Very Short and Non-Specific Thoughts on Kay Kenyon and Ken Scholes

Prince of Storms: I find myself not knowing how to talk about Kay Kenyon’s Entire and the Rose series, and, as such, it’s been a couple of months since I finished the book. With each volume, the series becomes increasingly complex in terms of who the characters are and what, exactly, is going on in the world(s). Check out my reviews of the first three books to get a sense of what’s going on. If you’re not into it after the first two books, there’s not much reason to read the fourth. The third book, City Without End, was probably the high point of the series, but Prince of Storms provides solid resolution to the story arcs and offers unexpected delights and surprises. (reading copy provided courtesy of Pyr)


Antiphon: I really wanted to like this. I think Scholes has great potential with Psalms of Isaak series and he had a decent enough start with Lamentation (a book that doesn’t quite live up to the hype. The setting is fantastic, several millennium past a higher tech society fallen after at least one apocalypse. There’s magic, but there is also uncovered tech. If you read the book, the ending offers a strikingly discordant contrast with one particular event and everything else happening around it. Though, if you really think about the world Scholes has created, that contrast is ALL over the place and is likely to become even more stark in the final two books. My problem (and I think this really is my problem) is that as great as the underlying ideas behind the series and the setting are, the execution of the storytelling grates on me and frequently comes across as clunky. There is a marked improvement in Scholes’ craft from the first to the third book, but something in here just isn’t working for me. The thing is that I just can’t figure out what. (reading copy provided courtesy of Tor)  (reviews of Lamentation and Canticle)


Regarding Antiphon, you probably want to read "A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon" first.  It provides a bit of background to stuff that is referenced several times in the novel and, if I understand the novel correctly, will become increasingly important in the next two books.

Canticle, by Ken Scholes

Canticle
Ken Scholes
Tor: 2009

Canticle is the follow up to Lamentation, the debut fantasy epic from Ken Scholes. With Lamentation, Scholes introduced readers to The Named Lands and a world still struggling to come out of their version of the Dark Ages following some sort of apocalypse several thousand years prior. Lamentation opened with the destruction of a Vatican-like city called Windwir, the depository of nearly all the surviving technological knowledge of the previous age. Lamentation ended with the revelation of who was behind many of the conspiracies surrounding the fall of Windwir and everything that happened next.

What happens next is the story of Canticle. Ken Scholes takes readers in very different directions than might have been anticipated after Lamentation. The conspiracies and plots of Lamentation are only a shadow of what is revealed in Canticle to be the “true story”, though even these new revelations leave the reader wondering. As solid an offering as it was, Lamentation should be viewed as mere prologue to The Psalms of Isaak, an introductory chapter. Canticle gets into the heart of the conflict and expands both the world and the threat.

As the Gyspy King Rudolfo attempts to restore the great library of Windwir and usher in a new era of peace and cooperation, two visiting monarchs are murdered at the celebration of Rudolfo’s newborn son. More murders follow and the blame seems to be laid at the feet of the distrusted Marshers, except that the hidden ruler of the Marshers, Winters, is not responsible for this. With The Named Lands once again at the brink of war, Ken Scholes reveals the true aim of the murders and even of the Desolation of Windwir.

This is where Scholes does his best work. His handling of the various conspiracy threads and ensures that they follow what came before while still building to something much larger that the reader only has a bare hint at. The final execution of these conspiracy threads will remain to be seen, but Scholes has created a familiar world before pulling the structure of the world out from under the characters. What was believed to be true no longer is, and Scholes does well with the fallout.

One of the more interesting parts of The Psalms of Isaak is the suggestion that this is a post apocalyptic world, that this is a post-technical world thrust back into a pre-technical existence. The Andofrancine Order (Windwir) was slowly bringing The Named Lands back into a more civilized society, doling out precious bits of knowledge while attempting to prevent anything like the previous fall from happening again.

While the various societies and even the history of The Named Lands is presented in very simple terms, there is a richness to this world that is just under the surface. Canticle does an excellent job at tapping that richness. Though Scholes never completely brings that richness out to the surface, and thus prevents Canticle from truly being a fantasy novel of the highest order, there is enough there to leave the reader believing that great things are just on the next page. Like Lamentation, Canticle never fully satisfies, but this second volume is a stronger novel than the debut.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Tor Books.

Previous Review
Lamentation

Lamentation, by Ken Scholes

Lamentation
Ken Scholes
Tor: 2009

Lamentation begins with the destruction of a city called Windwir. Windwir was a great center of learning, the home of the Andofrancine Order and their library. Scholes notes that Windwir was the “home of many wonders both scientific and magickal.” This destruction is the catalyst for everything to come in the novel, and ultimately everything to come in this series.

