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From debut author Daniel Abraham comes A Shadow in Summer, the first book in the Long Price Quartet fantasy series. The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan. In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
calmclam: Kay has a similar sweeping feel and large-but-focused cast. Lions is based on the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Spanish in the 1500s. Similar "end of an era" feel.
Loved the Asian fantasy setting, the interesting magic system involving the binding of concepts into physical form, and how the overarching plot was driven by economic factors, and yet pivotal moments were driven by the characters and their personal flaws. Loved the etiquette, the manner of speaking with "poses", and the intrigue. The opening scenes were especially good and immediately grabbed me. The ending felt weaker and a little anticlimactic to me, but overall I really enjoyed it. ( )
When writing, one of the best ways to get ideas is to look at what's not being done in your genre. I suspect that's how Daniel Abraham created a setting that isn't copied from Medieval Europe, female characters who aren't all twenty-year-old supermodels, and a magic system that isn't just wizards throwing fireballs at everything.
Speaking of unique ideas, the fantastic elements are especially inspired in this novel. Poet-sorcerers gain power by finding new ways to describe concepts, but past generations squandered the potential of language without realizing how valuable originality would eventually become. (Kind of like domain names. That probably wasn't the best simile. Did I mention that sorcerer-poets die if they use inept metaphors?) While there's very little onscreen magic or fighting, mostly just intrigue and character drama, the plot is still quite suspenseful.
If andats actually existed, the author of this novel would control one called Original-But-Deep-And-Metaphorical-Magic-System-And-Also-The-Setting, or something like that. ( )
I really enjoyed this one. Its strange, because looking back on it, there wasn't a lot that happened, but for some reason, it didn't feel slow to me. Perhaps because the way the author writes the characters is so interesting, that they are able to make even the most mundane activities interesting. A lot of the story relies on nuance between relationships and politics. The magic system introduced is fascinating and feels very natural, even though it is actually a very small part of the world. All of the characters were interesting and had depth. There was not a single character whose point of view I didn't enjoy. Another major point in this book's favor is how beautiful the prose is. Because aesthetics are important in this world, the characters speak in a poetic way, but the way they speak and perform the communicative hand gestures also show their class levels or education. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series. ( )
From debut author Daniel Abraham comes A Shadow in Summer, the first book in the Long Price Quartet fantasy series. The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan. In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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