The Triumphant Return of the Master Sleuth; Hasn't Lost His Edge Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was actually pretty keen to knock off his beloved character andThe Triumphant Return of the Master Sleuth; Hasn't Lost His Edge Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was actually pretty keen to knock off his beloved character and move onto his other passion, historical novels, but the public outcry over Sherlock Holmes spectacular death at Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem" was both vocal and very persistent, and after a long hiatus, in which he published historical novels that may have been quality but didn't elicit the same level of excitement and loyalty as the brilliant Sherlock and his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson.
So, like many novelist before, Doyle finally gave in to popular pressure and brought back one of the most famous characters in all of fiction, not just the mystery/detective genre, and did it will gusto and flair. These 13 stories have just as much ingenuity, verve, and humour as what has come before, which really does attest to both Doyles writing skills and imagination, and also suggests that deep down he must still have liked and respected his creation enough to give him some proper adventures and not just "phone it in" as it were. ...more
Wonderful story of immigrants in 1899 New York, who happen to be supernatural beings As usual I'm late to this party, and there are already so many welWonderful story of immigrants in 1899 New York, who happen to be supernatural beings As usual I'm late to this party, and there are already so many well-written and insightful reviews already by GR friends, so I'll just add my own thoughts. The storyline doesn't sound particularly plausible at first, but Helen Wecker's skill of storytelling brings to life with convincing historical details the social milieu of turn-of-the century NY teeming with hard-luck immigrants struggling for a better life in America, and an unexpected and understated romance between two extremely different supernatural beings from two ancient cultures, Judaism and the Bedouin tribes of Syria.
The story caught me by surprise because of the depth of characterization and details of everyday life for immigrants in the chaotic but vibrant environment. After having been completely annoyed by the tedium and aimless story of John Crowley's Little, Big, the tight and unpretentious story of these two unfolded with great pathos and interest. I found myself eager to know what happened next, even the most mundane things like the two finding jobs and learning to integrate in their respective ethnic enclaves without letting on their supernatural abilities.
The story does have a larger context that deals with the reasons why this golem was created in Prussia and by whom, and how a djinn from the Syrian deserts came to be enslaved in a vessel for a thousand years by a wizard obsessed with pursuing eternal life, and that kicks in during the final third of the book. It's well-paced and despite its depth of detail never felt dull to me, and the writing is beautiful. In fact, I'm a bit in awe that this is really the author's first book. Perhaps she has already had dozens of previous lives as a writer and is just hiding her supernatural abilities! Great book, one of my favourite reads of 2021....more
A far more nuanced portrait of Mordred and Arthur Mary Stewart creates a fitting culmination to her reimagining of the Arthurian legend, tacking the moA far more nuanced portrait of Mordred and Arthur Mary Stewart creates a fitting culmination to her reimagining of the Arthurian legend, tacking the most tragic and contentious final arc of the story, in which Mordred and his Orknian half-brothers go to Camelot, setting in motion the long-dreading prophesy of Merlin that Mordred will be the doom of Arthur on some Wicked Day. Knowing the outcome, she does an amazing job of weaving together disparate, contradictory, and patchy historical documents written centuries after the reputed reign of Arthur (mainly Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae from the 12th century, Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur from the 15th century, etc), and creating a real and plausible tale in keeping with the ethos of the times. A moving and tragic story that breathes fresh life into the legend....more
Merlin's Elder Years as King Arthur's Advisor, the Rise of Morgause, and His Time with the Lady of the Lake Mary Stewart once again does a masterful jMerlin's Elder Years as King Arthur's Advisor, the Rise of Morgause, and His Time with the Lady of the Lake Mary Stewart once again does a masterful job retelling the Matter of Britain and Arthurian Legend in her own reinterpretation of events, explaining many of the more fanciful legends of magic and enchantment in a more realistic way, as they are always embellished by the common and superstitious people of the times.
We see Merlin advice King Arthur on uniting Great Britain, tangling with Morgause in her various deadly ploys as the wife of King Lot, enemy of Arthur, and later Queen of Orkney, where she raises 4 fiery young red-headed boys: Gawain, Agravaine, Gareth, and Gaheris, along with one dark-haired, slender boy named Mordred.
