A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Sherwood's latest Sartorias-deles book, A Sword Named Truth, is finally out!

She has an open post here where you can ask her questions about the worldbuilding in her books. Go forth and ask. I think her worldbuilding is really unusual and cool. I asked her about the waste spell.

A Sword Named Truth (Rise of the Alliance Book 1)

The scribes have three rules.

First Rule: Do not interfere.

Second Rule: Keep The Peace.

Third Rule: Tell the truth as we see it.

I can see your ironic faces, those of my judges who know that I began life as a scribe. This, my defense testimony, shall show how I tried not to interfere, that I meant to keep The Peace, and I will reveal the means that enables me to tell the absolute truth.

I will begin with the first important day of my life, just before the Hour of Daybreak, the spring I turned fourteen.

That's the opening of Sherwood Smith's latest novel, Banner of the Damned, in which the young scribe Emras learns her craft and becomes wise in the ways of her own extremely complex and refined culture... but not wise at all in some other, very important ways.

I excerpted the opening paragraphs because they suggest one of the most interesting and unusual features of the novel, its narrator of uncertain reliability and its use of her narrative as both the main story and a frame story. As the story continues, Emras recounts not only events for which she was not present, but, like the author of a work of fiction, becomes a semi-omniscient narrator who can convey exactly what other people were thinking and feeling. How could she possibly know? She'll explain, she assures us. In good time...

The novel takes place several hundred years post-Inda. You don't have to have read those books - it stands on its own - but some things have extra resonance if you know what came before. The worldbuilding is some of the best I've seen in fantasy, from the elegant intricacy of Colend to the warrior culture of Marloven Hesea, and the depictions of culture clashes and culture shock are dead-on. There's great characterization of a large ensemble cast, romance, heartbreak, magic, war, women being badass with a bow on the battlefield or with the devastating tilt of a fan at court, and and lots and lots of political intrigue.

Emras is asexual in a culture in which that is accepted as normal, like any other sexual orientation. While she has troubles and angst involving her orientation and how it affects her relationships, they're the same sort of troubles and angst any young person might have as they discover and grow into their identity. It's very well-done.

Please consider this a recommendation, not a review. I beta-read this novel. So take it as you will, given my bias, when I tell you that it's awesome and you should run out and read it.

Banner of the Damned

Sherwood is signing at Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, at 2:30 on April 15th. I'll be there if anyone wants to get coffee or something afterward. (Not before; I'll be driving straight in from a trauma workshop at Antioch.)

It is so fun being able to download books and carry them with me in a device which turns on instantly and is lighter than most paperbacks! I used to read sf where people had portable pocket libraries and be so envious. I am probably getting more enjoyment out of my Kindle than I would out of the much-mourned rocket cars.

Most of E. Nesbit's fantasy is available for free, including Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet. Classic fantasy, still quite funny and readable, though attitudes about race, gender, class, and other political issues were in many ways typical for an English person writing in 1900. (In other ways she was quite radical, as she was a socialist and had an open marriage in 1880.) The Story of the Amulet, in particular, has some scenes of remarkable power and beauty. "We'll sail her straight for the Dragon Rocks."

There are a bunch of versions of the Mahabharata, though unfortunately I'm not familiar with most of the ones available on Kindle. I have to link Krishna Dharma's Mahabharata, though, because it has a highly indignant comment protesting the author's anti-Kaurava and pro-Pandava bias, noting, "I mean, I'm not saying the Pandavas weren't great, but come on! The Kauravas are villified to a point where it's annoying to read the tirades against them. For instance, we always hear "That sinful blind king and his foolish brain-dead evil horrible unintelligent demonic son Duryodhana will surely reap the consequences of their actions, surely destiny is all-powerful, it must all be arranged by providence." The comment was written by none other than Duryodhana! I had not realized that he had an Amazon account.

I also note Wren Journeymage (Wren Series), by Sherwood Smith, sequel to her Wren to the Rescue books, available only in e-book format. $4.99.

Sherwood has got quite a lot of books on Kindle, some only available as e-books, some simply good deals. For instance, her classic Crown Duel and A Posse of Princesses at $3.99, and a revised and polished re-launch of her space opera Exordium (with Dave Trowbridge), The Phoenix in Flight (Exordium), at $4.99.

