Of Swords and Parasols

Some of you may recall that my reaction to The Uncrowned King was along the lines of “Why is the book about this Valedan Guy? Where’s Diora? I like Valedan, but not at the expense of Diora. I want Jewel and Diora, not Jewel and Valedan. But Valedan can still stay.” I am pleased to say that Diora was back in the third book.

Some people (having poked around for reviews of the first two books) seem to be turned off by how oppressive and brutal the Annagarian society is to women. In all honesty, it’s a large part of why I like it. Now, if it were about being in a harem with the hunky lord and/or all about skanky sex, it’d be different. Those things, however, are completely absent here. Instead, that popular fictional environment is stripped of the romantic veneer, and the focus is on how women in that situation survive, but as individuals, and in terms of staying alive itself. Though they’re passive on the surface, they’re able to twist and manipulate the rules designed to enslave them to survive, and they become strong through their relationships with each other, even the rivals, and events that most high fantasy would use to make a woman a victim are used to make her a survivor. In The Broken Crown, both Diora and Teresa started down the path of gaining their independence, and their part of this book focuses on that path. It even allows Fiona, who would be portrayed as an evil, scheming villainess in another book, is able to get in on that a bit. When Diora finally confronts Sendari, the scene is absolutely magnificent.

Then there’s Jewel and Avandar.



I’m not sure what I think about the Voyani yet. The characters and their plotline are very important here, especially the masks, and many final events involve getting the various players to them, but the characters don’t grab me as much as the characters from the first two books yet. 

Like many of these many-volumed fantasy series composed of bricks, The Broken Crown serves largely as setup for the main story. In it, we are presented with what I assume are the elements of the main story, where a young woman is, against her will, chosen to bear the daughter of a god. In time, her daughter, Kiriel, joins one of the Ten Houses in Averalaan, which were introduced to us in West’s Sacred Hunt duology.

Most of the book, however, does not focus on Kiriel, or on Jewel, a central character from the duology who also appears here, or on anyone else in Averalaan. Instead, most of the action is set in the south in a city called Tor Leonne, a society where ruthless oppression, especially of women, is the norm. The book is told primarily through the eyes of Teresa, an unwed woman who runs her brother’s harem, and her niece, Diora, a girl known as the greatest beauty in the land, who is sold off for her father’s gain. The narration offers no modern perspective of the society and imposes no ideas of “the way things should be” in the characters’ heads. There’s no awareness of another way of life in Teresa or Diora’s voices, just a determination to claim what power and control over their lives they can in a society that allows them none.

Because of the power (literal power) in her words, Teresa was not allowed to marry, and all offers for her hand were refused. In her society, even married women have no power, only prestige. Unwed, she is looked at as an object of pity, her only power her bother’s voice. It is, however, a power she can use for influence, and to protect the women of his harem, and her niece. Diora possesses the same power as Teresa, but has been told to hide it from birth. Valued only for her beauty, she is raised from birth to be wed, and when she is, there is no romanticism to it. Her husband is cold and cruel, and it is emphasized that he’s no worse than any other husband. When she does find her place, it is taken from her, and it is her ability to say and do nothing that saves her. This is not portrayed as weakness or cowardice (and isn’t) but as the most difficult thing she has ever done. And when that is over, she finds herself in the position of being sold off again. When she is finally able to seize a little power and control, it’s because she finds a way to twist the rules that have oppressed her her into life to her advantage.

I have to say, though, that while West is a good writer (only a good writer could make you accept the world depicted here) she isn’t George R. R. Martin in that I can easily follow all the different perspectives, most of which don’t interest with each other. In addition, some of the names seem needlessly complicated, not to mention similar, and I’m not always sure what’s a title, and what’s a name. I mean, I don’t know if Sendare is the name or the title of Diora’s father. 

Yup, I was right.  Book 2 is the payoff.  And a good one.  I'm not going to bother with any plot recapping or anything because (A) I posted on the first book just a few days ago and (B) it would actually be fairly spoilery for the final leg of Hunter's Oath.

 Stephen and Gilliam are still running around, dealing with gods and apocalypses and such.  I feel somewhat guilty because, while I like them, I wasn't incredibly interested in them and spent a lot of their plot time wishing it was focusing one the characters introduced in Hunter's Death.  Well...almost wishing.  They were with Evayne, who remained awesome, regularly changing age and all, and Kallandros, who added some bitter angst and details on his messed up relationship with Evayne to his role as the bard who moonlights as an assassin (basically...)  Espere remained interesteing, but didn't get to do a lot (again) until the tail end...where she got to be awesome and got a great ending.

MEANWHILE, THERE WAS JEWEL.

Jewel is a supremely awesome young woman who runs a small den of young street thieves, and who has the gift of sight.  When her mentor dies, she goes to deliver a message from him to a noblewoman called The Terafin, only to end up helping to save her from her mentor's murderer, and end up entering The Terafin's service.  Jewel also gets surrounded by an excellent supporting cast.  There's Torvan, a retainer of The Terafin's who pretty much takes Jewel and her Den in(yes, she brought them all with her, and regularly tells them they can't steal in the house...unless they have to make a break for it, at which point, it's a free-for-all) her Domici(think glorified butler) Ellerson, Devon, a nobleman who  serves both The Terafin and the royals, and, of course, The Terafin herself.  Most importantly, there's Meralonne, the cranky super-mage who kinda makes me think of Sanzo, and Avandar, a mage who is her other Domici. Avandar tests her worthiness by shooting a fireball at her.  She tests his by throwing a book at his head.  She passes the test, he fails.  She keeps him anyway because The Terafin said to.

From what I've been told, Jewel and many of the above play major roles in the Broken Sun series.

Now I must decide whether I want to start the Broken Sun books, or the Elantra books...

 I have to be completely honest and say that I’m not 100% sure what I think of this book.

In the land of Breodanir, there is a system where males of certain families are Hereditary Hunter Lords, men sworn to their god, and the hunt, whose role as a hunter and bond with his hunting pack takes precedence over human interactions and relationships. To keep them from losing touch with their humanity, the Hunter Lords are bonded to a huntbrother with a mental and emotional bond that keeps them tied to humanity. Each year a Sacred Hunt is called, where one Hunter Lord or huntbrother changes roles and becomes the hunter…effectively, a sacrifice to their god. When a Hunter Lord dies, the huntbrother never lives much longer, unable to continue without his other half.

When it is close to time for his son, Gilliam, to be bonded, Soredon, lord of Elseth, selected a young street thief named Stephen and brought him into his home as a second son. Though the boys started out hating each other, they soon became friends, even before being bonded. Much of the book chronicles the difficulty of living with the bond-while the Hunter Lord can marry and have children, the huntbrother apparently cannot, and can only live his life as an extension of the Hunter Lord-and the increasingly difficult political and mythical world around them, as well as the introduction of a wild girl who seems to identify herself as one of Gilliam’s pack into their lives.

The problem is that, while I like Stephen and Gilliam and think their story is interesting, there are other characters who are much more interesting, especially Evayne, a sorceress who walks through time and Kallandras, a bard who apparently moonlights as an assassin. For that matter, through a lot of the narrative that focused on the leads and their family, I often wished the focus was more of Gilliam’s mother and sister. Part of this, I think, is that the book largely seems to be a setup for the second book in the duology, almost as if they HAVE to be read together. While all the buildup will probably pay off well in the second book, it left me with a feeling of liking the book, but being a little dissatisfied, thinking that there’s all this buildup, but no conclusion, and I’m left hanging with all the things I’m really interested in.

I am, though, reading the second/concluding book next, which probably says more than any of my problems do.