This is the April selection for 
calico_reaction 's book club. :)Ayona is known as the “City of Gargoyles” as much for the dark statues along the city’s architecture as it is a concession to the way Ayona was conceived: birthed through the magic of the gargoyles who once had an ability to manipulate stone. Now these reclusive creatures are part of a triumvirate of government leaders including the Alchemists and the Mechanics. The Alchemists are preoccupied with spiritual and magical concerns; the Mechanics are focused on things physical. Together they represent the gargoyles who “shape the physical with their minds” (p.69). When the Mechanic Loharri constructs Mattie, an automaton, he doesn’t intend for her to be more than a helpmeet. In the unorthodox manner that will forever mark her character, Mattie is asked to be emancipated to learn the art of alchemy. As she gathers ingredients for bizarre concoctions to sell in her little shop, a war begins brewing between opposing sides of the city. Ayona has been polarized by an explosion that changes Mattie’s life. Now the gargoyles are flying into her window with a request…
The Alchemy of Stone is a wonderfully thematic book. With concerns over alienation, immigration, origin, ownership, trust, power, and industrialization it’s a testament to Sedia’s skills as a writer that this book wasn’t longer. Though, the best things often come in the smallest of packages. In just under 300 pages, The Alchemy of Stone explores these themes (and others) through government, class, and what it means to be an automaton in a world full of humans. The alchemical government, for one, was one of the most interesting aspects of the novel. From the very start it’s a combination putting sides often opposed in the same arena and told to work together toward the same end. This is a bit like asking Church and State to get along and ignore the friction of their underlying belief systems. The awkward relationship is one of tension and thinly veiled hostility, but serves to represent on a larger scale the unique relationship between Mattie and Loharri.
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