Litany of the Long Sun

Litany of the Long Sun is the first half of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. It takes place in an artificial habitat in the distant future. Though the world is technologically advanced, the people who live in it do not know how it works and live a primitive existence. The story displays a blend of religion and strange technology.

The main character is Patera Silk, an augur (oracle) for a small manteion (temple) in a poor district. At the start of the story, Silk receives a revelation that he believes is from one of his gods. When Silk discovers that his manteion has been purchased by a crime boss named Blood due to unpaid taxes, he hatches a plan to sneak into the man's villa and force him to give it back. While inside, he runs into a strange woman named Mucor and a woman named Hyacinth working there as an escort. Silk falls and hurts his ankle and gets captured by Blood and his henchmen. Blood makes an agreement to sell back the manteion to Silk for a large sum of money, which Silk doesn't have. But before he leaves, a doctor named Crane fixes his ankle and sneaks him a weapon.

Silk makes plans to use the weapon to steal the large sum of money. He is so obsessed and committed to this goal that he barely thinks about the moral questions, only that he has to fulfill his duty to his gods. The next day Silk visits a brothel where one of the women has died. He discovers that another woman there is a spy and deduces that she works for Dr. Crane. As the first half ends, Silk performs an exorcism for the dead woman and a goddess manifests at the ceremony.

At the start of the second half, Silk officiates the dead woman's funeral and a vision manifests on the screen of the manteion, the first in decades. Then he realizes that Chenille, Dr. Crane's spy, has been possessed by a goddess. This possession is some sort of advanced technological ability, and the goddess is apparently an artificial intelligence. Now Silk hatches a plot to blackmail Dr. Crane, but to do this they need to travel to the nearby lake and fine the ruling council.

Here the story gets more interesting as Silk start to uncover a plot and learn more about Dr. Crane. Silk stumbles into a series of secret tunnels under the lake and the city. He discovers a chamber full of people who have been asleep for centuries. When one of the sleeping women wakes, he realizes she has been possessed by Mucor and exorcises her. Silk learns about the history of the habitat and his own gods, though he has trouble reconciling what he learns with his beliefs.

The strange things Silk sees and learns make the second part of the book more compelling. The first half is a bit slow, what with Silk's single-minded focus on Blood and his crazy scheme to compel Blood to give his manteion back. With the second half, forces become apparent such as the missing calde (ruler) of the city, the mysterious council, the goddess who possesses Chenille. Religion comes into play as Silk gains popularity with the populace (due to his visions and the appearance of the goddess) and this becomes a threat to the government. The reference to the story of Christ becomes apparent to me when Silk has a vision that includes seeing a man nailed to . Though Silk is a religious man who only wants the best for his people and doesn't care about the government, his popularity makes him dangerous and a target for the those who fear him. The end is a cliffhanger, to be completed in the next book, as Silk is captured by one faction vying for power. B+

The Broken Kingdoms

N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms is the sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. The story takes place a few years after the events of the previous book. Oree is a blind artist in the city of Sky, the large tree where the ruling Arameri live in the top. Oree lives in the lower, poorer, section where she makes a living selling her artwork to the tourists who visit the area. While she is blind, she has the ability to see magic, an ability that she keeps secret.

Oree discovers the body of a dead god in a nearby alley one day. Since the change in Arameri leadership, the minor gods have been free to roam the city and the rest of the country. However there are factions that are not so happy with the new order of society. The formerly dominant religious order resents its loss of power.

Oree makes another discovery when she finds a strange man in her trash bin. When she sees him glowing in the sunlight she names in Shiny. Shiny is dark, quiet, and moody. She suspects he is more than he seems. Her suspicions are confirmed when he is killed but comes back to life. Oree and Shiny have come under the attention of some people in the guard force. Oree has also gained the attention of a secretive group who is against the current power structure. It turns out that Oree is special and may be quite valuable. This makes her quite vulnerable, since she is nearly powerless to escape when she is captured.

