Imperial Purple

Pamela Freeman
Blood Ties
Orbit 2007 (Aust) 2008 (USA/UK)

Disclaimer: the author is a good friend of mine - this review may be biased.

Blood Ties is the first volume of a new three-volume fantasy novel - The Castings Trilogy. Freeman has a significant body of work as a writer for children and young adults (17 books at the latest count) but this is her first foray into the adult market.

The novel is set in the Eleven Domains, a loose confederation of provinces ruled by warlords. A thousand years earlier the country was invaded across the mountains by a race of fair-haired warriors (the precursors of the current warlords) known only as “Acton’s People” after their eponymous warleader and hero. The indigenous population was displaced and forced into a peripatetic existence as “Travellers”. Like gypsies everywhere they are despised by the mainstream population.

The Travellers are the focus of the book. The main story arc follows the fortunes of three of their number.

Ash is a young man born to a family of travelling musicians. Unfortunately his voice is so appalling that it would disturb the dead (literally we later find out) so his family apprentices him to a “Safeguarder” - essentially thugs for hire.

Bramble is a young woman whose family has “settled” - the term for Travellers who forsake the road and try, usually with limited success, to fit in with the rest of society. Bramble is something of a throwback and she runs wild, never happy with her settled existence. When an encounter with a warlord’s man leaves her shaken and him dead she is obliged to take to the road anyway in order to protect her family.

Saker is a Stonecaster whose village was massacred by the warlords while he, as a traumatised young boy, hid in a tree. Years later he discovers how to raise the dead and brings Traveller ghosts back to take revenge on Acton’s people. Although his story is the shortest of the main strands, he is the pivot about which the whole book turns and he remains a powerful presence even when offstage.

The most unusual and original aspect of this book lies with a series of short stories interleaved with the main plot. These are the stories, all told in the first person, of the common people whose lives are influenced by the great events going on around them. Their stories are not of heroes and conquerors but of the simple things that affect their lives - love, rivalry, family and neighbours.

These stories bind the book together and give the sense of a complete world not just the two-dimensional tapestry upon which so many fantasy works play out. Although they periodically interrupt the overall story they do not detract from it. On the contrary, you return to the main narrative feeling enriched and even inspired by the small events interwoven with the great ones.

Overall an emphatic four star read. I hesitated over giving it four and a half but I think the second volume is going to be even better so I have to leave some space for it. Recommended.