Race the Sands (Sarah Beth Durst)

Race the Sands
Sarah Beth Durst
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: In the desert empire of Becar, death is never the end; one is reborn in a new form, anything from a bug to a person, influenced by the choices one makes and the life one lives. For the worst of the worst, however, there is only the doom of becoming a kehok, a monster birthed full-grown from the earth and imbued with rage at its own existence, driven to hunt and kill and destroy. Once a soul has fallen to the level of a kehok, there is no escape, just life after life as a kehok, eternal torment in bodies that defy nature and minds that can no longer even conceive they were anything but a monster. At least, there's almost no hope. The people of Becar hunt kehoks, but not simply for defense: they're captured and trained (as much as they can be, with their inborn bloodlust) for the races that are the high point of the empire's year. The annual grand champion rider earns wealth and fame to last a lifetime, while the winning racer - thanks to a charm created by the augur priests - is given the chance to break the cycle and be reborn as a human.
Tamra used to be a top kehok rider until a disaster on the track left her too injured to ride. Then she was a top trainer, until an accident left her rider (and others) dead and herself blamed. Now she gets paid a meager sum to teach the arrogant children of arrogant nobles how to race kehoks, but none of them will ever be anything but dabblers. They don't really understand what it takes to be a winner, the iron will needed to dominate a kehok's mind and the bone-deep thirst for victory. They don't even understand the kehoks, that every moment in a monster's presence could be their last in this life if their focus fails. She hates it, but she has to eat... plus the augur temple needs their money to train her daughter Shalla, who was chosen to join their ranks due to the purity of her soul; if Tamra can't pay the ever-increasing fees, they'll take the girl away and Tamra won't see her little girl again until she's a grown woman and a stranger.
After another training incident costs Tamra her students, her eccentric patron gives her one last chance to produce a winning racer. Which is how she winds up with the black-scaled lion kehok deemed utterly untrainable by everyone else... and the teen girl Raia, a runaway desperate to escape the clutches of parents who would sell her off to an abuser in order to line their own pockets. It's also how Tamra and Raia found themselves up to their scalps in a plot that extends to the very heart of Becar, trapped between courtly schemes, hidden corruption, and a foreign army on the march ready to strike the empire as it teeters on the brink of collapse - all of which seems to connect to this year's races, and to the black lion.

REVIEW: Another audiobook to kill time at work, Race the Sands presents an interesting world, where reincarnation is a real and studied thing. Augur priests help people make better choices to improve their odds of a better rebirth, and kehoks present a tangible reminder of the stakes. If you think that would make a people behave better, though, literally seeing monstrous manifestations of their own tortured futures, though, think again. Whether through rationalization, ignorance, selfishness, or simply not caring (after all, one only rarely retains memories of one's previous life, so it's not like they'll be plagued by regrets), people end up being just as terrible to each other as they are in our own world, with levels of corruption increasing in proportion to power and wealth. Durst manages to mostly avoid the expected here, in worldbuilding or characters, even though the rough sketch here is obviously based countless tales of underdog racehorses (and their riders and trainers and other associates) making good cross-pollinated with the fantasy staple of an empire facing both internal and external threats as an untested royal struggles to claim the crown he never wanted. The plot moves fairly well, with some nice twists and a few setbacks and some nicely intense training and racing sequences, all culminating in a powerful climax. Along the way, the characters have to deal with many personal issues about love and faith and family and loyalty, and how the line between right and wrong, sin and virtue, that seems so clear in theory is blurred to near nonexistence in the real world. There are a few points where the tale feels a touch drawn out, plus some character clutter (especially characters who fall off the tale's radar by the end), not to mention a few instances where Raia's insecurities and young Shalla's naive optimism feel forced, but otherwise this is a solid story, with a premise and characters and world that could almost support a sequel.

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