ACACIA, by David Anthony Durham

[Clansman]

This is Durham’s debut into fantasy, and it is one that has impressed me. He has written in another genre I like, namely historical fiction, but I have never read any of his work before.

Durham’s purpose is to explore themes that are evident throughout human history: the myths that nations and empires build to justify their existence; their reliance on oppression; the difficulty in being an idealist; the difficulty in changing the status quo; the ease with which a person is corrupted; and that there are not really “good guys” and “bad guys.” These themes are constant throughout the book.

The main players are the Acacians, the rulers of an empire based on slavery and a drug trade, and the Mein, who were exiled to a northern tundra region of the same name, and who were literally cursed so that they could not properly die. This book is about the Mein overthrowing Acacian rule, and the royal family’s struggle in the wilderness afterwards. There is also the League, which is a shipping monopoly that controls the seas, and the unseen Lothan Aklun, who supply the drug “Mist.” There are other peoples who figure into the mix also. The reader does not overly sympathize with either the Acacians as a whole or the Mein as a whole. There were Acacians I liked and ones I hated. I had similar reactions to the Mein. No one likes the League, but everyone must deal with them. We are not introduced to the Lothan Aklun, so we don’t know much about them. Everyone else is just plain human.

This book is crisply written and moves along at a good pace. There is not a lot of description of the Acacian world, and I personally think this could have been beefed up a bit, but I was certainly not bogged down by a bunch of strange place names or an arcane history that I could not identify with. The best authors release these things slowly and constantly, so that the body of work, at least in epic fantasy, builds over time. However, much of this is lacking in this book, and we only get the occasional detail. The characters are distinct, they grow in interesting ways, and the plot serves this end while it moves in ways that one does not expect.

My main difficulty is that I did not connect with this book. I read it, and enjoyed it for the most part, but I could not connect with the characters, who were going through some very difficult trials. Despite their struggle, and the moral choices that they faced, I was relatively unmoved. This is a story that involves loyalty, deception, betrayal, redemption, forgiveness, revenge, love, guilt — you name it. Despite all of this well-written content in the character development, I was merely entertained. This book did not change me. I don’t know exactly what is missing that caused this lack of feeling for the characters or the story, but it was a feeling that I could not get over. It was actually somewhat disturbing, particularly when examined in hindsight while writing this review.

I also get mad at authors sometimes when they kill a character that is interesting and could be explored at length. George R.R. Martin does this with regularity, and Durham did this once in this book. However, I saw the reason shortly after the death, and taken in context, it makes sense, even though to me it was a lost opportunity.

Were I to place this book in a sub-genre, I would have to say epic, as it is a multiple-volume book, but it is of the low, realistic fantasy type, as magic is downplayed, particularly in the first half of the book. This is not a surprise given that Durham’s background is in historical fiction. I believe it to be a good start to what will probably be a good series, but I am not committing to another hardcover purchase. Three stars, and a solid fantasy debut.