Book Log #40: A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel Abraham

[annathepiper]

aerialscribe gets kudos for recommending A Shadow in Summer to me, the first book of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. I very much enjoyed this and am definitely looking forward to reading more of the series.

The worldbuilding is excellent, a refreshing switch from a lot of fantasy I've read, on the grounds that the culture depicted on camera is one clearly influenced by Asian real-life cultures, not European ones. Characters address each other with honorific suffixes. With a a couple of specific exceptions, they're clearly not white--which is easy to miss until you get to the bit where the young female character Liat is described as having skin like "dark honey", and the two outlander characters are called out as unusual because of their hair and skin color. The food and architecture and clothing choices are all described with Asian influences clearly in mind. And most importantly, one of the most revered ranks in the entire culture is that of "poet", an interesting title for one whose function is to control certain abstract concept/thoughts embodied into physical form for the purpose of magically managing the society. That in particular struck me as very, very Eastern.

Abraham's writing is also excellent. He has a vivid way with a word that lushly portrays his world without drowning you in detail. The pacing is rock-solid, the characters intriguing, and events proceed along with a mounting sense of doom that leads me to really wonder how he's going to bump up the bar as the series proceeds. For this installment, four stars.

Comments

[maellenkleth]

this vaguely twiggles memory of a story read a few years ago (maybe in Analog?) of a misogynistic southwest Asian culture, where the only hope of advancement for women was to try to be recognised as poets. The protagonist there reaches for it, against the advice of her mother, who reminds her that her aunt made a similar attempt in her youth and then, as retribution for failure, has since been obliged to live in isolation. Stuck in memory; just cannot dredge up title or author's name.

[annathepiper]

That sounds interesting and sad!

Good strong female characters in this plot, though, so far. Three of them, in fact, and all three strong in different ways. I particularly appreciate that one of the big movers of this plot is an older woman.

[maellenkleth]

Thanks to Google:

The story I was struggling to recall was Suzette Haden Elgin's For The Sake Of Grace, 1969. Amazing to have such a clear memory of its plot, if not the long-ago publication date: worth the reading, as relevant now as then. The story was an acknowledged influence on Joanna Russ' subsequent The Two Of Them; she dedicated the book to Haden Elgin.

[annathepiper]

Thanks very much for the recommendation. :) I'm always trying to put a dent in my To Read backlog, but lately I've actively been trying to cut back on buying new books until I put more of a dent in the ones I've got. And reading this one got an extra spurring because it was one of the freebie Tor.com was handing out as a promotion! (Though I'd already bought it in paperback when that happened.)

Book 2 will definitely be on the To Buy list, though.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed with this book, and the sequels are high on my To Read list. I started reading it while I was pregnant, and the Pregnant Woman In Peril plotline was so vivid, I had to put the book down in the middle until after my son was born. That character's trajectory has so many surprises in it--there are so many ways a weaker writer could have flattened and failed her. It's one of the few books I'm happy to recommend to absolutely anyone...unless they happen to be pregnant.

[annathepiper]

*nodnodnod* Maj very much impressed me towards the end as a character and it'll be very intriguing to see where her story goes. And I can totally see why reading that would have been hard for you!