effervescenteloise's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book has a certain unexplainable charm. I have quite a few critiques of its writing, and especially how it treats female and sexual and gender minority characters, but something about it pulled me further and further in. The concept and worldbuilding here is fascinating, seemingly set in an alternate history or mirrored history to our own world. It is for the most part a typical fantasy setting, though there are more recent technological advances here too, such as denim and... football, of all things. Despite the dissonant aspects of the setting, I did enjoy the concept of the shift, a different world accessible only to mortals through the use of a drug that seems in all other aspects to function like an opiate. The plot is wide-spanning and our protagonist is set at a crossroads between nearly every other character in the book so often it feels as though he is constantly walking a knife's edge. There are moments of pure brilliance of prose, but also moments where it falls quite flat. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but if you have a hankering for lightly trashy fantasy and can withstand writing flaws, i think it's well worth a try.
lady_mel's review
4.0
I didn't think I'd like this book at first, but the longer I read, the more it started to grow on me.
The basic premise is a world overrun by ant-like Insect creatures. God has left the world to men, but before he left, he gave an Emporer immortality. In turn, the Emporer granted a few mortals immortality. Their job is to fight the insects.
The main protagonist, Comet Jant Shira, is an Immortal, who because of his ability to fly, is named The Emporer's Messenger. Oh, and Comet's also addicted to the drug called cat.
This is the first book in a four book series. I plan to eventually read the rest.
The basic premise is a world overrun by ant-like Insect creatures. God has left the world to men, but before he left, he gave an Emporer immortality. In turn, the Emporer granted a few mortals immortality. Their job is to fight the insects.
The main protagonist, Comet Jant Shira, is an Immortal, who because of his ability to fly, is named The Emporer's Messenger. Oh, and Comet's also addicted to the drug called cat.
This is the first book in a four book series. I plan to eventually read the rest.
megapolisomancy's review
3.0
In the distant past, god created the Fourlands, and then left the immortal emperor San in charge while it journeyed elsewhere. Two thousand years before the story opens, the world was invaded by the Insects, pony-sized ants (basically) which devour everything in their path and cover conquered territory with giant papery nests. In turn, San created the Circle, 50 individuals granted immortality for each being the best of the best at their specialty (thus we have the Sailor, the Archer, the Messenger, etc). At any point, these immortals can be challenged by other aspirants, with the winner maintaining or usurping the role in question. Our (anti-)hero here is Jant, the Messenger, a drug-addled half-breed - did I mention that the people of the Fourlands are divided up into human, super-skinny super-fast Rhydanne, and (ugh) Awians, with vestigial wings? Jant, as the only known offspring of the latter two, can fly, unlike everyone else, hence his appointment as the Messenger.
Now, I do really like the setup of the world/overarching narrative here, but the book itself never really lives up to the promise. What’s interesting here is the idea of the vacationing god and exactly who San is and what he’s up to (particularly regarding the seemingly endless/inertia-less war against the Insects, who are themselves a nice literalization of the generic faceless/individual-less fantasy “enemy horde”) but what we get a narrative about instead is the politicking and dramatics of the Circle. Even this is interesting at times - particularly regarding the Archer’s endless nostalgia and the Sailor’s refusal to adapt to or even allow for the possibility of innovations - and yet it has a tendency to devolve into melodrama at times.
The prose is good, but not great, and some of the modern affectations feel shoehorned in - Swainston can’t seem to decide if this should be pared-down noirish language or more poetic languorous stuff. The worst is Swainston’s decision to make the Sailor pepper his dialogue with adages boiled down to two words (as in “Curiosity. Cat.” or “Drop. Ocean.” or “Pot. Kettle.”) which is obnoxious enough on its own, but also feels entirely out of place as a kind of hyper-ironic affectation coming from such a salty grump of a character.
So: a book that never really delivers on its promise, but a promising enough debut that I’ll probably pick up Swainston’s other work when I come across it.
Now, I do really like the setup of the world/overarching narrative here, but the book itself never really lives up to the promise. What’s interesting here is the idea of the vacationing god and exactly who San is and what he’s up to (particularly regarding the seemingly endless/inertia-less war against the Insects, who are themselves a nice literalization of the generic faceless/individual-less fantasy “enemy horde”) but what we get a narrative about instead is the politicking and dramatics of the Circle. Even this is interesting at times - particularly regarding the Archer’s endless nostalgia and the Sailor’s refusal to adapt to or even allow for the possibility of innovations - and yet it has a tendency to devolve into melodrama at times.