Merlin also encounters a young woman he mistakes for a boy at first, named Niniane (aka Nimue, Viviane, etc in the many version of the Lady of the Lake legend), who was raised next to the lake at Avalon, and who forms a romantic relationship with Merlin as she also learns all his arcane knowledge and thus receives (steals?) his magic over time, eventually leaving him spent. ...more
The Arthurian Saga Told By Merlin, A Very Different Take This book couldn't be any more different than T.H. White's Once and Future King. Gone is the bThe Arthurian Saga Told By Merlin, A Very Different Take This book couldn't be any more different than T.H. White's Once and Future King. Gone is the befuddled wizard with pointy hat and long white beard, endlessly annoyed by the Wart (young King Arthur) and turning him into all manner of creatures to illustrate life lessons. Gone is the impossible concept of Merlin living backwards in time (but forwards physically), knowing the future but not the past. Gone are spells and incantations, magic staffs, noble knights and chivalry, and quest for the Holy Grail.
The world of 6th century post-Romanic Britain, populated by Saxon invaders in the south, Vikings and Celts in the north, and Normans from Brittany, is a very chaotic and harsh world where might is right and the rule of law is largely unknown. Mary Stewart has decided to give the Arthurian legend a thoroughly grounded historical context rather than the usual chivalry and jousting and quests and round table (though that may come in later volumes). This is the story of the young bastard Merlin, born to a queen from South Wales who refused to reveal his father, and his difficult and directionless youth under several lords.
Merlin is quite a loner, not much of a fighter, but is very smart and resourceful. But in a world where fighting skills takes precedence, there are not many places for such people, and without a proper father his position is precarious. He must navigate his way to seek a place where his wits will be appreciated, and much of the story depicts his difficulties and adventures as he establishes himself as a "prophet" and "enchanter" in the eyes of men despite being neither of those things, though he does have the Sight, which comes unbidden and gives him knowledge other men cannot have, which makes them fear him. He finds himself in the service of Ambrosias Aurelianus of Brittania, whose brother is Uther Pendragon, and it is there that his knowledge of engineering and occasional visions find use.
This is part of a 4-book series, and ends before Arthur enters the stage at all, but is a very compelling and well-told story. When I first read the series in junior high in Hawaii, I hadn't the slightest idea who the Normans, Anglo-Saxons, Celts, or Vikings were, and honestly was amazed that I didn't remember a single thing from the story at all, 30 years later. So I'm actually glad to be revisiting this serious after living 5 years in England and having studied a lot of British and European history, because it really enriches my understanding and enjoyment of the story's historical context....more
River of Stars: Captures the Tragic Downfall of the Song Dynasty This year I've finally closed a 20-year gap in my SFF reading, reading's all the Guy GRiver of Stars: Captures the Tragic Downfall of the Song Dynasty This year I've finally closed a 20-year gap in my SFF reading, reading's all the Guy Gavriel Kay books that I've earmarked since high school, starting with the high fantasy Tigana and then moving on to the historical re-imaginings of Moorish Spain (Lions of Al-Rassan), Medieval France (Song for Arbonne), Florence, Dubrovnik, & Byzantium (Children of Earth and Sky), and finally the Tang and Song Dynasties of Ancient China (Under Heaven, River of Stars). He captures the sweep of history with a wide-scope lens, but then enriches this tapestry with a large caste of characters that hold the story together and involve the reader in their lives and the events that they are swept up in. This book is too elaborate and detailed for me to muster the energy to describe (I regret that my reviews have gotten much shorter since moving to London), but suffice to say that it is an epic that remains centered on a number of compelling stories that complete a much broader picture of the decadent Song Dynasty as it collapses from within and succumbs to the barbarian hordes at its borders, and is an excellent read for all fans of history and great writing....more
Under Heaven: A Fresh Take on Tang Dynasty China Guy Gavriel Kay loves to delve into a specific historical period and create an alternative reality molUnder Heaven: A Fresh Take on Tang Dynasty China Guy Gavriel Kay loves to delve into a specific historical period and create an alternative reality molded on the bones of that history, fleshed out with elaborate plots, compelling characters, and of course sumptuous writing. This is his first attempt to venture outside Europe, and he's clearly done his homework. The details seem very convincing, though I admit to knowing very little about Chinese dynastic history. The characters are worth following, and the story is just as grand and cinematic and tragic as any Chinese blockbuster historical drama. I was drawn in early on and it kept me interested throughout, a very good book. On to the follow up, set 400 years later, River of Stars....more
Kindred: A complex exploration of the slave/slaver relationship Originally published at Fantasy Literature Kindred (1979) is Octavia Butler’s earliest sKindred: A complex exploration of the slave/slaver relationship Originally published at Fantasy Literature Kindred (1979) is Octavia Butler’s earliest stand-alone novel, and though it features time travel, it’s not really SF or fantasy. It’s an exploration of American slavery and its painful legacy from the eyes of a contemporary (well, circa 1976) young black woman named Dana. So don’t expect to learn why she keeps being pulled back in time to a pre-Civil war slave plantation in Maryland every time her ancestor, a white slave owner named Rufus Weylin, finds his life in danger. It’s a plot device that allows the reader to experience all the horrors of being a powerless black female slave in 1815, while retaining a modern perspective. So this book is firmly in the tradition of Alex Haley’s Roots (1976), Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982), and more recently the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave (2013) in describing the impact of slavery and poverty that still leaves its marks on the American psyche today.
