Alchemised by SenLinYu: A Story Beyond Good and Evil

In this episode of Reading Rendezvous, I discuss Alchemised by SenLinYu,  a dark fantasy novel exploring war, survival, morally grey characters, memory loss, and the true cost of power.

We break down the book’s structure, themes, and emotional impact, and why this story stands out from traditional fantasy. If you enjoy dark fantasy books, dystopian worlds, complex character dynamics, and immersive storytelling, this episode is for you.

Extended discussion including Manacled is available on Patreon.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to Reading Randivus. Today's episode is about a book that completely took me by surprise. Not because I didn't expect to enjoy it, but because of how much I did. In fact, it turned out to be one of my comfort books this year. And I've read it not once, but twice in the span of two months. That book is alchemized. As you might know, this is not a short book. It's dense, it's immersive and emotionally intense. And yet somehow I moved through it faster than books and half its length. In fact, the second time I read it was over a week. But before we get into it, this episode will contain light spoilers. Let's begin. Firstly, let's start with a short description of what Alchemized is about. The book is set in three parts. The first one actually starts somewhere close to the end of the story. Then part two, which is the main bulk of the book, goes back to the beginning and shows how everything led up to that moment. And then part three brings the final conclusion and leads us to the end of the story. In terms of length, this is quite a substantial book. It's over a thousand pages. And you definitely feel that while reading it. But not in a bad way. The story takes its time to build the world, the characters, and the emotional stakes, and that slower build really pays off later. The plot itself sits somewhere between dark fantasy and political intrigue. There are elements of war, power struggles, survival, and also quite a lot of morally complicated characters. At times it can be quite intense and very graphic in places, so it's not necessarily a light or easy read. But at the same time, at least to me, the violence didn't feel like it was there just for shock value. It always felt connected to the world and the circumstances the characters are living through. The reading experience is very immersive. This is one of those books where the world actually feels very real. And honestly, once you're in it, it's quite difficult to step away. Now that we have a bit of an overview, let's go through the story section by section. So, starting with the first section of the book. As I mentioned earlier, the story actually opens somewhere close to the end of the timeline. Which is quite an interesting choice, as when you begin reading, you don't fully understand what has happened yet, or how the characters ended up in that situation. You're just dropped straight into a very tense moment, and the atmosphere immediately feels heavy and uneasy. It's actually quite confusing as well. You are dropped straight away into this dystopian world where just a few pages in, spoiler alert, someone gets literally gutted. The main character doesn't have a clue where she is or what is happening. Everyone around her seems evil, and the only memory she has is of everyone she ever loved being dead. Honestly, reading that alone can be confusing. Usually something like this is built up over a few chapters rather than dropped straight in. But for me, I actually love that. And I couldn't stop reading. I just wanted to find out more, to understand why there is so much cruelty and why evil, in some sense, has won. What you will experience as well is a strong hatred for one of the main characters, Kane Farron. But it's not set up in an enemies to lovers type of way. You can feel at certain points that maybe there is more to the story than the sheer cruelty he shows towards Helena. That maybe something complicated exists there. But again, it's not clearly leading in that direction. Actually, it is written more like Stockholm Syndrome. I mean, think about this. You wake up after God knows how long, you have no clear memory of what is going on in your whole world, everything you ever loved, everyone you fought alongside for the so-called good side is gone. Anyone who might attempt to save you, to pull you out, is gone. And then you're thrown in with this man, whose last memory you have of him is that he was a complete psycho. Someone who tortured you. And then every little sign of not even emotion, but maybe kindness that he shows you becomes the only positive thing in that life for you. Honestly, it's almost unbelievable. Even just thinking about it and experiencing it through the book made me feel very nervous. And although I don't love this word, I can say it made me feel sort of helpless. And I think it's because the incredible writing in this book that really captures that, that sense of desperation, the harsh reality, and honestly, hopelessness. Now we touched briefly on the main characters, but let's talk about them a bit more in detail. So you have the main female character, Helena Moreno. Helena was once part of the resistance fighting against the regime that now controls the world of the story. She was raised and trained to believe strongly in the cause, surrounded by people she loved and trusted. But by the time we meet her in the opening of the book, that world is gone. She wakes up with fragmented memories, the last thing she remembers being the destruction of everything she fought for. And throughout the story, she is trying not only to survive in this brutal new reality, but also to piece together what really happened and who she can still trust. And then you have the main male character, Kane Faron. Kane is one of the most feared figures within the current ruling power. He is known for his cruelty, his control, and the violence he carries out on behalf of the regime. When Helena encounters him again, her memories of him are tied to pain and torture, and he represents everything that destroyed her world. At the same time, the book slowly hints that there might be more complexity to him than what we see, which makes his character one of the most unsettling and complicated parts of the story. And then some other central characters who play important