stardusted

Martha Wells - Ile-Rien Series

So being that I've not had much to do recently after work, I've taken to trying to whittle down my rather long reading list. Of which one was the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy by Martha Wells. I started off with reading The Potter Girl in Year's Best Fantasy 7, since I needed to discover new authors - I'd pretty much read every Gaiman, Mccaffrey, Novik, Lackey, Stroud..etc etc etc. book in existence, and I was bored. I'd decided to start on Wells simply because her writing style seemed to be something I liked.

So imagine my surprise when I started on the Ile-Rien trilogy. Firstly it was intriguing, and the last time I'd gotten this obsessed over a trilogy (I read everything within two weeks), was with Naomi Novik's Temeraire series; and since that was read and done, this new discovery was more than welcome. The world was extremely addictive - take a mix of Victorian life, infuse that with science -and- magic, and then throw in gating and multiple dimensions, and I was sold.

Perhaps what really got me was her characterization - good authors have a knack for never saying the obvious, leaving the reader instead to infer everything from a loaded comment, a detailed description, a subtle twitch of a character's hand... The author had a background in anthropology, and it shows in the way she crafts cultures, personas, and worlds, not unlike what Ursula LeGuin did with her Ekumen series. And the detail she provides helps the reader create this extremely vivid world in the mind's eye, and at times I could almost picture the characters in what might be likened to HD-TV *lol*. Her pacing leaves you breathless, like watching a really good Sci-Fi/Mystery/Action/Romance kind of telemovie drama.

So having established that I think I'm in love with her writing, here's a quickie about the books themselves. ^_^ (click links to read excerpts from the author's page)

The world is Ile-Rien, and there are 5 books in total, all set in different points in the country's history. It's something like Victorian England, where there's the nobility/royalty, and frequent dealings with the fae and sorcery. Over the time of the books, you see the society evolve from medieval to modern, with the government also moving from a monarchy to something more akin to a parliament, and with the royalty taking a more ceremonial world. Wizards in this world are able to work all sorts of spells, and have inherent Talent, but they require magical tools such as powders, etheric glasses, and other cantrips to work their art.

Element of Fire starts at the beginning, and is completely separate from the other four, as a standalone (can't comment on this yet since I just started reading it). You can get the full, legal, html/ebook version here.

The next, chronologically 200 years later, is Death of the Necromancer, in which Nicholas Valiarde, a nobleman with a checkered past, and his motley band of thugs and two-faced politicians in high society, scheme to take down Count Montesq, the politician that framed Nicholas' adoptive father. Of note are the powerful sorcerer Arisilde Damal, who has an extreme opium addiction and is somewhat removed from reality; Reynard Morane, Nicholas' friend, noble, and disgraced dandy; and Madeline, an accomplished, spunky actress, and Nicholas' love interest. Perhaps my favorite book, since the conversation and mystery are so addictive. I especially like Arisilde, since he is such an unconventional 'most-powerful-sorcerer-in-so-and-so' type of character. Very flaky, eccentric, and hilariously out of touch with the world. He never fails to irritate the hell out of the protagonist, which is extremely hilarious. And Reynard is a dead ringer for Rupert Everett. I daresay if the book ever gets made into a movie (which it really should), he'd be first choice.

Having established those characters, they eventually appear in the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, set around twenty years later - Ile-Rien is being attacked by Gardier, a mysterious people from another world. Nicholas and Arisilde have disappeared for a few years, while tracking down the source of the Gardier, and the story is told from the POV of Nicholas' daughter, Tremaine, his sole heir. In the midst of the war, she stumbles on a sphere, mechanical tools infused with spells by Arisilde, to allow any bearer with the slightest hint of magical talent to perform magic. This takes her to a whole new adventure wherein they gate to another world, and come into contact with other civilizations, ultimately taking them closer to the secret of the Gardier. The three books are The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods.

I highly recommend this series, to anyone who appreciates good, original fantasy, well written mystery, and conflicted, morally ambiguous protagonists. 5.5 stars out of 5 ^____^