Kingfisher’s characters are wholly real in their flawed humanity, and no one more so than her protagonist, Marra. What’s more, Kingfisher’s crew is particularly motley, with each member of the band weighed down by their own emotional vulnerabilities and pervasive feelings of inadequacy in the face of adversity (well, except perhaps for Bonedog, who is…exactly what his name promises).
Kingfisher takes the standard quest narrative, where a varied band of adventurers embarks across a spell-haunted, monster-infested landscape in search of some treasure, or magical object, or endangered princess, and resets it in the context of restorative justice. Kingfisher weaves these strands into a brilliantly-written new fantasy with her 2022 novel Nettle & Bone. Both these narrative strands are concepts that I think we need desperately now, in this age where the rich, powerful, and abusive seem more untouchable than ever, where too many people still see other people as things and not fellow human beings, and where justice seems all too often out of reach. Likewise, I also enjoy superheroic stories of people seeking justice in the world, whose highest goal is the protection of innocents. I’m always fond of the reluctant hero image: the person who, Frodo Baggins-style, would much rather be left alone to live a quiet life but takes on the mantle of doing right because it needs to be done.
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