While browsing Suzanne Brockmann's titles, I discovered this: When Tony Met Adam (Short Story). A new gay romance! I really admire her willingness to push the boundaries of the normally exclusively-straight genre romance market.

There are some nice deals ($4.90) on Rosemary Sutcliff titles I haven't read, Frontier Wolf, The Mark of the Horse Lord, and Knight's Fee. Has anyone read any of these? How are they?

Finally, Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Surrender (Demon's Lexicon) is out! Though I plan to buy it in print.

Fandoms I am considering nominating (click on tags to find what I've written about them before):

New to Yuletide:

George R. R. Martin's "Thousand Worlds" space opera stories.

Lois Duncan's psychic kids boarding school YA Down A Dark Hall.

John Woo's film Red Cliff.

Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon.

Vonda N. McIntyre's post-apocalyptic novel about healing, snakes, and biological engineering, Dreamsnake.

Nominated in previous years:

Peter O'Donnell's comic strip and novels about the woman in my icon, Modesty Blaise.

Anne McCaffrey's Pern.

Sherwood Smith's Inda series.

Ann Maxwell's space opera Fire Dancer.

Is anyone thinking of requesting any of these? What are you all thinking of nominating?

Disclaimer: I am not only friends with Sherwood Smith, but sometimes collaborate with her. So though I had no hand in these books other than a little proofreading, I’m mentioning my closer-than-usual connection with the author anyway.

Sherwood is probably best-known for her YA fantasies like Crown Duel (Crown Duel / Court Duel), but the Inda series is adult fantasy.

This series, which begins with Inda, is so very epic that I will not attempt a plot summary (and don’t want to spoil some excellent surprises), except to say that it focuses on and spirals out from Inda, a boy (and young man, and man) who is involved in military training, political intrigue, family intrigue, piracy, magic, war, diplomacy, sea battles, land battles, and some notably complex relationships.

The first book, in which he’s a boy at a rather abusive military academy, was a bit difficult for me to get into at first due to the incredible number of characters, many of whom have proper names, nicknames, and titles. While all the major and many of the minor characters are vivid and memorable, a combination of plausible linguistics making a number of titles and names sound similar, and the sheer hugeness of the cast, made it hard to keep track of who was betraying, killing, or marrying whom at times. A cast of characters would have been helpful, but only appears at the back of book four.

However, if you persevere (or just have a better memory than me), the series offers great rewards. There’s no cliché Dark Lord, but rather a whole lot of real-seeming people plausibly driven by conflicting motives. The worldbuilding is incredibly solid and has a lot of originality, with an interesting blend of gritty realism and some utopian changes wrought by magic. The battles, of which there are lots, are inventive and exciting.

There’s an unusual amount of thought given to gender roles. Some cultures are egalitarian, but in others men and women have separate spheres… but the work isn’t necessarily divided up the way one might expect. This series also has one of the most successful attempts I’ve seen at making the domestic sphere feel as genuinely important as the more obviously exciting one of war. There are several awesome old women, not to mention little girls (and boys) combining heroism and childishness is a very plausible manner.

I especially liked the way that sex, sexuality, and gender roles are handled: there’s no conception of religious guilt over sex, but emotions still tie people up in knots; gay, lesbian, poly, and open relationships are not unusual, though personal orientation and feelings must sometimes be set aside or compromised for marriage alliances; the sex scenes, though not graphic, are hot; and the whole matter of love and sex is treated in an unusually mature and realistic manner.

Also, pirates! Secret societies of women! Vikings! Last stands! And more pirates!

For those of you who have read the books, I just wanted to mention that Tau is my favorite, with Jeje a close second. No matter how prominently either of them figured, I always wanted more.

The final book, Treason’s Shore, brings all the outstanding plot threads and character relationships to a very satisfying conclusion. Even more impressively, it manages to embody a number of the series’ most significant thematic concerns in compelling action: people with seemingly little importance or power may have extremely significant roles to play, birth is as meaningful as death, diplomacy is an important and suspenseful as violence, everything is interconnected and all actions have consequences in the “a butterfly flaps its wings and causes a storm a thousand miles away” sense, and learning, healing, connection, and redemption are always possible should you live long enough and choose to seek out such things – and sometimes come as grace unsought.

Inda

The Fox

The King's Shield (Inda, Book 3)

Treason's Shore: Book Four of Inda