As the first prominent black woman SF author to emerge in the late 1970s, it’s not surprising that Butler would want to write a story concerned with the position of black women in both contemporary society and the past, and give it a SF framing device. The story of Kindred is deceptively simple, but Butler does not take the expected route of merely showing us the evils of slavery. Instead, she tackles a much more difficult subject, the strange and twisted relationship between white slave owners and their black slaves, one in which cruelty, oppression, and dehumanization are mixed with paternalism, religious condescension, and White Man’s Burden. The question she asks is straight-forward: what would a contemporary young black woman do when forced into a position of subjugation under an ignorant and vicious white slave owner and his young son, if that young man was her own distant ancestor?
Dana is a young black woman in Los Angeles, working low-paid temp jobs via an employment agency that she and others joking refer to as economic slavery. She aspires to be a writer, but has never found a way to make this dream a reality. At one of her jobs she meets another aspiring writer, Kevin, an older white man who she becomes friends with. Neither are living the American dream. Their families are not approving of their inter-racial relationship, and life is not easy, but they find comfort in each other and their common interests and eventually get married.
One day, on her 26th birthday, she feels dizzy and loses her senses. When she comes to, she sees a young white boy struggling to avoid drowning in a river. She wades in to save him, but is soon after confronted with an angry white woman, his mother, who assumes she is hurting him, and then confronted by a shotgun-wielding man, his father, who points his gun at her. At that point she is transported back to her LA apartment with Kevin. Neither understand what happened to her, and Kevin initially struggles to believe her, but he quickly adjusts to the situation after she is repeatedly transported back in time, always to a time when Rufus is in danger, though each time she goes back he is a little older, and the relatively short time spend in the past is much longer in the present. Knowing that it can happen without warning, Dana and Kevin prepare supplies to help her survive in the past. Interestingly, they make no attempt to describe the situation to anyone else, assuming they will be considered insane.
With this pattern established, the bulk of the story details Dana’s increasingly longer stays in antebellum Maryland. While Rufus’s father Tom is a vicious and ignorant man, regularly beating and intimidating his slaves to ‘keep them in their place’, young Rufus is initially just another little boy learning from his environment. He accepts the world around him – white men are at the top of the hierarchy, followed by white women, and then black men and women are essentially subhuman property (slaves) that are there to serve white people and should be beaten down at the slightest hint of resistance. Each time we meet Rufus, he is a little older and a little more like his father, yet retains some signs of decency in his strange relationship with Dana. Because Dana is clearly educated, despite being a black woman, both Rufus and his father Tom are unsure how to categorize her. Her intelligence and knowledge are intimidating, but when she talks back to them they react violently, either beating her or using psychological violence to suppress her.
Butler forces us to experience Dana’s situation, trapped as a slave but with full knowledge of the future, and shows unflinchingly just how deep-rooted the slave and slaver mentality is ingrained in whites and blacks alike. It’s a telling detail that religious ministers also find convenient passages in the Bible to justify the relationship of slave and master, something we also see in the film 12 Years a Slave. The other slaves on the plantation resent Dana, since she talks like an educated white person, and gets special treatment as Rufus’ tutor. Notably, Rufus is attracted to a strong-willed slave named Alice, whom he initially approaches peacefully, but when she rejects him he rapes her instead, blaming her for being difficult.
