Southern Fire (Book 1 of The Aldabreshin Compass) by Juliet E. McKenna
01/01/2004 . Source: Donna Jones 
pub: Orbit. 600 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 1-84149-166-7. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk
The Daish Domain is headed by the warlord Daish Kheda. He is a well versed warlord in the rites of augury and the foretelling of future events through the portents in the sky and throughout life.
But Daish Kheda gets no warning, he cannot be ready for the devastation. He can only do what he thinks is best for his Domain and that may mean certain death. The southern territories, the Chazen Domain have been attacked by aggressors, terrible savages that care not for anything, even their own deaths.
They do not speak any known language. They come, they burn and they lay waste to the islands and their inhabitants. The Daish Domain holds borders with this ravaged Southern area and at once goes to their rescue. How do you fight fire from nowhere?
How do you kill magicians that appear infallible to weapons any man can make or wield? The answer lies in the North. The answer lies in the fire. I don't want to give anything about this story away, to do so would be undeserved of the book and its writer, Juliet E. McKenna, but I can honestly say I was blown away by this book.
'Southern Fire' is quite possibly one of the best fantasy epics that I have read and I'll tell you why! The book starts by laying foundations. McKenna shows us life at the Daish residence and the way that things are done in the Aldabreshin Archipelago. The overall manner of description is thorough and involving.
This is quite an involved method of writing to get used to and I must say that thirty page chapters are a heavy slog. Don't give up on them though. I didn't and I was wildly impressed with how McKenna grabs you by the seat of your pants and runs away with your imagination. The characters are so well developed that you know them by the end that you feel what they are going through. Kheda is not so much a hero of the piece, more a voice to what is going on. A reflection of the events unfolding around him and his Domain.
Eventually that voice becomes more human as he faces decisions that could tear the life he has apart. The warlords and their family follow doctrines of protocol. While to start with these seem to be overkill, eventually your understanding dawns and you realise where all the detail fits in. Subtly weaving a thread that you can see, you just don't fathom how far it will be taken.
Basically, the warlords make sure they protect the land and the governance of their Domain. They use the stars and any signs in nature to help to make these decisions. Their wives deal with trade decisions, major ones. The children of the wives of the warlord are used tactically. Sons, heirs to the domain, are treated terribly. If they are not the first born then they are made Zamorin. All the men reading cross your legs! Some Domains only do this.
Others send them into exile so that they cannot threaten the leadership of their fathers' domain. Daughters are bargained off to other Domains to marry into a kind of treaty with the two Domains. Another method of trade. All these people have body-slaves to not only tend to them in menial tasks but to defend them if they should be threatened. All-in-all the politics is rife.
Conversations have double meanings or worse are so closed to truth and swathed in veiled threats or digs that they are in their own right contentious. The end of this book is perhaps the reason I really liked the overall story.
It has an ending like the first line of great books that hook you just within an instant. Your brain tells you that the end is possible but you almost kid yourself into thinking 'no way will Juliet E. McKenna do that to the story', when it unfolds like that you're pulled in.
It makes you want to read the next one so much you'll be willing the release date forward! This is a great fantasy epic read. Probably the only thing I can say I didn't like was the very tiny print and that's only because I wear glasses!
This is truly a fabulous story that I am sure all readers of fantasy will enjoy thoroughly.
Donna Jones |
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