The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa

Book Review

Elloise Hopkins

Amir was born with the spicemark on his neck, condemning him to a life as a bowler of Raluha, a Carrier of the eight kingdoms. Gatecaste he was born, and gatecaste he will remain. So will his young brother after him, just like his father before him. Amir’s father believed there was a way out of this life, but if there was, he never returned to pass on the answer to his family. So now, the burden rests on Amir to save his brother from this painful fate. All he needs is a little of the Jewelmaker’s poison.

Amir, with his old friend Karim Bhai at his side, faces another journey through the Spice Gate. It is always a terrifying and immensely painful experience, no matter how many times he has done it before. Whipped, forced to carry heavy sacks of spices from kingdom to kingdom, that is Amir’s lot, though he will have barely enough spice for his family to eat when he comes home.

Today, there is more security at the gate than usual, and using the Spice Gates seems to be getting more and more painful each time he travels, taking more time to recover. This is not at all what Amir needs when he has little time, as it is to sneak off and meet his contact. This trade, it seems, will be harder than he imagined, not to mention illegal. And now, things are going from bad to worse. The Jewelmaker has disappeared.

The Spice Gate is set in a wonderfully scented world, the like of which we have never seen before. In the eight kingdoms, spices have become addictions, and one kingdom alone does not have the capability of growing all of the spices for itself. That is where the Carriers come in. Srivatsa has created a world built on faith and a society full of prejudice and set a classic fantasy adventure against this uniquely conceived backdrop.

We follow Amir’s desperate quest for the Jewelmaker’s poison – a substance, which rumour has it, allows those without the spicemark to travel via the gates. It is the only way Amir can see to save his family from their oppressed life as gatecaste. For there is a legend of a society in the Outerlands. Amir is determined to find a society where they would be free. A captivating and intriguing debut.