Over time, Rufus fathers several children with Alice, all against her will. Throughout this process, he continues to want Alice to like him and is continually frustrated by her refusal to accept his overtures. Rufus demands that Dana intercede on his behalf, but she is torn. She knows that one of their children will become her ancestor, so she cannot prevent her own future existence. Even when she desperately wants to kill Rufus for his casual cruelty to her and Alice, she always hesitates for that reason.
I’ll leave further plot details for readers to discover on their own, but the relationship between Alice, Rufus, Dana, and Kevin becomes every more complex, until events come to a violent and cathartic head. The entire story is emotionally-wrenching, since it is impossible not to imagine ourselves in Dana’s position, and yet that is truly unimaginable for any modern person. Or is it? Dana’s early life in LA, while not subject to arbitrary beatings, is little different from economic slavery. The disapproval of her relationship with Kevin by their families shows the persistent nature of racism even in the world of 1976.
But the central question, one that really bothered me throughout the story was why both Dana and Kevin slipped so quickly into the mindset of slavery in those dark times. Why does Dana continue to give Rufus the benefit of the doubt, always hoping he will be more kind and compassionate than his cruel father, only to be disappointed again and again? And why doesn’t Dana resist her slavery more aggressively, perhaps trying to arrange an underground railroad to free slaves like Harriet Tubman (something that Kevin alludes to). Instead, the powerlessness of her situation, the psychological oppression and fear of beatings wears down her will to fight, and she has the benefit of a modern upbringing. How much harder would it be for slaves raised from birth to question or fight back against oppression. There are many cases of blacks running away in the story, but they are constantly hunted down, brutally beaten, and sold off farther South. One of the cruelest methods the Weylins use to keep their slaves cowed is by deliberately selling off their children, whether fathered by Tom or Rufus or the black male slaves, just the way you’d sell livestock. By casually severing the bonds of parent and child, they crush all will to resistance. This was truly the most sickening aspect of slavery in the book, as if the beatings, rapes, and hardship were not enough.
Initially I found it difficult to accept the possibility that any contemporary woman could eventually fall into an uneasy relationship with a white slaver owner, even given the unique (and artificial) plot constraint of him being Dana’s distant ancestor. I’m sure we would all think we’d rather slit Rufus’ throat, run away, or even take our own lives rather than ‘sleep with the enemy’. But Butler doesn’t let us off the hook so easily. We could never know the real answer unless we were actually thrown back in time like Dana as a powerless black woman at the mercies of cruel and ignorant white masters. And yet Butler also depicts these men with fairness – they have moments of compassion once in a while, but they continually revert to the slaver mindset when pushed, and this is not hard to believe since that was the standard of the times.
It would take a truly strong willpower to resist all the accepted beliefs of the time to fight against slavery, and yet somehow that was accomplished when slavery was abolished after the Civil War. Sadly, though the institution officially disappeared, as in stories like The Color Purple, black poverty has continued to persist long after the Civil War ended. Even in Dana’s contemporary world, economic slavery remains, though it is not restricted to blacks. So although Kindred is not particularly uplifting, it does make the reader confront the slave/slaver relationship in all its complexities, and perhaps to understand it better in the end.
The audiobook was narrated by Kim Staunton, who has an extensive theatre, television and film-acting career, and graduated from the Julliard School. She has narrated a number of audiobooks that focus on the stories of African Americans, and does an excellent job on Kindred. It’s a delicate balancing act to handle the Southern accents of uneducated whites and blacks back in pre-Civil War Maryland without straying into stereotype territory, but I thought she was convincing. She also alternated this with the modern voices of Dana and Kevin, and I was really impressed with what she did with Kevin, as he started with a modern voice but after many years trapped in the past, his voice started to take on the speech patterns of the period. Very well done....more
The Broken Sword: A dark fantasy classic of Norse mythology Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword (1954) was selectedThe Broken Sword: A dark fantasy classic of Norse mythology Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword (1954) was selected by David Pringle in his Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels, and is highly praised by Michael Moorcock, whose character Elric of Melnibone and his demon-possessed sword Stormbringer are directly inspired by The Broken Sword. The audio version is narrated by Bronson Pinchot, who has an amazing vocal range and narrates with passion.
To get right to the point, this book is amazing and deserves a much wider readership. It’s one of the most powerful, tightly-written and relentlessly-dark high fantasies I’ve ever read. It’s chock full of Norse gods, demigods, Vikings, elves, trolls, goblins, sea serpents, evil witches, dark magic, mighty heroes, beautiful maidens, and above all tragedy, doomed love, and implacable fate. It taps into the same rich vein of Nordic lore that J.R.R. Tolkien did with The Lord of the Rings, but hews much closer to the dark and violent but heroic tone of those earlier sagas.
