Shattered Pillars

Well, it certainly took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to finish Elizabeth Bear's Shattered Pillars, the sequel to her Mongolian-inspired political fantasy epic, Range of Ghosts. This is not because it in any way not fabulous! It's just that my copy—a signed, personalized first-edition hardback with my name spelled correctly—is so lovely and shiny that I refused to take it out of my room, and we have of late been blessedly free of snow days during which I could power through the whole thing in one go. Therefore it was strictly pre-bedtime reading.

There are a couple major plotlines running through this book. Plot #1 is, of course, the journey of Re Temur, renegade prince of the Qersnyk, and the once-princess and all-around badass lady wizard Samarkar, as they journey to rescue Temur's girlfriend Edene and claim the title of Khagan. Edene, however, has escaped her captors, and, in Plotline #2, journeys to the anciently magical land of Erem, bearing a ring that makes her the Queen of ghuls and scorpions and other creepy things, and also she is pregnant. Plotline #3 concerns a pair of twins, now both trapped in the female twin's body through creepy blood magic (the male twin's body died in the last book), who are working to ensnare the current reigning Khagan, Qori Buqa, on the order of the mastermind of all this war and conflict, fanatic murder-cult acolyte Al-Sepehr. The fourth and possibly most disturbing plotline involves the goings-on on Tsarepeth, home of Samarkar's order of wizards and of the royal family she once belonged to, as the city is struck by a plague of demon eggs (this manifests as an actual plague—the eggs grow in people's lungs and hatch there), the awakening of a dead volcano, and mass civil unrest.

Most of the stuff I liked about the last book I continue to like about this one. Her major characters are all pretty no-nonsense and relatable, but bring an interesting variety of cultural perspectives on topics as diverse as kissing, beds, guest/host obligations, and naming. (I'm never going to get over the Rasa people sticking their tongues out as a sign of respect, though.) The worldbuilding is meticulous, vivid, and quite thoroughly researched, without getting long-winded (not that I have much of a problem with long-winded novels. But this isn't one of them and that's definitely an accomplishment with world-building this complex!). The stuff that seems intended to be creepy all gets A+ top marks on being genuinely goddamn creepy: in addition to the people-kidnapping blood ghosts from last book, there is an entire army of ghuls, more gigantic birds, magic from Erem that has a corrosive effect on pretty much anything that comes into contact with it, FUCKING DEMONS GESTATING IN PEOPLE'S LUNGS, and the aforementioned volcano because volcanoes are really are terrifying.

I feel like when the third book comes out and the trilogy can be examined as a complete work, there will be like fifty thousand academic papers one could write about it, but right now I'm just like "Very good where is Book 3 already." So I am holding all my Srs Bsns English Major Analytics for now.

This series is highly recommended for people who like: political shenaniganry in their fantasy, horses, non-white protagonists, powerful ladies, getting creeped the fuck out, guns exploding in people's faces (bah, I didn't talk about the fun fight scenes! So: the fight scenes are fun!), elemental magic systems that aren't corny, multiple viewpoints, grown-up books that are not stuffed full of tedious sex scenes to make them all Look Mom It's An Adult Book!, and rebellious talking tigers.

Originally posted at http://bloodygranuaile.livejournal.com/43377.html.