Immortal Game by Allison Saft turned out to be much cosier than I thought. A high-stakes chess game against the fae? I was expecting all sorts of tricks and a cunning competition, but this story is much more low-key than that.
Everyone is wary of chess prodigy Shea Fury and her half-fae sister, Aideen. The girls only find solace in each other’s company, so when a faerie prince takes Aideen to the Otherworld, Shea is desperate to save her. Shea’s only ticket across the magical veil is to earn a spot in the Otherworld chess tournament. So she dedicates her life to the game, playing against the best competitors, both human and fae, including the prince’s irritating sister, Ciara of Bri Leith. When Shea finally plays her way to the one-in-a-lifetime tournament, she fears that she will finally meet her match playing in the Otherworld.
I have never played chess in my life, so I was very curious to see how Saft helped an inexperienced player like me navigate a whole magical chess tournament. As expected, there is a lot of chess jargon that goes beyond simply naming the chess pieces and board locations. This story deals with the world’s best chess players from both sides of the veil, and the reader is seeing it from inside Shea’s powerful mind. We learn how professional players prepare for games, are told of famous historical matches, and hear about different playing strategies. I was never lost or confused, but I also didn’t truly understand the chess references in a meaningful way. This didn’t interfere with my ability to engage with the story, but I anticipate that my lack of knowledge may have prevented me from fully appreciating ‘the game’.
Despite Immortal Game appearing to have high stakes, the hubbub around it often felt inconsequential. Within the space of a few pages, enemies would become friends and climactic moments would peak and resolve. This story is not a tense, dramatic tale of a chess player trying to save her sister. It’s a lot softer, focusing more on a brilliant but lonely young woman who has lost her way after narrowing her life down to one purpose. The faerie element also feels muted in this story. There isn’t a lot of trickster or awe-inspiring energy surrounding the chess tournament, and the location and the magical eccentricities feel more like fun add-ons instead of story-defining elements.
While I wasn’t super entertained by the book overall, I did like the introspective moments surrounding Shea. Saft does a great job of bringing us into Shea’s lonely world to show us the repercussions of being so singularly focused on one thing. Shea’s love for chess has been destroyed, she has no friends, and she’s forgotten how to have fun. As Shea interacts with the other competitors, they start to expose all these gaping holes in her life and make her confront them. I still found some of these interactions and conversations lacking and a little shallow, but you can get a good sense of how far Shea has dragged her life down an empty, unfulfilling path.
This is my third Allison Saft book, and I’ve decided that her stories aren’t my cup of tea because I like my fantasy to have a little more teeth. But that isn’t to say Immortal Game can’t be your next whimsical adventure. Sit down at a board with Shea Fury and watch her play the game of life, and hopefully find more fun and friends along the way.
Rating: Immortal Game – 6.5/10
-Brandee
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The thoughts on this story are my own.