Ken Scholes introduces a number of characters in the first chapter, all of whom will be quite important in very different ways. Rudolfo, Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses, is the first character the reader meets and through his eyes the reader sees the distant destruction of Windwir. He, and his Gypsy Scouts, rides to the aid of Windwir knowing that the city was gone, and that “the world had changed”. Then, Petronus – an old fisherman noting that he has lived a lie for more than thirty years. Jin Li Tam, the consort to Sethbert, the Overseer claiming responsibility for the destruction of Windwir. A boy named Neb, far enough to survive but near enough to see the destruction first hand. These are to by the primary characters of Lamentation, the vehicles through which Ken Scholes will deliver the story of his debut novel.

It is, perhaps, impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Windwir’s destruction. It is central to the narrative of Lamentation, but it also looms large in the mind of perhaps every character in the novel. It would be akin, I think, to the destruction of the Vatican (moreso if the Vatican also housed the bulk of the scientific and historical knowledge of the world). That’s how important Windwir’s destruction was.

The world of Lamentation is a very old one. It has undergone great upheavals to its civilization, and before the destruction of Windwir, the world was slowly building back up. The loss of the great libraries and guidance of Windwir threatens to push the world back into a dark age.

What is most interesting about the understated touches on the history of this land is that this is a world where magic and technology both exist, and once flourished. While there is no reason, exactly, to believe that this land was once our own, there is plenty of reason to suspect that its technology once equaled that of our world. There is the occasional mention that the Androfrancine order helped recover some of the lost knowledge and only doled out that new technology and information when the order deemed the world was ready for it. Controlled technological growth. Something to kill for.

This is all background, of course. The opening chords played by Ken Scholes. What happens next is continuing political maneuvering on both sides, a giant clash of armies and ideologies, and a series of crosses and doublecrosses. There is much here to like, and wherever a reader thinks Scholes is going with the novel, Lamentation will probably take a different path. Things are not 100% as they initially seem, which is perhaps a lesson to understand about Lamentation as a whole. There are complications to everything, and Scholes is quite willing to change the nature of the game on his readers several times throughout the novel.

With such a smooth writing style, Scholes is able to keep Lamentation moving along at a brisk pace all the while building a deep richness the world and the political structures. Lamentation is an impressive work of fiction.

One point to quibble in Lamentation is the role of women in the novel. The only woman of any prominence (and possibly the only woman in the novel, period) is Jin Li Tam. Jin is a central character to the novel, a scion of the wealthy and powerful Li Tam family, but also a courtesan.

That’s right, the only notable female character in the first half of the novel is a high class prostitute. Because of her family situation there is a little more to it than that, but her worth in the novel is in how she relates to men and how she can be used as a tool to build alliance. Oh, Jin is a skillful, intelligent, strong willed woman, there is no doubt. It can also be suggested that in such a semi-feudal and low tech society that Jin’s social position is comparable to that of what a woman could achieve in a similar era.

I didn’t notice this until halfway through Lamentation, and then only when Ji Li Tam is given instruction to get herself pregnant.

Really? This mars an otherwise excellent novel, and can be considered a minor frustration in the overall reading of the novel, but it is a point worth recognizing.

The follow up thought to Jin Li Tam is that midway through the novel a second female character is introduced who presents a significantly different portrayal of what a female can be in this setting. For the sake not of not spoiling aspects of the novel, I’m going to leave out discussing that character at any length, but this, at least, is a welcome change to the initial impression of women in Lamentation. Even so, with only two women of note, the portrayal of women is disappointing.

One other thing that bugs me, and this is picking nits, is that one of the historical dark wizards can reasonably be named Wizard XYZ. Seriously. Wizard Xum Y’Zir. I’m all for trying to come up with a good name that isn’t “The Wizard Jeff”, but Wizard XYZ is something that I just can’t get past. Naming is one of my minor issues, as much because I think Rudolfo is a ridiculous name (no offense to anybody actually named Rudolfo), and every time this major character is on the page I’m pulled slightly out of the narrative. Sethbert is also a silly name, but it works because Sethbert is a villain here.

That’s enough with the negative. There is more than enough positive to go around and enough to make those brief negatives to be worth overlooking. The history, richness of world building without stalling the story, the political upheaval, heartbreak, characters to care about, and a fair amount of twists to the reader’s expectations is all just a part of what makes Lamentation such a strong debut. It is not perfect, but Lamentation is well worth experiencing. It offers a somewhat fresh take on epic fantasy and does not follow all of the well-worn paths. I don’t wish to overstate Lamentation as being the best thing since sliced bread (let’s face it, sliced bread is pretty darn awesome), but if you like traditional / epic fantasy, you should read this. Ken Scholes is doing something a little different and he’s off to a fine start.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Tor Books