Alchemised

By: SenLinYu

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.

“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

Critic reviews

“A sweeping tale set in an uncharted dark fantasy world. It encompasses the realities of war and a romance that fights for survival.”—People

“SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy. . . . The superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this high fantasy with very dark themes, SenLinYu weaves a tale of political intrigue with centuries of depth and nuance. Many readers will be . . . drawn into the complex morality of two broken people finding love during a war.”—Booklist

“SenLinYu has created a vivid new universe. Alchemised made me remember what makes reading good fantasy so enjoyable.”—The Atlantic

“A book that digs its teeth in like a starving wolf. It unsettles, it gnaws, and yet by the final page, I wanted to thank it for what it put me through. . . . In a genre often dominated by safe formulas, SenLinYu’s debut is a reminder that speculative fiction still has teeth and knows how to bite.”—Grimdark Magazine

Epic dark gothic fantasy with toxic enemies-to-lovers and phenomenal world building

This is a must read, keep you on your toes, keep you up late at night and have you in tears. It’s a well crafted and thoughtfully written story. I did a quick reread of Manacled before this release. I love Manacled but this was equally epic. The world building is phenomenal. The necromancers, vivimancers, animancers, necrothralls, the magic systems, alchemical array…. It’s all new, intricately complex and intriguing. I love that SenLinYu maintained the toxic enemies-to-lovers (ETL) romance. It’s not simply ETL, but the main characters do bad, unspeakable things for the other. Helena Marino and Kaine Ferron are two morally grey/black characters. There is goodness in them but faced with the atrocities of war, they do what they must to survive. This is a standalone dark gothic romantic fantasy, see the authors note for triggers.

The relationship with the side characters is the weakest part of this story. It needs more depth but I can let that slide for the epic love story. The difference between this work and Manacled is it’s missing 7 years of emotional connection and motivational drive. Helena’s commitment to the “good” side and its people is blind and stupid. But it does fuel the longing, angst and “choose me” feelings between Helena and Kaine.

As part of the rewrite of Manacled, I feel there is an amalgamation of several distinct HP characters into new characters. This made Jan Crowther and Matron Pace both bad characters who often says contradictory things. I would have preferred a one for one replacement for the five characters these two represents (Crowther = Alistor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Severus Snape; Pace = Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall). There is a Snape substitute, Shiseo, but he doesn’t have the role of role model and father figure. Helena lacks any parental figures in this book to tie her to the “good” side. It seems her loyalty is solely for her relationship with Luc but we don’t get to see that. It’s all assumed that they were super close friends and he is the first real friend Helena ever made.

Anyhow, I still loved this story and highly recommend everyone read it. Immersive reading is ideal as there is a lot of details you can miss from simply listening. That said, I enjoyed the audiobook. Saskia Maarleveld did a very good job narrating. She employs unique voices for each character. Her pacing is even so it works well at whatever speed you want to set the audiobook to. I was listening at 1.5-1.7x.

TROPES/ THEMES: prisoner of war, necromancy, Stockholm Syndrome, double agent, Noncon, dubcon, SA, possessive MMC, metal work/transmutation, healer, good vs evil, morally gray, sacrifice for the greater good, unreliable narrator, noncon for MMC and MFC, magic, necromancy, experimentation

Heart wrenching

This is an EPIC war time dark fantasy novel with an incredible, extremely mapped out, complex magic system. It’s almost mind numbing how much intricate the world building is in this book with everything from sciences, magics, theologies and religions explained in depth. Deep dives into PTSD and the violent mental and physical abuses that caused them and the way the characters healed or couldn’t from all the trauma they received during and post war times. That being said there is a romantic SUB PLOT, and it’s is beautiful and extremely stressful and times. (Had me nail biting and tearing up)
I loved this book and it was well worth the listen!

This is my Roman Empire.

This is my Roman Empire. Senlinyu give us a masterclass in writing morally grey characters. Beautifully written. Masterfully crafted. Performed flawlessly. Emotionally resonant. A true work of art. The characters and story will stick with you forever. 5 stars. Highly recommend.

Not too bad, I wouldn’t listen again though

The voice actor did great and I could tell which characters were which when she read.
However, The story was drawn out and dialogues felt redundant and repetitive. There were times I wanted to fast forward.

Bad production — there were a lot of breaks within the chapter and the narrator would just continue with the story. This was constantly confusing because you would be following the story in one setting and then all of a sudden you’re in a new setting, dialogue etc. I had to buy the book to follow along and that’s when I realized there were break lines! The producers should have placed a quick chime or something for those breaks. That way we would have know one part was ending and moving on to the next segment in the chapter.

Even better than Manecled

I dont know how she took her other devastating story with previous beloved and known characters and somehow built something even more compelling. I hope she continues to write and bring us more stunning and moving stories.