Game of Thrones meets Black Sun meets Assassin's Apprentice meets The Priory of the Orange Tree (I know!!!)

Tomorrow, Aug. 4, is release day for The Castle and the Cloister by Laura E. Weymouth.

A new duology, it features a begrudging "Chosen One," forbidden romance, a prophecy, and complex, morally grey characters.

"The Priory of the Orange Tree meets Black Sun in the thrilling launch of a political fantasy duology following three people--a refugee, a heretic queen, and a priest--as they attempt to shape the fortunes of a continent shattered by war."

Now, I'll read anything with Priory as a comp title, but I'm especially excited for this one for a very particular reason: one of the main characters is a mother.

Fia is a refugee and a mother of a young child, whose safety motivates much of her plot arc.

Why does that matter?

While pregnancy and new motherhood is a common fiction trope, it is often presented as the aspirational culmination of the plot. Main characters who are mothers seldom are permitted narrative space to pursue complex lives beyond and alongside motherhood, particularly in high fantasy.

When pregnancy or the birth of a child is so often the end of the story, it perpetuates the idea that parenthood, specifically and especially for women, is the end. The character has reached their conclusion, and now is no longer a protagonist with any arc worth exploring, with nothing further to lend to the story. Their maturation is complete, their role is now predetermined.

High fantasy especially is often guilty of casting motherhood and indeed all matters of the reproductive cycle (menstruation included!) as a background condition of little consequence to the present story. If she is in the story, she is often the obstacle the protagonist must overcome, or a plot device that makes the protagonist more sympathetic (in this case, she’s usually dead).

Stories that put mothers and their children in central and plot-driving roles counter this narrative. I love to see it.

The author writes: ‘THE CASTLE & THE CLOISTER is political intrigue and religious machinations with a constant undercurrent of "I miss my baby" & "when is the last time I nursed this baby" & "I would burn the world down for a baby"’

Other (very excellent) high fantasy books with main characters who are mothers include Robin Hobb's The Liveship Traders Trilogy, N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth Trilogy, and Shannon Chakraborty's Aminia al-Sirafi series.