The story turns dark when Oree's lover, a lesser god, is murdered. She becomes familiar with the power structure of the city and learns Shiny's true identity, which she must keep a secret. Shiny's plight is tied to the events of the previous book and the history of the world. Oree's goal is not just to survive but to keep herself from being used as a weapon and stop the murders of the gods.

The author describes the story adroitly from Oree's point of view. The reader gets a sense of her vulnerability as a blind woman, yet she also has flashes of sight which are sometimes enjoyable and sometimes troubling. The events of the first book are the background to this book as the story is expanded. There are enough players to make the plot interesting and mysterious, and questions keep popping up. Oree's world is populated by many new godlings, some benevolent, some not, and some just mysterious. The story is fun and interesting, and a nice followup to the first book. A-

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin. The author builds a complex and fascinating mythology and then explores it through the interactions between the characters. The title refers to the vast world which the ruling class, the Arameri, rules over from their palace suspended over a city by a column of stone. In this mythology, a war between the three gods was fought thousands of years earlier, leaving one god dead and another imprisoned by the winner, Itempas. Itempas forces his brother-god Nahadoth, and Nahadoth's three children, to be enslaved to the Arameri elite, who use the gods' powers to control their kingdoms and maintain power.

This background comes out in the course of the story. The main character is Yeine, granddaughter of Dekarta, the ruler of the Arameri and king in all but name. Yeine arrives at Sky, the palace suspended by a column, summoned by Dekarta after her mother is murdered. She learns that she is designated one of her grandfather's heirs, but she and the other two heirs, her cousins, must contend against each other for the title. Her cousin Scimina is a ruthless woman who sends Nahadoth against her as a kind of initiation and schemes to have Yeine's kingdom attacked by its neighbors simply so she can have a bargaining chip. Scimina's brother Relad is a lazy hedonist who can't be bothered to take the ascension seriously, even though his life depends on it.

The most intriguing character is Nahadoth, also known as Naha. By day he has a human shape, but at night his form becomes darker and more ethereal as his dark powers grow. As his brother is eternally constant, Naha is the essence of change. Shadows coalesce around him. Part of his power is his sexuality, and he invokes in the young Yeine a strong attraction. Yet she knows that even though she is attracted to him he would be dangerous to take to bed. She may be able to command him, but his powers would overwhelm her as his nature overcomes them both.

Another interesting character is the godling Sieh, Naha's son. Sieh appears in the form of a young child despite being thousands of years old. Likewise he is playful and endearing, though his more wise and cynical side comes out at times. Yeine feels an attachment to him though she tries to keep in mind his true nature.

Yet she struggles to understand the gods at all. Dangerous characters, they are referred to as weapons because the Arameri use them against other to maintain power. Yeine receives a magical mark on her forehead when she arrives at the palace to signify her high rank and enable her to order the gods. Yet this power is itself tentative and paradoxical: she quickly learns that she must be very careful in how she phrases her requests and even her comments to the gods. If she makes a mistake in her wording then the god may find a loophole that enables him or her to leave the palace and wreak havoc on the world.

Yeine must find a way to survive the coronation, where one of the heirs will assume the throne and the rest will die. She also wants to find out about her mother, who had a very different reputation at the palace that in Yeine's memory. She has a hard time believing that her loving mother could be like the hard-hearted Arameri. As she learns about her mother and the Arameri, we learn more about Nahadoth and the other gods and the Gods War of ancient times. The myth builds and expands.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The world feels real and the myth is more than a background story, it's an integral part of the plot. The gods are interesting. Seeing powerful beings interact with humans is a good story. The gods themselves are very human, showing human emotions like greed, despair, and lust. We can feel Yeine's helplessness and uncertainty as she tries to navigate this strange world. The novel leaves the reader with the sense of having read a real life myth. A

The Amber Spyglass

The Amber Spyglass is the third book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The story is fun and provides a satisfying conclusion to the series. As the book opens, Lyra is being held by her mother in a cave. Mrs. Coulter keeps her asleep, and we learn that she has become attached to Lyra and wants to protect her, in her own way. Will is devastated at the death of his father, but two angels come to his assistance.

