I’ve been wanting to get back into writing a bit so I thought I’d write some book reviews.
I’ve recently read The Thousand Names and The Shadow Throne, the first two books in the Shadow Campaigns series by Django Wexler. This series is set in a fantasy world. However, unlike most fantasy novels, the technology is that of the late 18th-early 19th century, with armies carrying muskets and bayonets. In that sense it is similar to Naomi Novick’s Temeraire series, which recounts the Napoleonic wars except with dragons. For the Shadow Campaigns, the world is constructed, which lets Wexler have more control over history and society than Novick does in her books. Wexler is very inspired by our own earth history, and uses his own world to reflect on history through his own controlled context.
Wexler has planned a series of five books, and there is a definite story arc, but the first two books in his series have very different plots. The first book seems more like a prologue, with the actual plot in the series being kickstarted by book 2. The main characters come from the country of Vordan, but The Thousand Names takes place in Khandar, which is across the sea from Vordan. The real world parallels kick in right from the beginning. Khandar is located on a fertile strip of land between the sea and the desert, and is essentially a protectorate of Vordan, with its prince being backed by the Vordanai throne. This very closely resembles the protectorates European countries established in places like Morocco and Egypt. As the novel starts, the Khandarai have revolted against the prince and established their own government, under the auspices of a religious revival known as the Redemption. The main characters are part of the Vordanai army regiment charged with conquering back the capital city and putting the prince back on his throne. Leading them is Count Janus, who is a brilliant strategist but also seems to be looking for something in Khandar apart from just victory …
The two main characters are Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, who serves as Janus’ second in command, and Sergeant Winter Ihernglass, who quickly rises through the ranks of the army through her competence. Marcus is a pretty typical army-dude character, loyal and fair even when surrounded by people who are neither, but he’s a fun guy. Winter is much more interesting. She’s a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to escape the hellish orphanage she was trapped in and join the army. She’s also lesbian and is haunted by the memories of her former lover, who she was not able to save from being married off to some brutish farmer dude. So yeah, definitely a refreshing character type in the pretty homogeneous fantasy genre. The narrative makes her disguise sound pretty easy (at least compared to Tamora Pierce in the Alanna series) but Winter is pretty paranoid about not being discovered to the extent that she’s developed a reputation for being super shy and snotty. Of course though, at the beginning of the book she’s promoted to Sergeant and leads a squad of soldiers and is super competent and they survive battles together and bond and the such. This book doesn’t shy away from the wish fulfillment aspect.
The plot of the book is pretty basic. Janus arrives to lead the army, which starts out as a mix of the experienced-but-not-very-competent Colonial troops and a bunch of inexperienced-but-excited new recruits from Vordan. Janus is an eccentric man who doesn’t reveal much of his plans to anyone, much to Marcus’ frustration, since he has to convince his friends and colleagues among the officers that Janus knows what he’s doing. The Colonials win all their battles against incredible odds, and conquer back the capital city of Ashe-Katarion. On the way there Winter recruits Feor, a Khandarai priestess who was being held prisoner by the priests of the Redemption. She also finds out that Bobby, one of her corporals, is also a woman disguised as a man and actually came from the same horrible orphanage as her. Turns out Winter is famous back at home! All these friends make Winter feel a lot more welcome in the army.
Once they win the war, Janus reveals why he decided to come to Khandar: he’s looking for an artifact called the Thousand Names, which contains secrets of magic that were brought across the sea a long long time ago. The locals realize this and take them out into the desert. The army chases them out, wins some more battles, and Marcue and Winter defeat a mutiny among the troops. Once they find the tablets and defeat the Khandarai guarding them, this one other character Jen, who was Marcus’ sex buddy, reveals that she too was looking for the tablets! She was a spy for this one dude back in Vordan who comes up more in book 2. But also she’s also an agent for the foreign Sworn Church and has magical demon powers used to fight demons. She starts shooting magic power beams everywhere and tries to kill everyone, but Feor helps Winter use the tablets to get her own magic demon, which she uses to defeat Jen.
So we get our nice magic attack stuff at the end of the book. Otherwise the book is pretty magic-light. The main focus is on the military fantasy action, which follows a lot of classic tropes. I didn’t think the plotting in this story was very original. The main characters don’t face any big setbacks — the army wins every battle, and the mutiny by the soldiers is pretty easily defeated. On the one hand, this makes it all seem pretty easy. On the other hand, it makes for a comfortable read. I never was stressed out about what would happen to the characters. The plot also relies heavily on Janus knowing everything that’s going on and knowing that Marcus and Winter will make things work out. This problem continues to a greater extent in book 2. But again, its a good summer read, everything ends up how you want it to.
As mentioned above, the book does pretty well in terms of “feminism factor.” The author clearly is interested in presenting a balanced gender perspective. Though the societies the characters live in are mildly sexist, the characters themselves are interested in defying sexism. Winter gathers to herself an entourage of women with Bobby and Feor. This also continues in book 2, where Winter manages to find all the interesting female characters and become friends with them. In terms of anti-colonialism, the book falls a bit short. Though the book treats the Vordanai and Khandarai cultures vaguely equally (Khandarai religion/magic is presented as having some truth to it), the book doesn’t really question the idea of Vordan controlling affairs in Khandar. The prince of Khandar that is supported by Vordan is clearly presented as an unfit ruler, and Marcus wonders if this is a guy he should be helping out, but once the Colonials start winning battles they have no more doubts about the justice of their conquest. Apart from Feor, the Khandarai characters are all leaders of various factions in the rebellion, and they’re all morally mixed but mostly unsavory, shown to be willing to sacrifice the lives of lots of their people in order to stay in power. Ultimately the characters leave Khandar with the prince in power, status quo. It is kind of disappointing that the author chose to set a story in a setting clearly evoking European colonialism without presenting any alternate perspective.
Clearly, Wexler was more interesting in the Vordan plot. Khandar was only needed to introduce magic back into the world and create a bonding experience for the main characters. This set up pays off very well in book 2, where Marcus’ and Winter’s experiences in Khandar shape their reaction to political troubles at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment