Black Salt Queen
Samantha Bansil
Paperback / Ebook /Audiobook
ISBN: 9781959411987
Bindery Books, June 3, 2025, 393 pgs

Many years ago, the island kingdom of Maynara expelled every foreigner on its shores. Since then, the kingdom has been peacefully ruled by the Gatdula family and their elemental magic. On the surface, that is. Underneath a veneer of courtly calm lies boiling court intrigue—heated by forbidden relationships, family rivalries, and a tired queen’s last-ditch attempts at maintaining the order of her kingdom. Queen Duja’s oldest daughter, Bulan, subverts her shame at lacking the family magic into becoming a great warrior. The middle daughter, Laya, is poised to reign, having inherited beauty, strength, and prodigious magical talent. Unfortunately, she’s also haughty, spoiled, and embroiled in a passionate affair with the only person in the kingdom she’s been forbidden to love. The youngest daughter, Eti, is too small to cause much trouble, but she is still training her own enormous magical talents in preparation to serve her family’s future. Throw in an evil banished prince, a mysterious foreigner smuggled into the palace, the queen’s closest frenemy, and a handful of petty minor nobles vying for favor, and soon Maynara, known for its peace, is ready to boil over.

If you like intricate, detailed stories of magical, pre-colonial worlds, this one’s for you. Black Salt Queen begins by building an extremely specific world built on a pre-colonial Filipino foundation. There’s deep lore here, with a slow, deliberate story and pacing that reminded me of Game of Thrones. Between all the court pageantry and epic history, there are also some surprising relationships: star-crossed lovers, sapphic trysts from the past, and even a hint of returning exiles. This worldbuilding means that, while this book has a slow start, quite a lot happens in the end. It helps to understand a bit of the culture of the Philippines before reading because Bansil doesn’t explain much. To be clear, that’s a good thing. This staunchly pre-colonial fantasy is rooted in a very specific history that expects the reader to sit down, pay attention, and take it all in without complaining.

The pre-colonial setting creates a few points of interest along the way. Maynara is a world ruled by powerful women. The male characters, while strongly written, are all either in service to the women of the story or fairly incidental. The women run the show, and there’s a lot of diversity in the portrayals of personality and femininity here, which I appreciated. Also, there is no real villain for much of the story. Everyone is very sympathetic until they suddenly aren’t, and for the first half of the book, it’s hard to figure out whose side you should really be on. When characters finally begin to indulge in evil deeds, it’s a shock, which makes the ending of the book hit just that much harder.

Epic historical fantasy can sometimes require a lot of concentration and a certain historical frame of mind, and Black Salt Queen is no exception. The pre-colonial culture, historical Filipino worldbuilding, and dramatic interplay between the characters make it worth the effort in the end.