Mary VictoriaReseñas

Great book, I read this when it first came out but only recently bought books 2 and 3. After eight years I remembered very little of the plot, only that I had enjoyed it. Tymon is an indentured student, in a city perched in a vast tree that is the whole known world. He feels luckless as a penniless teenager in a rich city, but gradually learns that life out on the fringes is far far worse. His eccentric scientist friend has dreams of building a dirigible and sailing where no one has ever been, but is condemned by the strict priesthood. What are the priests hiding?½

Samiha's Song is the second volume in Mary Victoria's Chronicles of the Tree trilogy. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the excellent first volume, Tymon's Flight, mainly because it took a while to get going, but it does the things the second book of a fantasy trilogy should do: it deepens the world in which the story takes place, introduces new complications, and prepares the main character for the trials to be faced in the concluding volume, Oracle's Fire. I think that should be a cracker.

A very satisfying ending to this excellent fantasy series, suitably bittersweet, and with more solid character development for the protagonists. I find myself most impressed with how fully the world of the Tree (in terms of ecology, cultures, etc) has been realised; with the fully-developed mythology and how even typical fantasy tropes, such as the use of prophecy, didn't go unquestioned; and with the author's insistence on the humanity of her characters and refusal to demonise even the worst of societies or to romanticise the rebels. The few flaws include some parts of the finale feeling somewhat fragmented, a few slightly clumsy shifts in viewpoint, and being a little too prone to telling rather than showing. All in all, I think Mary Victoria is a gifted author, and I'm looking forward to seeing how her talents develop.

Really enjoyable first novel in the Chronicles of the Tree YA fantasy trilogy. It's not often these days that I get caught up in a fantasy or SF story as I used to do when I was teenager, but Tymon's Flight brought back those delicious "what's going to happen next??" feelings. I'm looking forward to remaining books in the series.½

A couple of weeks ago Seak from http://seaks.blogspot.com issued a challenge to people to pick a book at random, read it and then review it on their blog. Tymon's Flight was my choice.

There are a few reasons behind it. I loved the cover, I'll go into that later. The author is a local (well, she's from New Zealand, but we'll claim her), she was at Aussiecon and signing when I saw Tymon's Flight. I've never had an author sign a book for me before and Mary graciously consented to sign my copy of Tymon's Flight.

Tymon's Flight is the debut of New Zealand based novellist Mary Victoria. It is the first book of The Chronicles of the Tree. Although the book is over 500 pages in mmpb and has not been marketed as a YA novel, it is most definitely YA. The story and the main characters are fairly generic. It's your basic foundling with a mysterious past uncovers a power that he never knew he had. A power that will help an oppressed minority throw off the yoke of their conquerors. I found Tymon a little frustrating, he was too often a doormat, I preferred the heroine Samiha, who judging by the title of the sequel: Samiha's Song, will feature more heavily in the future.

Despite those flaws, some rather convenient plot points and occasional clunky dialogue I enjoyed the book. I put most of this down to it's rather unique setting. Tymon's world is a huge tree. The Argosians spend all their lives in this tree and travel from canopy to canopy by means of dirigibles, rather like old sailing ships, only these sail through the sky and not on the ocean. Although during the course of the book readers only see the lush Central Canopy with it's capital city of Argos and the drought stricken Eastern Canopy, home to the oppressed and feared Nurians there are tantalising hints of other parts of the massive tree. The barbaric Northern Fifes in the Northern Canopy and the spice rich Lantria in the South Canopy. I hope to see more of these exotic 'lands' in future volumes. Mary Victoria has the knack of being able to hold readers attention and make them keep turning the pages.

Although Tymon's Flight is relatively self contained there is obviously a story to follow this. Samiha's Song is due out in February and I will continue to follow The Chronicles of the Tree.

I'm not entirely sure where the inspiration for the idea of a world in a tree came from, there's obviously a parallel with the Norse legend of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Living in New Zealand I'm sure some if it came from the dense forests of the South Island and the giant kauri forests on the North Island, up at the 'winterless north' as the indigenous Maoris call it.

I promised to speak a little about the cover and I will. The cover art is done by Mary's husband Frank Victoria and shows a small airship taking off from Argos City. The tree city is in the background and has been beautifully realised, it really caught my eye and I hope they retain the artist for the rest of the series.