Exordium (Book 1)

[Natalie MT]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Enpirion Project: Exordium (Book 1)" by L. Bossi.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Enpirion, or Piri to his few friends, is a Seri ENForcer. The Seri are a seraphim-like race that walks amongst humans, and the ENForcers are their elite strike team. Even as an ENForcer, though, Enpirion is different. He's more powerful and able to "Source" better than any of his peers. This is both a burden and a boon: he's one of their strongest warriors, but he is also ostracized by his peers. As a result, he lives life on the fringe in the outpost in which he resides, interacting with a few close friends and keeping largely to himself and his sketchbook until he's forced to return to an active role by the rise of a heretical cult that is killing Seri in the human lands. His team is tapped to investigate what this dark cult is after and how the Seri can defend themselves.

I really liked this book. It was nuanced, interweaving Piri's c-PTSD, the Seri dealing with the sequelae of their prior oppressive regime, a queer relationship, and a complex mythological system. It can be challenging to balance all of these subplots, but the author, L. Bossi, does so strikingly well.

My major complaint was that the first half of the book was heavy in exposition. This isn't uncommon for fantasy stories, but it did slow down my start to this book. Another concern of mine is the stilted dialogue. It's not so much that nobody talks the way these characters do, but it's more that arguments rarely translate well in the written word. There's a lot of "No, you didn't," "Yes, I did," back-and-forth, which is just a little awkward to read through.

We learn a lot about Piri's past. Through his relationship with a peer, we learn about the isolation he experienced growing up because of his power and his strangeness. Piri also has been to this world's spooky, scary underrealm, which was clearly traumatic in its own right. However, Piri was also a prisoner of war, and this gets hinted at so many times, but never fully fleshed out. Why was he taken? Who captured him and what happened while he was there?

The characters were really well-developed. I could vividly picture each person that we encountered, and their voices were so distinct to me. The author did an impeccable job demonstrating the nuanced interpersonal relationships between the characters, especially acknowledging the complexities that working in a unit with those you care about can create.

I rate The Enpirion Project: Exordium 4 out of 5 stars. Again, I enjoyed a lot of things about this book, but I felt it could have been stronger in the realms of pacing (particularly in the first act) and dialogue. This book is a good read for fans of fantasy (I find it particularly reminiscent of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles). It features a diverse cast and has no explicit content. It's also well-edited, with few errors. I could go on and on about the things that I enjoyed about this book, but I fear any further discussion may lead to some spoilers, and I don't want to deprive any future readers of the experience of reading the book themselves.

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The Enpirion Project: Exordium (Book 1)
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