Book Review: The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern

A fun and whimsical YA lunarpunk adventure from J. Dianne Dotson.

I very much enjoyed J. Dianne Dotson’s space opera quadrilogy, The Questrison Saga, and so I’m at the point now where anything from this author is bound to pique my interest. The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern is a whimsical young adult lunarpunk adventure—a genre I have never read before, but I really dig the vibes. Think a civilisation that lives in dark forests or at night with plenty of bioluminescent plants and fungi. This is going to be a weird reference, but it really reminded me of the city of Ballonlea from the videogames, Pokemon Sword & Shield. But for all of that, it’s not a million miles away from The Questrison Saga. There’s still the fun, genre-defying intermingling of science/high technology with magic and mysticism present in both stories. So it felt like much more familiar territory than I was expecting.

Blurb

Long after a climate catastrophe, when a utopian future faces an unearthed evil from our present, Gentian "Gen" Lightworth and her friends in the night-living town of Glimmerbight must stop the past from repeating itself by using all their wits and talents...and perhaps a bit of magic.

Review

I respect a book that brings on the atmosphere right from the start, and The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern absolutely delivers on that front. I enjoyed immersing myself in the setting which is full of beauty and wonderfully described. I enjoyed the strange and magical things mixed in with clearly advanced technology like service robots.

The plot itself was a fun adventure and though it started off a little on the slow side, by the time the gang was formed and starting off on their quest, I was hooked. Some repeated plot points pulled me out of it—Particularly going to the Inn, getting spooked, running home to get admonished by Gen’s parents, arguing they need to do it, and the parents relenting so they can do it again. That happens quite a few times throughout and it felt like it held back the progression of the story a little. But on the other hand given the young ages of the cast, and Gen’s insecurity, it’s believably something they would do.

I really enjoyed the characters. Gen is far more unsure of herself than I’ve seen before for a main character in one of these types of books, and at times I actually wondered whether she would be able to pull through and grow into her role. It was an interesting take. Mira and Gen’s brother were great supporting characters as well. The rest of the gang was varied and vibrant, with a set of somewhat brash and brutish twins that reminded me of the ones out of How to Train Your Dragon.

The worldbuilding was thoroughly fascinating, as we’re in a world untold (at first) ages into the far future exploring how humans have survived after a climate catastrophe by living at night. This has a genre-defying mix of sci-fi and fantasy to it, with high-technology and physics mingling with naturalistic magic. There’s not a great deal of explanation of how the climate was irreversibly changed, or why the sun is now extremely harmful, but enough is implied to get the picture, and that’s great. It also leaves it open to be further explored in later books.

Overall, a good, fun read. I’d recommend it for anyone looking for climate change sci-fantasy in the YA space, or just generally for a whimsical fantasy adventure. Looking forward to seeing where this goes next.