Imperial Purple

Pamela Freeman
Deep Water
Orbit. 2008

Disclaimer: same as for Blood Ties

Deep Water is the second volume of Freeman’s Castings Trilogy following Blood Ties. I gave Blood Ties four stars and Deep Water is better. The Australian edition is available now - the rest of the world must wait until September.

It continues the stories of the four main protagonists - Ash, Bramble, Leof and Saker - but their paths have diverged and each follows his or her own destiny. Clearly their paths will converge again but it will be in the third volume (Full Circle) for which we will have to wait another year.

Saker, the enchanter, continues to bring back the ghosts of the original inhabitants who were massacred by the invaders. As he gains in strength, purpose and knowledge the attacks become more dangerous and the major town of Carlion is invaded and many of its terrified citizens killed. As for book one, most of Saker’s actions occur off stage but his influence on the stories of the others is even stronger in this one.

This is the book in which we learn about Acton, the man who led the invaders through Death Pass a thousand years earlier, causing the formation of the eleven domains and the system of warlords which has controlled the domains every since. In Deep Water he is no longer the shadowy, larger-than-life legend of Blood Ties. Bramble is forced to re-live parts of his life seeing him always out of the eyes of his companions. She sits uncomfortably inside the minds of others, unable to communicate but seeing and feeling all that they see and feel. As more of Acton’s life unfolds she is forced to confront that fact that one-thousand-year-old legends are not a reliable guide to what really happened.

The first book ended with Ash and Bramble about to see Safred, the Well of Secrets. It is Safred, to whom the gods regularly speak, who informs them the key to dealing with the enchanter lies with Acton whose ghost must make reparations to the ancient dead. They reluctantly agree that they must do something and Bramble agrees to try and find Acton’s bones. Safred believes that Ash knows the songs that can raise Acton’s ghost but he has never heard of them. Ash sets of to find his father and discover why he was never taught them.

Leof, meanwhile, struggles with his conscience as he continues to serve the rapacious warlord, Thegan. Thegan is planning to become warlord of the entire eleven domains and doesn’t much care what he has to do to get there. Saker’s army of the dead throws his plans awry but, with the cunning of a true opportunist, he tries to turn it to his own advantage. By the end of the book he discovers that defeating the dead is harder work than defeating the living.

Unlike many epic fantasies we have not left world-building behind with the first installment. We continually learn new things about the world and the unseen forces which hold it together. The local gods are not, we find, all-powerful and all-knowing. There are greater powers that barely acknowledge their existence.

Enriching the world are more of the short stories of the common people, interspersed with the main narrative. These were one of the main strengths of Blood Ties and once again give the sense of a larger world around the main narrative - a world inhabited by real people, not just a backdrop of trees, villages and a cast of extras.

Deep Water ends on more of a “cliff-hanger” than Blood Ties. Major issues are left tantalisingly on the edge of resolution leaving the reader impatient for the final volume. It should be a cracker but we will have to wait until next year to find out. Four and a half stars.

Robert B. Parker
Stranger in Paradise
Quercus. 2008

When you buy a Robert B. Parker novel you know what you are getting. The protagonists will be strong, internalised and with no respect for position, only for person. Spenser and Hawk are the most famous but there are others and probably the most successful of these is the Paradise series starring Jesse Stone.

Jesse Stone fits the mold. Fired from the L.A. cops for being drunk on the job he has found redemption as the Police Chief of a small town in Massachusetts called Paradise. He fits in like a barracuda in a goldfish pond but the little fish come to appreciate his strength and, on occasion, ruthlessness. This is the seventh book in the series.

A self-proclaimed Apache warrior named Wilson Cromartie (Crow) is Jesse’s main opposition. We saw him as one of the bad guys in Trouble in Paradise where his one redeeming feature was an odd chivalry towards women. Ten years later he has returned and is looking for someone. He and Jesse are of a type and the mutual respect they have transcends, up to a point, their good-guy/bad guy relationship. For Spenser fans, think Hawk and you won’t be too far out.

The plot is predictable but then you knew that when you bought the book. Parker’s style gets sparser and sparser the more he writes but it is a paring down of an already sparse style, not the style of an author who no longer cares. After ten years Jesse seems to be finally getting the sometimes tedious on-and-off relationship with his ex-wife under control which I, for one, appreciate.

The book doesn’t break any new ground but it delivers on Parker’s usual promise - a fast-paced, well-written story about tough guys and what they do. I read it and enjoyed it and moved on. Three stars.

Iain M. Banks
Matter
Orbit. 2008

Quite a lot of years ago now I remember a friend raving to me about the virtues of Iain M. Banks. He seemed very keen so I went into the local bookshop and picked one of Banks’ books at random off the shelves - it happened to be Use of Weapons. Unfortunately I found his central premise about the use of weapons rather silly and this put me off the whole book. I have not read any of Banks’ work since.

I mention this because I am of necessity reviewing Matter as a standalone book - not as part of the “Culture” series. As far as I can tell it stands alone perfectly well although I may be missing some of the finer points.

Matter is set in a shell world - a massive artificial planet built in concentric layers. Each level is over 1,000 kilometres deep with several artificial stars illuminating them. Each level contains a different species - some water-breathers, some aerial and so forth. Levels 8 and 9 contain humanoid species at an early industrial revolution level of technology.

Much of the book is concerned with these species and their discovery, in level 9, of an ancient city. And we mean ancient - we are talking more than a billion years here. Eventually a mysterious object is uncovered which turns out to be not what anyone expects and gets out of hand spectacularly. Everything gets very exciting at this point.

The book is a large one - nearly 600 pages in my edition. The exciting bit unfortunately does not happen until after page 500. A great deal of the book is concerned with the petty, and ultimately irrelevant, military and political details of the humanoid culture. Somewhere around page 350 you start to get an inkling of the greater story but it is a long wait. Many people I have talked to had given up on the book well before reaching this point.

This is my major criticism of the book. It has a sweeping majestic scale with a plethora of interesting aliens, planets the size of solar systems and Artificial Intelligences with brains the size of a planet, all of which are classic SF tropes and which I enjoyed. But, the book is the wrong way round. Instead of spending 500 pages on the background story and 100 on the exciting bit I would have preferred the opposite ratio.

This emphasis on the background story meant that the last 100 pages were unsatisfactory. It all ends very suddenly when a single Special Circumstances agent manages to take out a billion-year old machine with planet-busting abilties. A machine which had resisted all the efforts of a contemporary culture with mind-boggling technological skills to take it down all those years ago.

I’m sorry. I just didn’t believe it. This should have been the massive scale stuff. We had the opportunity for a stupendous encounter between the highly advanced races of the Culture and the might of an ancient but powerful machine. Instead it all ends with a bit of a whimper.

You don’t even really find out what happened except for some general hints in a short epilogue tucked away behind the glossary. You can’t help but feel that Banks was forced to write this epilogue by the publishers. His heart didn’t seem to be in it.

I can’t completely pan this novel because it does have redeeming SF features and will no doubt be enjoyed by Culture fans. But I’m afraid I am still left where I was before - unless someone can convince me otherwise I don’t see any particular reason to read any more of Banks’ books.* I’m giving it two and a half stars.

*Several days later: I’ve thought more about this statement and it’s not completely true. Banks can certainly write - his prose and dialog are both good and the ‘Culture’ in general is interesting. Perhaps someone can recommend one to me - preferably one which doesn’t suffer from the problems I noted above.