Transformation by Carol Berg

For my past few reads, I've been steadily making my way down the remaining books on my StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge list. My second-to-last book was Transformation by Carol Berg. The prompt that led me to this one was to read a book that I'd normally want to remove from my Find A Book page. I scrolled through my recommendations and when I got to this one, I knew I'd found my pick. Just look at that cover. It's got to be one of the most unappealing book covers I've ever seen. I mean, I'm sure some people think it's cool, but it's not to my taste at all. Aside from that, the plot summary revealed that it focuses on mostly male characters hunting a demon, which didn't sound all that compelling to me. I'd normally skip this one based on those factors (actually, I'd probably never pick it up due to the cover art alone), so that made it perfect for this prompt. It was actually placed pretty high on my recommendations list at number 23, so I started my reading interested to see if I would end up liking it anyway, despite my first impression.

Transformation is an adult fantasy novel. The plot follows a man named Seyonne, who is a slave in the Derzhi Empire. He used to be a powerful, magic-wielding demon hunter in his homeland, but he doesn't allow himself to think of his past at all. He survives by living in the present moment and not thinking too far into his past or future. He has gotten along this way for years and endured multiple abuses at the hands of his masters, including undergoing a process that stripped him of all his magic, leaving him in his weakened, easily subjugated state. All this changes in an instant, however, when he is assigned to work as a scribe for the young, brash Prince Aleksander. 

Aleksander is cruel, rude, and impetuous. He abuses his slaves, his advisors, and his subjects in equal measure, but as he is the heir to the Derzhi empire, no one dares to speak up against his wild ways. Seyonne serves him as best he can and tries to blend into the background as much as possible. He finds it impossible to remain silent, however, when he recognizes a demon lurking at court. Feeling compelled to warn Aleksander of the danger, he must find a way to earn the prince's trust and defeat the demon before it completely infiltrates and destroys the entire realm.

Unfortunately, my first impressions of this book held up throughout my reading. I was correct that this book was too male character-heavy for me. There was a lot of male angst, drama, and bonding throughout the story and I was often bored by it. The writing was not a problem at all; Carol Berg is clearly a gifted writer and knows how to tell a story. However, the plot of this particular tale just didn't appeal to me. This is purely a matter of taste. I personally don't enjoy novels that focus on mostly male characters. So for me, this felt very long.

I also grew tired of the brutality of Aleksander and the Derzhi Empire in general. The abuses they inflict on Seyonne and the other slaves were overly violent and unrealistic from a practical standpoint. Slaves that are continually beaten starved, burned, whipped, maimed, etc. can't work. The injuries the slaves regularly sustained were horrific. You can't run an empire this way. All the people doing the work would be dead or permanently crippled. Elements of this are realistic of course, but the degree of the violence here was incredible. It came to feel ridiculous as the story went on. It's clear that Berg was trying to stress that the Derzhi, and Aleksander, were very cruel. Mission accomplished there, but it did feel comically over the top at times.

Another element of the story that I didn't love was Aleksander's character. He was incredibly unlikable at the start of the book, and while he does change over the course of the novel, it was hard to get over that initial impression. I think Berg was a little too successful at showing him to be awful, because I could never bring myself to like him later, even once he learns the error of his ways. Seyonne was a bit better for me, although I often grew frustrated at his blandness. I understand that this was deliberate; it was his survival strategy as a slave to blend in. However, even after he shifts back into being a demon hunter, he was still pretty uninteresting. 

One thing that I kept expecting throughout the story and was actually disappointed not to see was a romantic relationship between Seyonne and Aleksander. There were so many moments of them being close, having intensely intimate conversations, seeing each other in various states of undress, and saving each other's lives that it felt like their growing friendship was something more. They become so close over the course of the story that it seemed almost weird that their interest in each other didn't go further. This isn't the direction that Berg wanted the novel to go, and that's fine, but it certainly would have made a lot of sense and made the story much more interesting (at least for me). I noticed that some other reviewers on Goodreads made this same point, so I'm not the only one that noticed some potential sparks between the two. 

There just wasn't much that grabbed me in this novel, although I fully understand that many readers will feel differently. Transformation was a well-written novel with a complex friendship and worthy themes about redemption and sacrifice at its center. I think this novel will be especially good for those who dislike romance in their fantasy, as there is very little of it here. Most of my StoryGraph suggestions throughout this challenge have been pretty successful, but this one missed the mark for me. I picked this book because I ordinarily would have passed it by, and in this instance, my instincts were right.   

Challenge Tally

StoryGraph Onboarding 2020 Challenge: 11/12

Total Books Read in 2020: 86