Kay's recent work has built up fantasy worlds based on Mediterranean models: Tigana (1990) was modeled on Italy, A Song For Arbonne (1993) on Provence. Now, he takes as his template Moorish Spain in the last years before reconquest by the Christians. The story follows three major characters, representing the three peoples of Kay's setting, analogous to the Christians, Moors, and Jews in Spain. Rodrigo Belmonte and Ammar ibn Khairan are the leading generals of their respective nations, exiled for reasons of political expediency. They join forces in the service of a border city, leading mercenary troops and awaiting the recall to their homelands. Later, fanatics on both sides prepare a religious war that will inevitably pit Rodrigo and Ammar against each another. The two generals come to share a mutual respect; and Jehane bet Ishak, a skilled woman doctor whose life they've touched, fails in love with both of them. Political forces bring the two men into conflict, however, forcing Jehane to choose between them. Kay effectively plays the changes on the themes of love, duty, honor, and fate as the story moves slowly toward a resolution, with plenty of twists and surprises along the way. Meanwhile, the complex characterization and richly detailed settings create an unusually full portrait of an exotic society. The final pages step back from the action, leaving the reader with the impression that the novel's events have abruptly receded into some long-forgotten history. But other than the "alternate world" setting, with twin moons and an elaborately built-up history, the only "fantastic" element here (and not an especially prominent one) is the ability of one character to foresee the future. A notch below Kay's peak form, but still on a higher level of artistry than the work of almost any other current fantasy writer.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0060733497
Page Count: 528
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Grimy, gritty reality occasionally spills over into unintelligible hypercomplexity, but this spectacularly, intricately...
Fantasy veteran Miéville (Iron Council, 2004, etc.) adds a murder mystery to the mix in his tale of two fiercely independent East European cities coexisting in the same physical location, the denizens of one willfully imperceptible to the other.
The idea’s not new—Jack Vance sketched something similar 60 years ago—but Miéville stretches it until it twangs. Citizens of Beszel are trained from birth to ignore, or “unsee,” the city and inhabitants of Ul Qoma (and vice versa), even when trains from both cities run along the same set of tracks, and houses of different cities stand alongside one another. To step from one city to the other, or even to attempt to perceive the counterpart city, is a criminal act that immediately invokes Breach, the terrifying, implacable, ever-watching forces that patrol the shadowy borders. Summoned to a patch of waste ground where a murdered female has been dumped from a van, Beszel's Detective Inspector Tyador Borlú learns the victim was a resident of Ul Qoma. Clearly, the Oversight Committee must invoke Breach, thus relieving Borlú of all further responsibility. Except that a videotape shows the van arriving legally in Beszel from Ul Qoma via the official border crossing point. Therefore, no breach, so Borlú must venture personally into Ul Qoma to pursue an investigation that grows steadily more difficult and alarming.
Grimy, gritty reality occasionally spills over into unintelligible hypercomplexity, but this spectacularly, intricately paranoid yarn is worth the effort.Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-345-49751-2
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009
An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today.
Tolkien meets AI as Bennett (City of Stairs, 2014, etc.) returns with a busy, action-packed sequel to Foundryside (2018), neatly blending technology, philosophy, and fantasy.
Tevanne is a medieval-ish city-state made up of four “campos,” each controlled by a merchant guild. One lies in ruins, the outer wall now “little more than masonry and rubble about ten feet high.” The sight causes Sancia Grado, the nimble thief introduced in Foundryside, to wonder, “Did I do that?” Well, yes—and much more besides. Though in ruins, the campo still plays a role in the current proceedings even as Sancia and her cohort—Gregor, Orso, and other Foundrysiders with nicely Shakespearean names—start things off by trying to run a confidence game on the hitherto unexplored Michiel campo. As ever, things get complicated when the objects in Sancia’s world manifest consciousness through a clever process of programming called “scriving.” When a formidable foe named Crasedes Magnus enters the scene, having scrived himself into near invincibility, Sancia realizes she’s got her work cut out for her if Tevanne is going to survive and remain a playground for her mischief. The insider language comes thick and fast as Bennett spins out his story: “She’d never really had the opportunity to handle the imperiat much,” he tells us, “and unlike most scrived devices, she had difficulty engaging with hierophantic rigs.” Still, old-fashioned tools come in handy, as when Gregor dispatches an unfortunate watchman with his sword: “Orso saw hot blood splash his invisible barrier, and the soldier collapsed into the waters, pawing at his throat.” Vorpal blades won’t do much against Crasedes, though, for whom Bennett gives a fine backstory amid all the mayhem. It’s up to Sancia, as ever, to divine the magical means to make him rue his ways—or, as he thinks, as the very stones of Tevanne rise up to fight against him, “This…is not how I wanted things to go.”
An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6038-0
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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