Master of Poisons was a DNF for me, but I’m going to talk about WHY because I rarely DNF books (because I feel guilt towards the book) and because I actually got through 60% of the book before stopping.

Master of Poisons is set in an African-inspired fantasy setting. The Arkhysian empire now controls most of the continent that we see in the book, including a number of northern protectorates that used to be individual smaller countries/large tribes with their own customs and languages. These peoples are usually considered barbarian to some extent because of their connection with Shadowland - a sort of spiritual realm - and the use of some types of conjure - aka magic. These northern people, the sea “pirates,” and others are all connected through marriage to create treaties and keep the peace. Now, their world seems to be facing an impending environmental crisis due to poison sand, which seem to be linked to certain types of conjure or “spirit debt,” as well as environmental exploitation and industrialization.

Djola is from one of the northern peoples, related to both the empire and the sea pirates by marriage, and has become the emperor’s Master of Poisons. A note, because I had unrealized expectations: a Master of Poisons is really good at ANTIDOTES. A Master of Poisons is not a spy master (not really) or a poisoner. Anyway. Djola has come up with a plan to fight and cure the poison sand, but this would involve the rich giving up many comforts, and Djola ends up banished, but also sent on a mission to bring back proof that his plan will work. During his banishment, he works to learn an almost-forgotten magic that I think destroys and purifies.

Awa is a young girl, also from the northern peoples. She is sold by her father to the Green Elders, which are a community which includes magic users, shadow walkers, storytellers, spirit warriors, etc. But Green Elders are despised by the Empire, for not entirely clear reasons. They are much closer to nature and the spirits of the mountains and animals. Awa learns to be a shadow walker, someone who can navigate Shadowland.

After this a whole bunch of dark, and sometimes creepy, and definitely sad stuff happens. The 60% that I read took place over about 5 years. It’s definitely set up to be pretty political, which I’m usually very down for. The pacing is slow (and maybe a little uneven but not awful) and the prose is evocative and metaphor-heavy. I also feel like the plot was a bit unclear. I understood WHY Djola was in these situations, but just had no clear idea about what the endgame was. Get rid of poison sand, but just not very clear.

But all of that wouldn’t have really bothered me that much. So here’s the thing. I feel like the worldbuilding in Master of Poisons is SUPERB. There is so much that’s interesting here, I was very curious, wanted to learn more, and the world was super compelling. Except that I feel like Hairston’s lyrical prose kind of got in the way. There’s a lot of “foreign” words and you get dumped into the middle of the story to some extent, so there’s a lot of jargon that has to be navigated. Which would be totally fine, except that things do not get explained in any sort of timely manner. In chapter 8 I finally got a little bit of an info dump and I was rejoicing! Literally every time I got an info dump in this book I was so happy because I might finally understand something. But these explanations were few and far between.

60% through and I feel like it still hasn’t really caught my attention. If I was allowed to understand the world, I would be totally OK with having a slower pace. Maybe I’m just not smart enough, or am too literal. But this just feels frustrating. I kept hoping it would get better or the ending would have a really big payoff that would make it all worth it. Part of me still really wants to hang on and see it through because I just want a really epic ending, but I shouldn’t have to slog through over half of the book. Maybe I’ll pick it back up again, but I just have too many other books I need to read right now. I feel like I need to give Master of Poisons a lot of credit for potential and the fact that I really was interested, but nevertheless I just couldn’t finish. 3/5 stars

Thanks very much to TOR and to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.