Well, shit, you guys. This one came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. Today I’m here to tell you about Quicksilver by Callie Hart.

Saeris Fane lives in the Third, a desolate, desert land faction of Zilvaren, where the twin suns never set. The Undying Queen has condemned the humans in the Third to certain death; she rations the food and water resources, to lethal levels. She’s deemed their area a quarantine zone, cutting off their means to seek alternative sources. The inhabitants have no choice, but to turn to desperate measures to simply stay alive, such as fighting rings, stealing, selling their bodies, and more, in exchange for mere scraps.

Saeris’ is the one of the two remaining members of her family and, due to her brother’s gambling addiction, the responsibility of survival lies on her shoulders. She apprentices in a forge at the age of 10 and along with growing her skills as a blacksmith, she secretly trains as a fighter, so she can hold her own in the violent landscape. She becomes an excellent thief, stealing water and food rations, so she and her brother can have just enough to survive.

We begin the story as Saeris is being accosted by one of the Undying Queen’s guards. She has managed to escape the Third and is caught. During the skirmish, the guard drops some of his golden armor and Saeris takes the opportunity to steal it. She plans on melting it down and hiding it back home. At this point we learn yet another secret, that Saeris has a magical connection to the metals, a connection that she doesn’t understand because it would be lethal for her to tell anyone about it, let alone explore it further – a plot point that we return to later in the story.

She escapes the clutches of the guard and runs back to the Third to find her brother, Hayden, lying in the sand, having been severely beaten after losing another bet with Carrion Swift, the area’s notorious trickster. Despite his treatment of Saeris’ brother, Carrion offers to help Saeris hide her stolen goods, so she doesn’t get discovered by the Queen’s guard, but she’s too late. Despite Saeris’ best efforts to fight the guards, she’s ultimately bested and thrown into the palace dungeon.

This is where shit goes crazy. Okay. So, after spending a torturously long time in the pitch black, sweltering dungeon, Saeris is summoned to meet The Undying Queen. Hands bound, Saeris is dragged to, what I pictured as, a sort of sacred temple like place. The Queen villain monologues for a while, then orders the guard to kill Saeris. Saeris fights literally to the death – WITH her arms bound. In her last dying breaths, she grabs a mythical sword from solid silver (sword in the stone style) and uses that to fight the guard. The pool liquifies and from the depth, emerges a dark Fae figure, who Saeris, in the throes of delirium, believes is Death, come to shepherd her to the afterlife. Death scoops up Saeris and the sword, then disappears with her into the pool of silver.

How’s that for a beginning? Are you intrigued? I can assure you that from page one, we’re stepping on the gas and keeping it floored until the end. This is a true blue epic fantasy with impeccable world building, a unique magic system, insane battles, and tragic romance. And tropes? Up the wazoo. As with most epic fantasies, there is quite a bit of heady violence, so, proceed with caution. And for those who want it, there’s spice. Oh. There’s spice. The right amount too, you know? Sometimes I worry that authors lean too heavily on the spice as a tool to keep the reader interested. The story of Quicksilver is so strong and entertaining that we don’t need lots of sex scenes to keep us engaged. The romance factor, though…swoon. Big, huge, swoon. And I. Eat. That. Shit. Up. So. Well done, Callie Hart. You made me care so much about these characters…and, in the end, quietly weep by the light of my Kindle, while everyone in my house was fast asleep.

Anyway, I gave this one a solid 5/5 and would’ve given it more. At the time that I started the book, I barely saw anyone talking about it, but just yesterday it seems to have blown up on Tik Tok, which makes me so happy to see. One thing that I do want to mention – because it didn’t occur to me until I was 79% in – that this is the first book of a series, NOT a stand alone. Although there is an HFN, the story is most definitely incomplete, so for those who prefer to wait until series are complete before you start them, you’ve been warned. If you’re interested in Quicksilver or any other of Callie’s works (which are A LOT…I didn’t realize that she also wrote Riot House, about which I’ve heard good things), you can check out her website here. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve read Quicksilver because I want to obsess about it with you.