roles in the story are Lucian or Luke Holdfast, who is closely connected to Helena's past and is the leader of the resistance she once fought for. He represents that world that existed before everything collapsed, the sides that believed they were fighting for something better. Then there is the high necromancer who now rules the country after the war. He sits at the very top of this new regime, and his power is one of the reasons the world of the book feels so dark and oppressive. Another important figure is Dr. Stroud, one of the scientists working for the regime. And then there are characters from Helena's past, people connected to the resistance and the world she lost, who appear through memories in the story. They help us slowly piece together what the world used to look like before everything fell apart. All these characters become extremely important as the story moves into the second part of the book, where we finally start to understand how Helena ended up in this situation in the first place. In the end, and without giving too much away, at the end of part one, we start to see small fragments of Helena's real memories coming through. They're only glimpses, but they hint that what she remembers and what she's being told might not actually be the full truth. And I'll leave it there because I don't want to spoil anything important. So with that in mind, let's move into section 2 of the book. The narrative goes back several years before the events we saw in the opening section, and suddenly you are placed in a completely different version of that world. Instead of the dark, dystopian, oppressive environment we first encountered in part one, we find a society that is already under pressure, but not yet fully broken. There is still hope and light. This part of the book also slowly rebuilds Helena's story from the beginning, when she first arrived in Palladia as a gifted student, showing who she was before she became the confused prisoner we met at the start. Helena is not just another person caught in that war. She's an alchemist and a vivimancer healer, which basically means she heals by using her own vitality and life force to repair wounds and keep people alive. And she is also an active member of the resistance. And whilst that sounds great, she's a very talented alchemist with a gift, that gift is actually not valued by those around her. If anything, she is ostracized because of it, made to feel like she should be ashamed of her power and should feel grateful that the resistance and the golden family, the Hold Fast, picked her and offered her an opportunity. Yet at the same time, they have no problem asking her to use those gifts again and again until she collapses from exhaustion while saving others. Helena is also not perceived by the others as a warrior in the traditional sense, not someone swinging a blade on the battlefield. And that alone sets her apart. That really got to me while reading. I started feeling generally angry on her behalf. And honestly, that's a feeling I carried through most of part two of the book. Another thing that becomes very clear in this section is that the book does not present the resistance in a romantic or heroic way. Instead, we begin to understand more of the reality of the war they are fighting. It shows how exhausting and morally complicated war actually is. And slowly, she begins to push against the boundaries set by the resistance leadership. She starts questioning the rules they refuse to break, and she becomes more realistic about their situation. In her mind, things are not going well, and they are not going to win this war by simply holding on to ideals. And her allies in this particular view are limited. Even the people who try to understand her perspective still see her as someone who is drifting away from the cause, someone who is no longer faithful enough to the resistance and the principles they claim to stand for. That idea that good will always win, no matter what, is repeated constantly throughout the book, almost like a mantra. And Helena, surrounded by old bloodshed, increasingly finds herself unable to believe it. And because of that, she becomes more and more alone. She is living in a city at war, in an adopted country that is not truly her home, without family, even though she is surrounded by people who are supposed to be her friends. And she is alone because she can see beyond the veil of disbelief that good always wins no matter what. And she pushes against the lines drawn by the leaders of the resistance. And for that, she is punished, pushed aside, once again treated as an outsider. People assume that because she questions the system, she simply doesn't understand it. But the reality is the opposite. Helena understands the situation very clearly, and despite everything, despite the way she is treated, despite the exhaustion, despite the growing sense that the war cannot be won. She stays. She keeps working until she is completely drained, saving people again and again in a war she could have simply just walked away from. A war she stays in because of the loyalty she feels towards the friends she has made and the family that once gave her a chance, but an incredible education and a place in their world. This is also the section where we begin to understand how Helena and Kames pats become connected. And what makes their relationship interesting is that they are not strangers who just met during the war. They actually knew each other before everything fell apart. Both of them come from the same intellectual world of alchemy, and in many ways they were rivals academically long before they ever became enemies in the war. They are both extremely intelligent and driven, and are very aware of the power that knowledge gives them. But when the political situation deteriorates and the war begins, they end up on completely different sides of the conflict. Helena continues working with the resistance, trying to protect the people around her and using her abilities to help those who are wounded or struggling to survive. And Cain, on the other hand, rises through the structure of the new regime, eventually becoming one of its most feared figures. By the time we see him in the opening of the book, he is already deeply embedded within that system of power. And because of that initial history, when Helena and Kane encounter each other during the war, they already