The angels provide background to Will and the reader. We learn that the Authority is an angel who has claimed God's name, and Lord Asriel and others have vowed to defeat him and declare a Republic of Heaven. This struggle ties the story to Paradise Lost, Milton's poem about Satan's struggle against God. Like Satan, Asriel and others are fighting arrogance and tyranny. The two angels wish to go to Lord Asriel's mountain stronghold to offer an alliance and information. Will refuses to go, instead insisting on finding and rescuing Lyra. One of the angels goes with him, and with Iorek Byrnison, the armored bear, they rescue Lyra. Will uses the subtle knife, but it breaks when he tries to escape. Fortunately, Iorek is able to repair the knife.

Meanwhile, Mary, the scientist they met in Will's world, comes to a new world where strange intelligent creatures called mulefa live. The mulefa tell her that the substance she knows as Dust has been dwindling and affecting their livelihood. Mary tries to find a solution to the ecological problem. But a priest from the Magisterium (which has rival factions) has entered the world to search for Lyra and prevent her from being tempted according to a prophecy.

The most fascinating person in the story is Mrs. Coulter. Captured by Lord Asriel, her loyalties are uncertain. She claims to love Lyra, then tells the Magisterium that she can't stand the girl and wishes she were never born. She uses her seductive powers to convince Asriel she is on his side, then steals an aircraft to fly it to the Magisterium. But they betray her and steal from her locket some of Lyra's hair to use for a bomb to kill her from far away. There follows a huge battle where Mrs. Coulter tries to stop the bomb from going off. Mrs. Coulter, despite all her devious plans and backstabbing appears to have come to truly love her daughter; whereas Lord Asriel is devoid of any human love and only sees Lyra as a part of his plans.

The central mission in the story is Lyra's desire to go to the land of the dead to visit Roger, the friend she rescued at the end of first book only to see him murdered by Lord Asriel. Using the knife and the golden compass, they find a way to the river that they must cross to reach the land of the dead. However, they must leave their daemons behind (Will learns that he has a daemon he cannot see). Throughout the three books, we have known the daemons as integral part of humans, and here the reader can feel the anguish in Lyra as she realizes what she must do. She must leave part of herself behind, making a betrayal as prophesied, a strong element of pathos.

The story wraps up the mysteries of the series pretty well. We learn about Dust and human history, about how the knife was made and its connection to the Specters. We learn about Lyra's destiny and why she and Will cannot live their lives together, despite falling in love. They must make a sacrifice that will improve their worlds, and all the worlds. Lyra and Will come to accept what they must do, even if it is tinged with sadness. The ending is not spectacular but it is good and satisfying. It brings the elements of the three books to a close. I appreciated how everything started to make more sense. Lyra ends the story with a view to her future, which she hadn't considered before. It is a fitting conclusion. B+

The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife is the sequel to The Golden Compass, part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In this book, Lyra finds a boy named Will Parry in a world that exists between the worlds they are from. Will shows her how he found a window from his world to the world of Ci'gazze, where Specters attack adults and leave them catatonic while leaving the children to fend for themselves. Will shows Lyra to his own world (more like ours) and she visits the Oxford there in an effort to learn more about Dust, which she learns is called dark matter. She is pleased to find a female scholar studying the subject and she helps her with the research. But Lyra is dismayed when a strange upper class man steal the compass.

But the primary story belongs to Will. Will is a prototypical hero in that he is (something like Lyra in the first book) searching for his missing father. However he lacks the appeal of Lyra to be a driving character. Whereas Lyra is brave, headstrong, and somewhat impulsive, Will is more reserved and careful. This does make them a good team. Part of the conflict is that Lyra can't accept that her mission is to help Will find his father instead of searching for her own. The golden compass tells her as much, but her unwillingness to follow through and instead continue her own search does not prove successful.