There are no jolly and peace-loving Hobbits smoking pipes here. Characters both mortal and otherwise are often cruel, passionate, and ruthless. Yet they storyline itself harks back to the most basic and fundamental heroic stories people have told throughout history. As such, it feels very mythic and archetypal, and the writing of Anderson is muscular, rich, gritty, and evocative to a degree rarely seen in the bland Tolkien-clone fantasy mega-series that have clogged the shelves for many decades. In fact, the recent popularity of grim-dark fantasy penned by writers like George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Glen Cook, etc. can be seen as readers tiring of the same old formula and wanting a darker, more realistic take on fantasy adventure.
I see this as part of a broader shift in popular entertainment that coincides with the power of the Internet and online media distribution. In the past just a few TV networks and film studios controlled the types of TV programs and movies that were available to the public, but the advent of online film distribution caused an explosion of content, both good and bad, that has allowed for greater creative activity than ever before. Perhaps this is more apparent in the world of TV, where in the last decade the best writing and programs are drama series like The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Mad Men, Homeland, etc. These programs share a common thread of gritty realism, reinventing tired old genres, and a healthy cynicism and dark humor that was lacking in the stale offerings of the traditional networks.
The world of The Broken Sword is very complex, and Anderson throws in hundreds of exotic names of ancient tribes, lands, peoples, and faerie creatures that populated Europe many centuries past. The effect is to blur the boundaries between the actual Norse, Dane, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English peoples and ancient places with their rich mythology. The Aesir (Norse) gods Odin, Thor, Loki make appearances, as do Irish demigods, and there is mention of a fearful new white god, Christ, who is a threat to the elder gods. Such is the skill of Anderson that it is impossible to distinguish which elements are fantasy and which are historical. He also provides a sense of immensely long history and ancient god-like figures who only rarely venture into the temporal realms of men, yet have active interest in their doings. The mix of such a plethora of mythologies in The Broken Sword can be a bit confusing, but the tight focus of the main story always prevents Anderson from getting lost in the infinite potential side-stories that he might have examined if he were writing a multi-volume epic to ensure a steady stream of royalties as most epic fantasy writers of recent years have resorted to.
The Broken Sword is the story of Skafloc, the human son of Orm the Strong but raised by elves, and the dark changeling Valgard, a half-elf and half-troll substituted for the infant Skafloc as a baby by a capricious elf named Imric. This sets in motion a series of tragic events that culminate in massive battle between an army of elves led by Skafloc and an army of trolls led by Valgard. There are other mythical creatures and gods involved in the conflict, but the most intimate battles rage in the hearts of Skafloc, who discovers too late that he has unknowingly fallen in love with his sister Freda, and Valgard, who is beguiled by an evil witch into slaying his brothers and parents, which drives him from human society and into the hands of the trolls, with whom he shares blood ties. The two become enormously powerful warriors, but at the same time are torn with feelings of guilt, self-loathing, and the inability to take joy in anything other than killing and vengeance. After discovering his love for Freda was incestuous, Skafloc seeks a weapon capable of opposing the vast troll armies led by Valgard and his powerful battle-axe nicknamed Brother Slayer. Skafloc takes a broken sword embedded with dark and evil magic, which is reforged by the giant who made it. It imparts incredible strength and killing ability to the wielder, but must drink blood once it has been drawn, which had tragic consequences.
The Broken Sword is one of the few books I’ve read where any page you turn to will yield incredibly vivid images and descriptions, but to give you an idea of the dramatic tone and writing style, here is just one example in the climactic final battle between Skafloc and Valgard:
Like a blind man Valgard turned away, wrenching the arrow from his hand. He howled, gnawed the rim of his shield, froth at his mouth. His axe began to shriek and thunder, striking at all before it. He was mad with killing lust. Skafloc fought with a bitter flame of cold murder within him, the giant sword was a living fire in his hands. Blood and brains spurted, heads rolled on the ground, guts were slippery under his horse’s hooves. He fought, he fought in a timeless whirlpool of death, where only the icy lightning workings of his brain were real. He scattered death as a sower scatters grain, and wherever he went the troll lines broke. Swords blazed under the moon, spears flew, axes smote, metal and men cried their pain. The horses reared, trampling, whinnying, their blood-clotted manes flying. Elves and trolls died in a storm of weapons and were crushed under the swaying struggle.