The prose is good, but not great, and some of the modern affectations feel shoehorned in - Swainston can’t seem to decide if this should be pared-down noirish language or more poetic languorous stuff. The worst is Swainston’s decision to make the Sailor pepper his dialogue with adages boiled down to two words (as in “Curiosity. Cat.” or “Drop. Ocean.” or “Pot. Kettle.”) which is obnoxious enough on its own, but also feels entirely out of place as a kind of hyper-ironic affectation coming from such a salty grump of a character.
So: a book that never really delivers on its promise, but a promising enough debut that I’ll probably pick up Swainston’s other work when I come across it.
woolfardis's review
1.0
The premise seemed quite good, and I'm sure that's what pulled me toward it in the first place, but the execution terrible. I couldn't really keep up with the plot and found all the characters to be two-dimensional and quite difficult to get to know. They were just names on a page. I also didn't like the odd, blasè way the protagonist's drug addiction was handled. He took drugs, spaced out for about five minutes and then was absolutely fine and could have conversations straight after? The drug abuse was probably the most interesting aspect of it: especially since it was in first person narrative, but the author clearly has no idea what drugs actually do to you.
terry93d's review
2.75
It's been four years since I read this, so bear with me: more a narratively joined-up collection of fantastic ideas then a novel, it's an aimless and unfocused drifts between the author's many (again, really cool) ideas, and a slow read to boot.
bibliophagic's review
2.0
The protagonist is supposed to be edgy, I think, but he's really a boor (and a bore). Worldbuilding is slapdash, and the plot is all over the place. Not the worst thing I've ever read, but not deserving of the hype.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/154782.html[return][return]My only substantial complaint is that I thought the book was too short for the large number of characters jostling for narrative attention. But various other bits worked really well for me; the narrator with his drug habit, the defenders against an inhuman menace turning on each other, the tension between mortals and immortals in a world where immortality is won by challenge. At first I feared that the habit of yet another unexpected revelation about the back-story every other chapter (characters unexpectedly turning out to be married, that kind of thing) would get tedious but she stopped once we had got the main points established, though this still leaves us wildly surmising about the rest of it.[return][return]I wondered why there was something vaguely familiar about the entire set-up, and then I realised that to a certain extent Swainston has based the relations between her characters on what could be observed in any large organisation's office politics - squabbles over the fringe benefits for spouses, who's chasing whose job, and the perpetual struggle for the boss's ear. I would have mild complaints about the names (one minor character is called Leigh Delamere - groan!) which are not really up to George R.R. Martin level, let alone Tolkien, but at least she's not anywhere near as painful as Robert Jordan. On the whole, pretty good stuff.
jeffreyp's review
2.0
I love the world, and the "weird"-ness, and the themes (what if you're immortal, and an addict?) but the characters just didn't grab me enough to care.
sadie_slater's review
2.0
I remember picking up and putting down Steph Swainston's debut novel, The Year of Our War, several times when browsing the SF section in Borders back when it first came out and was being talked about and reviewed; I thought it looked interesting, and I wanted to read more SFF by women, but I wasn't quite sure if I would actually enjoy it enough to give it shelf space. I eventually bought it on Kindle last year, and having now read it I agree that it was interesting, and it's good to read more SFF by women, but I'm still not quite sure if I actually enjoyed it. It's a very, very strange book; mostly set in a fantasy world with mainly-medieval levels of tech and weaponry (but where the narrator wears jeans and t-shirts) where a small group of people have been granted immortality to support the (also immortal) Emperor in leading the two-thousand-year-long war between the people of the Fourlands (human and humanlike) and the giant, rapacious Insects, but partly set in what is either a weirdly surreal parallel universe or the narrator's drug-induced hallucination (the narrative supports the theory that it's the first, but given the narrator's drug habit I'm not sure how reliable he is). The immortals (who are chosen as the best in their various fields, and can be displaced by challengers) are an interesting if deeply dysunctional bunch. It felt a bit like a very trippy version of a comic-book superhero movie. I think I'm glad I read it, but not sure I will read the sequels.