Be The First!

"Race the Sands," by Sarah Beth Durst, is a fantasy novel set in the empire of Becar. It's about changing your fate, monster racing, and reincarnation. I think it's very well-crafted, in the sense of, the writer took a relatively straightforward concept (souls are reborn as various humans or animals depending on their previous lives; "augurs" can read the status of someone's soul and determine whether they're on track for a good rebirth), and extrapolated it out to a lot of fascinating worldbuilding (how does someone become an augur? What happens to the most "monstrous" souls? How does the political system relate to this?) Longer review here.