The Broken Sword made me want to go right back for a second listen, and that’s pretty rare for someone with 400+ books on his TBR list. It also made me much more curious to explore the incredibly rich body of classic fantasy tales that inspired it, including the works of E.R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany, William Morris, H. Rider Haggard, and earlier heroic tales like the Iliad or Beowulf, not to mention the almost limitless mythology and folklore of pre-Christian Europe. So you might consider this book a “gateway drug” that could easily get you hooked on ancient fantastic tales of heroism and adventure. Proceed at your own peril, brave warriors....more
The Killing Moon: A challenging and excellently-crafted work Originally posted at Fantasy Literature N.K. Jemisin is my favorite fantasy author of this The Killing Moon: A challenging and excellently-crafted work Originally posted at Fantasy Literature N.K. Jemisin is my favorite fantasy author of this decade. In just six years, she has already established herself as a major force with three fantasy series to date, INHERITANCE (2010-2011), DREAMBLOOD (2012), and BROKEN EARTH (2015~). What makes her so distinctive is her incredible world-building skills, strong and complex characters and themes, and insistence on avoiding the overused conventions of the genre.
One of the best and most original fantasies I’ve ever read was her 2015 book, The Fifth Season, the start of the BROKEN EARTH series. In her DREAMBLOOD series, she takes the ancient kingdoms of Egypt and Nubia for inspiration, but rather than simply changing some names and using thinly-disguised history as her template, she introduces an entirely new religious and social system, one centered around worship of Hananja, the dream goddess represented by the moon.
In the land of Gujaareh, power is divided between the priest class, the royalty, and the military. But the priest class is the most powerful thanks to its Gatherers, specially-trained priests who harvest dream blood from the sick, dying, and corrupt and use it for healing the sick and injured. So while they provide succor to the suffering on the one hand, they also deal out justice to the corrupt on the other, which makes them far more complex than the usual ‘healer’ role. Because they can delve into people’s dreams, they can also access private thoughts to root out the corrupt.
Gatherers take the suffering souls and escort them to the dream world of Ina-Karekh. It is a sacred duty and considered an honor to be sent to the next world. This extends even to the corrupt and criminals, for which it is considered an act of mercy. This theme of euthanasia, or death with dignity, is woven throughout the book. So is the potentially corrupting influence of wielding power in the name of the greater good.
The story centers on several main characters: senior priest Ehiru of the Hetawa; his young apprentice Nijiri; Sunandi, a female diplomat and spy from neighboring Kisua; the ambitious Prince Eninket who harbors a dark secret, and many supporting players. The political struggle between the city-states of Gujaareh and Kisua is played out among individuals at various levels of society, and the motivations of both sides are complex and convincing.
It is a fully-developed and engrossing world, since the political involvement of the Hetawa priests is so pervasive in Gujaareh. When Ehiru and Nijiri begin to uncover corruption that points to the leaders of the Hetawa itself, they are forced to question the principles upon which their whole lives have been devoted to. We also are shown the political system of Kisua and its Protectors, who are opposed to the use of dream-gathering as they consider it dark and corrupting magic. Many of the most astute social observations come from the diplomat Sunandi, whose role as a spy for her kingdom serves as convenient device to reveal details of the world organically as the story unfolds.
There is certainly a flood of neologisms at the beginning of the book, which creates some confusion, so readers will likely be flipping to the glossary to get their bearings (something audio listeners cannot do), and the author eschews exposition in favor of throwing readers into the story from the beginning, then letting us slowly piece together the world and characters she has created. I actually prefer this approach, because it allows the reader to be rewarded with insights into the world without slowing the pace much. So while there is definitely a learning curve, you won’t feel like you’re reading an encyclopedia.
It’s also worth mentioning that this books centers of people of dark skin inspired by the ancient kingdoms of Egypt and Nubia, a refreshing change from the dominant influence of medieval Europe on the bulk of epic fantasy, and while this is not an overt element of the story, it is great to tap into such a rich and rarely-used source of inspiration. She also is quite subtle in describing the sexual dynamics of the characters - it is only by mid-story that we discover that same-sex relationships are part of the social fabric in some cases. This becomes particularly poignant for two of the main characters, but I will say no more.
