Illumicrate #31: April 2025
My April Illumicrate box arrived on the first business day of May, which is surprisingly early compared to other months. It’s always a bit of a gamble as to when exactly a box will be delivered, but as long as Illumicrate ships with BPost, hopefully things will continue to go smoothly. Bpost makes good use of alternative delivery options, unlike some other courier services that I’ve had quite a bit of trouble with recently (*cough* GLS *cough*)
Anyway, I’ll save those frustrations for another time. Back to April’s Illumicrate! This month’s theme was Rival Realms.
I had already seen spoilers about the supposed book in advance. At that time, I hadn’t heard of it myself, but online everyone seemed to be raving about it. When I read the synopsis of the book, I immediately understood why: it sounded great. And the hype only kept growing, so my expectations were high.
The first item is immediately one of an extremely high quality. Not only the quality of the item itself, but also the artwork is breathtaking. Although I am not much of a puzzler myself, I would definitely get a taste for it with this 750 piece puzzle of The City of Starlight from A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. The illustration by @harkalelinai is truly magical and extremely detailed.
The second item is a large, sturdy tote bag that closes with a zipper. Totally my colour, and the illustration is also very beautiful. The text The Dragon Dawn rang a bell, but I had to look it up to be able to place it. The illustration by @niallcgrant refers to the ship from Voyage of the Damned by Frances White, a book that I read last year and really enjoyed!
Item 3 is supposedly a set of postcards, but since the back is blank, I see them more as very beautiful art prints. The inspiration for @rinfishe came from Trial of the Sun Queen, a book I don’t know. Other than that, I think these illustrations are really beautiful and they would look great in a frame on the wall in my library!
The fourth and final item made me think of regular, albeit very pretty, stickers at first. But they are solar prism stickers: they capture sunlight and spread it in rainbow colors. No idea where exactly to hang them, but it is an original and beautifully elaborated idea by @perrycuffdesigns, and also very fitting for the book that served as inspiration: Faebound by Saraa El-Arifi, which I only read earlier this year and enjoyed it enough to want to read the sequel.
The book of the month is The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, the first book in a fantasy series for adults with murder mystery elements!
Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.
Then one of them is murdered.
It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.
If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.
We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.
Ohohohohohoooooo, this sounds absolutely brilliant! Anything with murder mysteries immediately grabs my attention and this one also has me on the edge of my seat! Very curious!
Illumicrate really went all out with this edition, starting with a completely redesigned cover by @tomrobertsillustration. It’s clear that he was inspired by the original cover, but this version feels richer and has more depth.
At first, I thought it was a bit too boring in terms of colour. I love purple, as you all know, but I felt that another colour could have been used to make it more interesting, like the gold on the original cover. But the more I look at it, the more details and colour nuances I discover in the illustration, a bit like the author describing a raven’s feathers in her letter: raven feathers appear black at first glance, but upon closer inspection you see a subtle, enchanting mix of ebony, indigo, and shimmering metallic blue.
The hardcover itself features a fully coloured illustration with silver foil by @c.e.illo. The style of the illustration is really magnificent and makes me more curious about the book, because I would like to know what all those animals have to do with the synopsis above?!
Also the digitally sprayed edges by @chattynora are gorgeous! I love a stained glass style, and this one is really beautifully done. The book is signed by the author, against my expectations, given Illumicrate’s recent communications.
Oh, wow, and also these illustrations by @zookie_art on the endpapers are absolutely magnificent.
Oh boy, Illumicrate really outdid themselves with this box! Not only did they take the quality of the items to the next level, but the book itself is also phenomenally designed. Up until now I thought that only FairyLoot could make such well thought out, beautifully coordinated editions with multiple artists working together to form one coherent whole, but Illumicrate has proven that they have that down too! They recently announced that their books will no longer be hand signed, but that they want to compensate for this with more uniquely finished editions. Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned! Now I just hope that the story lives up to the hype.
Cheers,
Charlotte