Lyra and Will approach the thief of the compass to get it back, and he promises to return it to them if they will retrieve a knife from the world of Ci'gazze that he desires. The knife turns out to be a valuable artifact. Acquiring it provides Will with great power but it also comes at a cost. The children of Ci'gazze become their enemies. The knife is a burden that Will must bear, and using it becomes painful. He uses the knife to cut a window between worlds and retrieve the compass for Lyra. Yet they learn that Lyra's mother is allied with the thief, bringing the evils of the first book into this one.

As the plot unfolds, we learn that there is a man plotting to wage war against the creator god, known as the Authority. Pullman brings in myths about heavenly wars and angels. Most of this is background rather than direct action, though this is fitting for a middle volume of a trilogy. However I was still left a little empty at the end, without seeing Will and Lyra accomplish an important goal. Will's search is satisfied, but only briefly. Lyra is still relegated to the background as Will's helper. Yet overall it is a satisfying story. The tension builds as we learn more about traveling between worlds, the building war against the Authority, Will's father, and the powers of the knife. The story comes together, yet there still enough conflict left for the next book. B

Return to Lankhmar

Return to Lankhmar is Fritz Leiber's third installment in the Lankhmar series. It consists of two previously published books: The Swords of Lankhmar, a short novel, and Swords and Ice Magic, a collection of short stories.

It was refreshing to read a novel-length adventure of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Leiber excels in the short format, and I was a little unsure whether he could pull off a longer story. But The Swords of Lankhmar is an exciting story from end to end. It starts with the two rogues taking a job as guards on a flotilla taking loads of grain in payment to Movarl of the Eight Cities for removing the sea of pirates. The mission is complicated by a young lady named Hisvet and her dark slave girl Frix. Hisvet is transporting twelve white rats as an additional gift to the foreign ruler. In fact, it soon becomes an issue whether there are eleven rats or twelve in the cages, after one of the ships in the flotilla sinks amid a swarm of rats--one of them white. Both Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fall under the sway of the alluring Hisvet. Hisvet's father Hisven arrives to lead the rats to their takeover of the ship, but the rats are foiled by a traveler from another world.

Even after they see the rest of the grain safely transported to its destination, things continue to go wrong. Hisvet and Hisven have hurried back to Lankhmar's ruler Glipkerio with stories of how they saved the ships from the rats. The Gray Mouser has to play a careful game with Glipkerio and Hisvet and the rats. After taking a potion given to him by his magical mentor, he shrinks to rat size and must navigate the rat underworld to figure out what is going on in Lankhmar. After avoiding trouble over and over, he finally is backed into a corner when Fafhrd returns at the last moment to save him. I enjoyed the trouble that the Gray Mouser gets in and out of, and Fafhrd's long trek from the Eight Cities to help him. It's a great adventure with alluring characters in tough situations.

The stories in Swords and Ice Magic start off short and get longer. One of the memorable ones is "Under the Thumbs of the Gods", which has the adventuresome pair encountering a vision with all of their lost loves, courtesy of the gods who feel miffed. The last two stories form a pair. "The Frost Monstreme" provides two women from the Rime Isle who claim that their island is soon to be attacked by the Mingols. They offer gold to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to each bring twelve barbarians or thieves to the island in three months. As the fateful day approaches, the two men sail their ships through a great fog, not realizing that a powerful spirit is plotting evil and conniving to get them to fight each other.

The final story is a "Rime Isle", about the two adventurers' struggle to protect the island against the invading Mingols. But first they have to deal with a town full of folk wary of them, two wayward gods, a vast whirlpool, and the invisible flyers from Stardock. Fafhrd must deal with the women of Stardock when his past comes to haunt him. The Gray Mouser finds himself in the strange situation of being a leader of men, when he's used to being a loner and somewhat of an outcast at that. But he excels in his role, including in a hilarious scene when he blacks out and can't remember what he said in his speech to rally the villagers.

Leiber is playful in his fun plots. He's not afraid to bring in a strange element from outside the story, or sometimes two or three. Finding Odin on Rime Isle is both a pleasant surprise but also just part of the story. And in many ways Loki and the Gray Mouser are two parts of the same element. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second part, though both were fun. B+