The Year of our War

[Rane Longfox]

"The Year of our War", by Steph Swainston, is the kind of book that really impresses the reader. It doesn't jump out at you with shocks and ceremony on every page, but rather deals with many issues that haunt our world today, but in a typical fantasy setting.
The world that the book is set in is, in itself, unremarkable. A small, sqaureish continent, with a couple of forests, some lakes and a load of castles, as well as an area controlled by the enemy race, is a pretty average beginning, but the characters and races Swainston populates her little corner of fantasydom with are a cut above the norm. They are intruiging, intelligently written, and genuinely realistic, as far as these things go.
The story revolves around the efforts of the "Circle" to defeat the rampaging "Insects" that are taking over their land. The Insects themselves (they look like giant grasshoppers) are rather dissapointing, and seem to just be a bit of a "plague race", that destroys and conquers just for the sake of it, with brute force and weight of numbers rather than tactics. The Circle is a group of fifty Immortals (and their husbands/wives. Nice touch.) who are the best at their specific skill in the land. There's a sailor, an archer, a warrior, a messanger etc etc. It has a bit of an X-men feel to it, what with the special skills these men and women posess, but as the book goes on, they become slightly different to your average group of wonder-fighters, as it becomes obvious that they all have their vices.
Jant, the main character of the book, is the Messanger. He is the only man in the world who can fly, due to the fact his father was a member of a race with wings, and his mother was a member of a race that live up in the mountains, have really light bones, and go very fast. This all seems very improbable, and even if you take that as fine, then you are left wondering why no one else has the same abilities as Jant. Nonetheless, the writing makes if easy to sympathise with his situation, as he is left to balance the war against the Insects, which is going very badly, and deep and severe ruptions within the circle. On top of this, he is addicted to a drug called Scolopendium, or "Cat", which leaves him disorientated for hours, and if he overdoses, actually transports his conciousness into an alternate reality, called the "Shift".
The Shift seems at first a nice little detail, but later on becomes a very clever link to the story.
The book moves along at a sedate pace most of the time, and eventually comes to deal with many severe real life issues, drugs, domestic violence, adultary, as well as the usual helpings of greed, backstabbing and treachery that usually comes as part of the package.
"The Year of our War" was released with what, in the fantasy genre, counts for a blaze of publicity. High profile names have praised Swainston almost unendingly, including Richard Morgan and China Mieville. While her debut is a very enjoyable read, I would not personally place her amongst the current masters and mistresses of the genre. The sequel, "No Present Like Time" has recently been released though. If she improves on her first attmept, the hype may just be right.

[Tsujigiri]

Thank you Cal, I will look out for this book on the book market, sounds like a good read!

[Rane Longfox]

Good to hear, its well worth a read. I'm writing a load of reviews atm, I'll try and post some more...

[Tsujigiri]

Cool!!!!!

[Rane Longfox]

I know I am

[Tsujigiri]

Apart from the vague smell of wee

[Rane Longfox]

Hey, that was your fault, not mine!

[Tsujigiri]

I'm not even going to try and follow the reasoning behind that. You're a dirty and warped person and it's just wrong

[Rane Longfox]

Do these get put up on the site, or do I have to email Brian?

[knivesout]

Although Swainston's debut clearly marks the entry of an original voice and vision into the fantasy fray, I was far from being uncritically impressed with it. I found the plot uninteresting - the ravening bug-armies are cliche of the most unimaginative sort of sf, and simply transporting them into a fantasy setting doesn't make the cliche any fresher. The constant intrigues between the immortals was tedious after some time and Swainston's characterisation is not a strong point.

However, there was some good stuff - the Shift in particular was interesting, and the best idea in the book, I think. More than anything else, I think I was amazed at the ciritical response this book received - one reviewer went so far as to dismiss all the book's weaknesses as irrelevant as it is a 'great book' without offering any reasons why he thought so. This is certainly a debut that promises good things from the author in the future, but in itself its an uneven book with moments of real wonder alternating with heavy-handed tedium.