There is also a lot of exploration of gender politics and the roles of women in the two societies, something I look forward to when reading her books because she refrains from stacking the deck to favor a given agenda. Instead, her characters are complex in their motivations, and there is a lack of cookie-cutter heroes of villains. Our understanding of the main characters grows throughout the story, as they themselves evolve and struggle with thorny ethical and political struggles. Even the character who turns out to be most ‘evil’ has his own reasons for doing what he does, though he clearly has lost his sense of perspective along the way.
Much of the pleasure of the book derives from the slow reveal of the social, religious, and political details of the two societies, so I will not spoil it any further. Suffice to say that Ms. Jemisin has clearly thought it out in great detail and could probably create many stories in this world. But The Killing Moon is self-contained and comes to a dramatic conclusion, though whether it is satisfying or not I will leave to the reader to decide.
There is a second book set several years after called The Shadowed Sun, which features some of the same characters but introduces new cultures and perspectives, and dives even further into gender politics and the role of women in this ancient imagined culture. At this point I plan to read everything Ms. Jemisin writes, as she has earned my respect and admiration with her challenging and excellently-crafted work....more
Like many other readers, this was my least favorite entry in this series of stand-alone but thematically connected adult fantasy novels. I was able to Like many other readers, this was my least favorite entry in this series of stand-alone but thematically connected adult fantasy novels. I was able to sympathize with and care about the previous book's characters, but I just could't connect with the main characters here. Basically I spent the entire audiobook lost and confused, especially with all the demonic possessions and political ploys in the final third. I found this one much harder to follow or enjoy than the previous two books, but I will admit that could be due to listening via audiobook rather than carefully reading it in hardcopy, so I wouldn't recommend it in audio format if you are casually listening during your work commute over many sittings....more
Paladin of Souls: A troubled older heroine battles inner and external demons I don't have enough time these days to write a proper review, certainly nPaladin of Souls: A troubled older heroine battles inner and external demons I don't have enough time these days to write a proper review, certainly not a review sufficient to do justice to this dense quasi-historical adult fantasy follow-up to Curse of Chalon, again about a melancholy and broken older character, this time dowager mother Ista, considered mad but actually fighting inner demons and dark magic that forms a complex web in a slow-burning but rewarding story with Bujold's signature skill in characterization and the inner space conflicts of her characters. Like it's predecessor, it's a major departure from her more light-hearted Miles Vorkosigan series, but a worthy series than I am enjoying though I have to admit not being able to devote proper concentration to it via audiobook on my daily commute on the noisy Northern tube line in London....more
A reimagining of the Crusades against music-loving, female-dominated Provence This is another of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical reimaginings of dramatic A reimagining of the Crusades against music-loving, female-dominated Provence This is another of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical reimaginings of dramatic and tumultuous historical periods in European history, in this case the Albigensian Crusade of Pope Innocent III against the Cathar heretics of Languedoc (in southern France), with the troubadours and Court of Love and elevated status of women, all anathema to the Catholic Church of the times. GKK goes to great lengths to depict this world in lush detail and prose, much like his other historical fantasies Tigana (Renaissance Italy), the Lions of Al-Rassan (Moorish Spain), and Sarantium Mosaic (clash between Byzantine Empire and Ostrogothic Empire of Italy).
As his many fans can attest to, his writing is rich, lyrical, emotion-laden, and colorful. This can either work for or against him, depending on reader taste. I thought it was very effective in Tigana, as the basic story was clearly understandable and the character's motivations were understandable and relatable. However, I found the machinations and motivations of the large caste of characters in A Song for Arbonne difficult to follow, especially as many have difficult-to-remember names like Bertran de Talair, Urte de Miraval, Thierry de Carenzu, Galbert de Garsanc, etc. I realize that real historical events feature just such complex and numerous casts of characters, and plotting and scheming and motivated by cultural modes of thinking and historical rights and wrongs, but it was all a bit overwhelming.
It's always interesting to speculate on why GKK chooses to cloak and reimagine historical events with invented countries, cultures, regions, religions, and stories. Why not just write historical fiction in that case? But perhaps he can take greater artistic license by exploring the themes the run throughout European antiquity with a freer hand, though sometimes it all seems a bit unnecessary. The magical elements have become minimal since his Tolkienesque fantasy trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry, so there seems even less need for this elaborate approach to history, but his writing skills are undeniable....more
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