Epic novels give you bang for your buvck, but they really don’t help pad the old review blog. Thankfully, I also have novellas that are included with my Audible membership to inflate those numbers that matter to literally no-one but me.
A Day of Fallen Night , Samantha Shannon
Five centuries after the rise of the Nameless One, and five centuries again before the events of The Priory of the Orange Tree, the world must face the horrors of the Age of Fire, a rising of the fiery wyrms accompanied by plague and drought. The story is told from the perspective of four characters, and as with Priory these are three women from the three main regions of the world – Glorian III Berethnet, Princess of Inys, representing the West; Tuneva Melem, warrior mage of the Priory, representing the South; and Nozikan pa Dumai, illegitimate daughter of the Emperor of Seiiki for the East – and a western man – Wulfert Glenn, foundling housecarl to Glorian’s father.
The novel – which runs to almost 38 hours on audiobook, with a different narrator for each viewpoint character, sometimes switching reader halfway through one of the West chapters – moves between effectively three separate stories. Glorian chafes against the demands of her status as crown princess, and then the dragons come. Dumai wrestles with the pressures which come with her father’s acknowledgement and their struggles against the influence of his overreaching chancellor, the River Lord, and then the dragons come. Tuneva wrestles to maintain the love between her fiercely orthodox lover, Esbar, and Esbar’s rebellious blood daughter Siyu, while also nursing the wound of losing her own birth son in infancy, and then the dragons come. The arrival of the dragons Fyredel, Dedalugun and Taugran violently redirects the course of each narrative, and also causes them to meet briefly before separating again.
If I have a complaint of this book, it is that, in common with a lot of prequels, too much is pre-ordained by the original story. It also feels as if Shannon kind of has it in for Virtuedom, the Christianity analogue bound to the line of Barethnet queens, which is the only religion in the world that is demonstrably built on lies. It is also, however, the most visibly changed society 500 years before the original story, with a more mediaeval feel replacing the early Renaissance trappings. The South and East stories show less visible development, although in part because the former is mostly focused in both stories on the singular situation of the Priory.
Overall, the story is engaging, and the (many) characters are well-drawn and well-rounded, and sympathetic if not entirely relatable. It is also, it is worth noting, queer as hell, with gay, bi and ace characters (and maybe even a heterosexual) among the central cast.
Third Eye, Felicia Day
Once upon a time, not so long ago, as Bon Jovi would have it, there was a prophecy. An evil tyrant named Tybus would rise up to dominate the hidden magical world and a girl named Laurel Pettigrew, a Chosen One, would defeat him. Only, that didn’t happen. Tybus took over and stripped most of the magical world of their powers, leaving Laurel to manage a psychic shop called Third Eye and wallow in her reputation as The Failure.
The story of Third Eye really opens a few decades later. Laurel still lives at Third Eye, largely outcast from the magical world, save for her mooching housemates, faerie diva Sybil and Frank, the world’s least sexy vampire, and the annual catch-up at the Shaming, where Tybus wheels her out to be reviled by all. Then, a mysterious girl shows up at her door. Kate is an apparent normie who knows all about Laurel from a book no-one else has ever seen. Her arrival sets in motion a series of encounters, betrayals and epic teenage strops which will bring to light the truth of the prophecy and precipitate a second great confrontation.
Felicia Day’s alleged podcast (I mean, it’s an audioplay released as a single audiobook divided into chapters; how is that a podcast? Are the Big Finish Doctor Who adventures a podcast now? Am I a podcast?) is billed as a side-splitting, edge-of-your-seat adventure, which is a bit of a mis-sell. It is, however, funny and involving, and the prophecy twist is a clever subversion both of prophecy plots in general, and of celebrity culture. The characters are engaging and sympathetic, despite many of them being awful, awful people, and the cast is both stacked with serious talent and perfectly cast. Special mention must go to the relish with which Neil Gaiman plays a narrator/author who is far too pleased with his own literary cleverness.
Unfortunately, it has reignited my love of audiodrama, and now I’ve blown all my credits on three hour bites of BBC nostalgia. Next month may be a little spare.
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
Murderbot, the socially awkward rogue SecUnit has set out on its own to find out why it went all murder the first time. This quest leads it to hitch a ride in the cargo hold of a bot-piloted ship and thus brings it to the attention of ART (Murderbot’s designation for ‘Asshole Research Transport’, the pilot bot who is somehow even more of a sarcastic dick than Murderbot.) ART delivers Murderbot to the system where an apparent error caused it and several other SecUnits to slaughter their clients, where Murderbot takes a job consulting for a group of scientists attempting to recover their data from an ex-employer as a reason to travel to the site of the ‘incident’. It is able to find its answers, but still feels bound to complete its commission in the face of its clients seemingly self destructive decision-making process. Fortunately, ART is an even more formidable digital presence than Murderbot.
The Murderbot Diaries are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels, in that they contain elements of mystery, but are really more about the process and sardonic narrative of the protagonist. Murderbot’s driving desire for self-knowledge and a quiet place to watch its soaps is highly relatable, even if its capacity for violence is not, and its deliberate decision to use its violence to help those who need its help rather than necessarily being in a position to help it in return, is admirable.
The Bad Movie Marathon 