understand each other's minds. They know how the other thinks, and they both know the kind of world they are living in. That is what makes their dynamic feel so different from the classic enemies to lover's stroke that a lot of fantasy stories rely on. Also, the more their relationship develops, you can see that the connection between them does not come from playful rivalry or romantic tension. It actually grows out of something much more complicated. If you think about it, both of them are trying to survive in a system that is far bigger than either of them, and both are forced to make choices that slowly reshape who they are. Another interesting point I want to make is how the book shows really well that neither of them are naive about the reality of the war. They both see the cruelty of the system that surrounds them, and they both understand that survival sometimes requires actions that would once have felt unthinkable. And because of that, I feel like the relationship that develops between them feels less like a traditional love story, and more like two people recognizing that the other one sees the world exactly as it is. They are surrounded by people who still hold on to certain illusions about the war, about loyalty, about victory. But Helena and Kane seem to understand very early on that things are far more complicated than that. There is even a sense at times that they are the only two people who can see the full picture of what is actually happening. And I believe that creates a strange connection between them. It's not built on idealism or fantasy, but on the shared understanding. That the world they live in has already crossed a line that cannot easily be undone. As the story continues through this part of the book, the atmosphere slowly grows heavier. The war escalates, the resistance becomes more desperate, and the forces controlling the country tighten their grip on power. The choices people are forced to make become more extreme, and you begin to see both Helena's desperation and Kane's as well. Finally, at the end of part two, the tension really starts to build. As a reader, you already know where the story is heading because you've already read part one and met the broken version of Helena at the beginning of the book. But you understand in those final moments of this section how she ended up trapped in the situation we saw her at the start. And that's where part two concludes. Now we are almost at the end of the story. So let's go through the final part of the book, part three, which for me personally was the most emotional section of the entire story. This section brings us back to the present timeline, right where the story began in part one. But this time, you arrive there with much more context, and everything starts to make more sense. For me, when I started reading part three, I felt a huge sense of dread and sadness. I kept thinking about everything that had happened before. And it really felt like although the war had technically ended, for both of them the fighting never actually stopped. In many ways, they are both victims of the system they are now trapped in. And because you know their history at this point, you start seeing their actions in a completely different light. Cain never stopped looking for her and did whatever it took to find her. And Helena, although unable to go to him, did whatever she had to do to protect him. Even if that meant losing all her memories. I honestly felt like I had a knot at the back of my throat while reading through this part. The sadness, the desperation, losing everything and then somehow still finding each other again. The cruelty of what they were both subjected to. It was just so much and so overwhelming to read. It is very hard to fully explain. And I also think it probably depends on the reader as well. But overall, for me, the main feeling was frustration. I kept thinking, this is not fair, they don't deserve this. And I found myself getting really angry at all the other parties involved, still holding on to their delusions and beliefs, while these two and all the normal people caught in the middle were the ones paying the real price, all for a delusion on both sides, the so-called good and the so-called bad. I want to end with a really powerful line in the book that stayed with me. Everyone who wins says they were good, but they're the ones who tell the story. They get to choose how we all remember it. What if it's never that simple? And I think that perfectly captures the feeling you get throughout this book. War, beliefs, good and bad, but none of it is that simple. And in the end, it's always the ordinary people who pay the price. It's honestly outstanding. And reading something like this honestly felt like a breath of fresh air. It's different, it's tragic. And yes, it can be dark and gory at times, but it doesn't glamorize any of it. It feels more like a harsh reality being thrown straight at you. And it will definitely make you feel it. Now, if you've heard of Alchemized, you've most likely also heard of Sen Li Yu's earlier work called Manacled. This is actually a Harry Potter fan fiction. Um, reimagining of that world where Voldemort wins, and the story is centered around Hermione and Draco. I actually managed to find a copy online and read that as well. And all I can say is that somehow it made me feel different. Don't get me wrong, I still had the same anger, sadness, and frustration, but there was also another feeling, almost like everything familiar and magical from that world had been turned upside down. It felt like the ending of something that once felt safe and fantastical. Because there is quite a lot to say about manacold. I am going to talk about it in a separate extended section of this episode over on Patreon. So if you're interested in hearing my thoughts on that story as well, you can find the extended version there. And that brings us to the end of today's episode of Reading Rendezvous. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to follow the podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. And if you'd like to support the show, leaving a rating or review really helps more people discover it. You can also find me on social media where we can continue the conversation about books, recommendations, and everything we're reading. I'll see you in the next episode of Reading Randiverse. Until next time, happy