I was very critical of the author’s debut work, ‘Elantris’, feeling that
although it had an awesome magic system, the characters were cardboard
and the plot mostly flat. This one is not simply better, it’s in a
different league altogether. Another awesome magic system, plus
well-developed characters and plot - and it’s funny! OK, it’s a little
ponderous at times, but lots of extra brownie points for humour. There
are some similarities - the princess uprooted from home, the all too
human gods and the action largely takes place in a single location. And
there’s a depth to it, a thoughtfulness, which I never found in
‘Elantris’.
This one focuses on four main characters. Not one but
two of them are in fact princesses uprooted from home - two sisters,
one of whom, Vivenna, was trained almost from birth to marry the
mysterious god-king of the neighbouring realm, and the other, Siri, who
is, at the last minute, sent in her place. Then there’s the flippant
Lightsong, one of the pantheon of ‘returned’ gods. And the mysterious
Vasher, a disreputable character with a sentient sword (ooh, I love
talking weaponry!). In addition, there are also some wise-cracking
mercenaries, various gods, priests and minions, and the god-king
himself.
The plot is largely about the political machinations
surrounding the god-king and a threatened war against the homeland of
the two princesses, but the real depth to the book comes from the subtly
different religions they follow. The questions of faith and who you
trust and what you actually believe underpin the whole story, together
with the theme that nothing is ever quite what it seems. Who is really
good and who is evil? Who has real power, and who merely has the
illusion of it? As the two princesses gradually adapt to their changed
circumstances, they learn that everything they believed about themselves
and the world may be wrong.
The magic system is hugely
complicated and yet it all makes sense. It’s not as elegant, perhaps, as
the air-writing system seen in Elantris, and it has a few contrivances
that - surprise! - turn out to be essential for the plot, but on the
whole it fulfils everything I expect of it: a few basic rules which can
be adapted in a myriad different and ingenious ways. This results in a
delightful surprise round every corner - someone gets into trouble, and
the magic (called Breath here) is used to devise a way out. It never
feels like a cheat, because the rules are laid out ahead of time. Not
everyone likes this kind of magic system, admittedly, preferring the
mystery of a more fluid type of magic, but I love those moments where it
comes into play and you think: oh, of course, so obvious. Much better,
to my mind, than those wait-what? moments where the wizard waves his
staff to invoke some hitherto unsuspected spell.
I was drawn into
this right from the first page, and it just got better. There are some
very slightly saggy moments in the middle where I was thinking: not
another Lightsong-being-daft chapter (there was a little too much of
Lightsong, for my money), but then there's a terrific twist which turns
everything upside down and after that the pace never let up. OK, the
climax was a tad melodramatic, and the ending marginally implausible,
and the big with-one-bound-they-were-free moment was one that was
flagged up almost from the beginning, but nevertheless this was a
terrific read with a tightly woven plot with reveals and reverses and
unexpected outcomes all the way through. I loved it. Five stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment