Critique: Zemindar (Valerie Fitzgerald)

 Laura, an English woman, is accompanying her newly-married cousin Emily to colonial India. Oliver, a relative of Emily’s husband Charles, is a zemindar (one of the many Indian feudal titles) and Charles wants to convince Oliver to make him his heir. During their trip they get caught up in the war.

 

******SPOILERS*****

 

There were many positive points.

Punctuation is essentially perfect. Considering this book is over 800 pages long, there should statistically be far more mistakes than the average-sized novel. Yet, somehow, there are far less. The only one that was glaringly obvious is writing ‘Out-ram’ instead of ‘Outram’ on a single occasion.

Laura saves the son of Wajid Khan from a stampede. In return, Khan gives Laura a rakhri, a beautiful jewelled token. If she returns it with a request to Khan, he is obligated to respond. Having this detail is nice foreshadowing for something important. This gave the plot some direction (other than the romance) whilst the scene was still being set.

Laura hears Charles raping Emily. This was hard to read but only because it was written so well that it felt like I was hearing it happen in real life.

Twice we had specific plot points that made me smile. Moti helps Emily give birth so Emily names her daughter Pearl (which is what Moti means). Emily, Laura and Charles wear a burqha to hide that they are white whilst escaping to the Residency.

Oliver tells Laura that if she loved him she’d stay on India. Yet he doesn’t consider the reverse, that if he loved her he’d leave for England. This accurately portrays how these ultimatums are thought out in real life.

 

Often, the behaviour of the characters felt off. Either their actions/thoughts made no sense whatsoever or their thoughts/actions were simply out of character.

Laura appreciates that Oliver is frank. Then, whilst comparing Oliver and Charles, she complains that Oliver isn’t as frank like Charles. So that’s a bit iffy. But then later on, Laura goes on about Oliver being frank again! If Oliver’s behaviour changed then this flip-flopping would be justifiable, but it didn’t so it isn’t.

Laura loves Charles, even after he rapes Emily. Emily, who is much more than a cousin to Laura. How can you love someone who does something so horrible to someone you love even more?

Emily married Charles just so that Laura wouldn’t get married first. Really? I don’t believe anyone from any time period would do that.

I wasn’t ready for Mr Robert’s suicide. The author didn’t convince me that he felt romantic love for another character. A strong platonic bond, sure, but not romance. His declaration for love was entirely out of place. It seemed like the author just had no further use for the character. Also, it’s as if the author wanted to redeem Emily, showing she’s not stupid because she spotted Robert’s feelings whilst Laura did not.

 

Once at the Residency, Laura goes on this massive rant about how she’s ‘shallow, self-contained, selfish girl’.

I don’t see how. She always cares for others first and puts their desires above her own. Nothing in Laura’s behaviour can be twisted into her being selfish etc. Even if people have a bad opinion about themselves, they’d have reasons for it (most of the time, these ‘reasons’ would be wrong/misinterpreted/misconstrued). Laura lacks any such reasons.

There’s no hint of Laura having a negative opinion about herself before this point. Considering the book’s written in first person, there’s no excuse for this.

 

The siege at Lucknow went on FOREVER. It got a bit dull, to be honest. There was a lot of repetition that did nothing for the plot. It became more like a shopping list than a story.

Whilst in the Residency, they complain that the rains have gone on for two and a half months. Yet a little later they say they’ve been besieged for three weeks. Two and a half months is far longer than three weeks, making this a glaring inconsistency.

One could argue it could have been raining since before the siege began. But if this were the case, the rains would have been mentioned as Laura and co travelled to the Residency. Was this the case? No. Hence the glaring inconsistency remains.

The blurb says nothing about the siege. Now, I think important plot points should be kept off the blurb: an author spends time trying to shock/surprise their readers so blurbs ruining it is disrespectful.

However, the siege lasted more than half the total pages of this book. That’s at least four hundred pages (which is larger than most novels!) This means the blurb doesn’t give an accurate account or summary of the novel. There are many ways the blurb could have mentioned getting caught in the unrest without revealing the siege directly.

 

This was a good book. It was sprinkled with Indian culture here and there which made it interesting. The negatives, whilst plentiful, weren’t a threat to the plot’s integrity.

This book shows great insight into how British people perceived India during the colonial era. It provides insight into how and why history unfolded as it did. This is a necessity if the mistakes of the past aren’t to be repeated.

Whilst the siege was a struggle to read, the first half of the book (where Laura explores Indian culture) were so easy and enjoyable. I feel like someone could read up to the siege and end it there. Except important, interesting things do happen during the siege and after it too. If the siege had been shorter, it would have been far more bearable.

Unfortunately, as it is, I wouldn’t want to read this book again. Once is enough to enjoy the plentiful positivity and best punctuation ever seen in literature. 

Critique: Law of the Broken Earth (The Griffin Mage Trilogy) (Rachel Neumeier)

This book is focused on Mienthe and Tan, a noblewoman and a spy respectively. Bertaud and Kairaithin (from the first two stories) also make an appearance.

The plot follows their interactions with a magical book that can rewrite the laws of nature. It takes place in the Delta, a place in Feierbriand that’s been taken over by Linularinum a few times.

Lord Beroad of the Delta, Mienthe’s father, dies early on. Her uncle Talenes gets control over Mienthe and hence control over Lord Beroad’s inheritance. Talenes brags about his plans for the inheritance once Mienthe marries his son.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Plot

Magic was discussed in previous books but in this one it’s the very foundation of the plot.

The wall separating griffins from humans is breaking so Kairaithin warns Bertaud. It’s due to magic becoming disturbed, explaining why human mages have struggled with their magic recently.

            When Mienthe walks in spirals, she can tangle and trap the magic of others. When Tan is kidnapped, she knows exactly where to find him. When Gereint looks at Mienthe, sometimes she looks like a mage and other times she does not. Mienthe’s a magical mystery.

            They recover from the Linularinum spymaster a legist book (books that contain written law which is impossible to break). Capturing a Linularinum agent, they discover that it’s a book of natural law: it bound into place earth magic’s dominance over fire.

The Linularinum spymaster wants to ensure that earth is kept superior to fire.  Mienthe puts Tan in the centre of a spiral with the book then she and Kes walk the spiral. This balances earth and fire (Mienthe goes down into the earth and Kes up into the sky, matching the location of their elements). Then Tan writes, ‘Amity’ as the new law.

With all this information, we can surmise: magic was going skew-wiff; Linularinum wanted to fix magic by making it what they wanted (AGAIN); and Mienthe and co ensured magic became fairer. Also, as it’s ‘amity’, the abhorrence earth and fire mages have for each other would most likely vanish. So whilst griffins barely had a presence in this book, the plot leads to a monumental rebalancing of nature, having major ramifications in how humans and griffins interact in the future.

 

 

Negatives

There were far fewer problems in this book compared to the other two. (A good position to be in when they had few problems.) Yet most of the problems here are major problems.

Uncle Talenes kept on telling everyone what he’d do with Mienthe’s dad’s estate once she married his son. As Mienthe was the only child of the previous lord and being a daughter, this would follow the custom of a female heir’s husband taking control of the estate (because a wife’s property is legally her husband’s). Yet Bertaud is the new Lord of the Delta (in some systems, women can’t inherit so it goes to the closes male relative). If he’s the lord, the estate would be his, not Mienthe’s, so Talenes wouldn’t be able to control it.

How can what a legist writes be impossible to break? That’s a lot of power. Any legist could write anything and that would be chaos. Would it be a first-come-first-served so someone can’t change a law once it’s been written down? Or could a stronger legist essentially repeal previous legist laws?

 

The smaller problems are largely inconsequential because they might not even be problems. Yet they were still questionable enough for me to raise an eyebrow.

Mienthe calls herself ‘Lady Mienthe’ despite claiming she doesn’t care for titles. This could be her keeping to the rules of high society rather than a character flaw but it does read more as a character flaw.

Earth magic was made dominant to fire magic. Someone writing it down seems a bit flimsy, but writing down a mechanism to explain why would have a stronger foundation. Maybe earth and wild magic was allied so that they were stronger together and that’s what makes fire subordinate?

Mienthe’s abilities are never identified. A little mystery is fine but what was so special about Mienthe that allowed her to do the spirals? Her abilities are central to the plot so they should have been explained. Or at the very least hinted at. Although, scholars are still working to understand normal magic, so maybe not understanding Mienthe’s magic is sensible?

 

 

Positives

This book was brimming with positives.

Walking past the kitchens, she notices Erichstaben and ‘of course he had been in the kitchens.’ That made me laugh.

Tan doesn’t know his father and Mienthe notes, ‘His father must have been careless.’ It’s refreshing to see a man get blamed for an accidental pregnancy instead of the woman. Yes, I could say, ‘It takes two to tango’ but no-one says this when the woman’s being blamed!

The healer Iriene says putting Tan on a horse could have broken his other leg, saying, ‘or neck, which would save me the bother.’ So brutal, I love it!

‘”I can’t believe it, but I believe you.”’ Nice. Sometimes events happen that make no sense but you know the person to be reliable. So you know the event to be true despite it being unbelievable. It’s a state of contradictory ambiguity.

When Kairaithin teleports to Bertaud, it’s described as ‘whispering out of the air’. Beautiful.

 

Mienthe was a fascinating character. Her intelligence was always belittled by her family yet she proves herself to be sharp.

She recognises the subtle skills that make Tan a good spy. She recognises that Kairaithin is afraid of Bertaud when no-one else does.

She even singlehandedly persuades the Casmantium army to march through Feierbriand in order to help kick Linularinum out of the Delta. This is significant because this goes against the Casmantium- Feierbiand treaty, one where compliance ensured by the Casmantium’s first-born being a hostage. To convince someone to do something that could result in your son dying is pretty impressive.

What’s most fascinating is that her intelligence is presented in a completely different way to Tehre, another mighty thinker in the series. Mienthe has a single focus on an issue whereas Tehre has several lines of inquiry in her head open at a time. This leads Tehre to distraction (like admiring cloth in the middle of the king’s council). Mienthe thinks about ‘what is’ whereas Tehre thinks about ‘what if’.

 

 

Conclusion

I love griffins (no surprise there, given the name of my blog!)

So, to see them as an essential part of a trilogy was really exciting for me. Even better, it was done well so I wasn’t disappointed. The author also handles intelligent concepts well, explaining them in simple terms without simplifying the material into inaccuracy.

The story is written from the perspective of humans and how the griffins are affecting their lives. So, whilst griffins sort of get side-lined as the series progresses, the impact and influence of the griffins does not. Special bonus: they spelt ‘griffin’ the way I like best!

To say I want another series to explore the new world order would be an understatement.

 

Critique: Land of Burning Sands (The Griffin Mage Trilogy) (Rachel Neumeier)

This book is set in Casmantium. Following the country’s disastrous attempted invasion of Feierbiand, griffins are now being problematic in Casmantium. Gereint, Tehre and Beguchren attempt to set things right.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

A few plot points need to be mentioned.

            A geas from Perech forces Gereint (a maker) to do as he’s told. Only murderers get geas-bound, though Gereint maintains his was a miscarriage of justice.

Scholars debate how geas can be broken. Gereint proves the distance theory right by escaping his master Perech. Only to be bound again by Eben (who later frees him).

Gereint goes to Tehre. After an altercation with Perech (one which Tehre resolves in the most unexpected way), the cold mage Beguchren geas-binds Gereint and takes him north to the griffin.

 

 

Positives

 

There was much to enjoy. Such as how Gereint being forced to do (or not do) due to the geas and how he thinks and feels about it.

Eventually, Gereint tells Eben that he killed his friend and wife having an affair. This was a shock to me: at no point did I doubt Gereint’s claims of innocence. At no point did he seem like he was deceiving anyone, or that he was withholding information. So this was an unexpected twist!

Eben heals psychological damage. It’s so refreshing to see a medieval setting dealing with the health of the mind.

When Begchuren freezes brigands, he made cold light rise out of the earth and water. This is in direct comparison to griffins using sunlight which is from the air and fire above.

Beguchren saying to Gereint “You know, you used to be afraid of me” had me laughing.

Beguchren thinks makers (like Gereint) can remake themselves into a mage. This was an interesting twist. It proves true but even if it didn’t it was fascinating.

 

Tehre is a fantastic character. Despite her constant state of distraction, she’s detail orientated and very observant.

Tehre meets Bertaud from book one at the palace. She compares language to making, with words being bricks, punctuation being style and syntax being mortar. Tehre, being a maker, uses this to translate her words (and those of other’s) into a different language. I found this very creative.

Bertaud wants to talk and Tehre says, “please, over tea.” So funny!

 

Gereint has a flash of jealousy over Tehre and Bertaud’s friendship.

The mundane explanation is: well, he’s already killed two people due to romantic jealousy. So, being jealous over Tehre and Bertaud fits with his character.

The magical explanation: fascinating. Considering Bertaud has an affinity for griffins and Gerent is a cold mage, the fire-earth antipathy could be strengthening Gereint’s dislike for Bertaud. This isn’t even suggested in the book but a sotry being thought-provoking is always positive.

 

 

Negatives

 

There were a few issues that I wished were ironed out.

The first chapter is forty-two pages long! Not only is this just too long in a general sense but no other chapter in this story (or the series, in fact) matches this length. This shows a lack of consistency.

It took six days to reach Dachsichten. But the same distance on the map between other destinations was one and a half days. If there’s going to be such disparity, then an explanation is required. It could be due to the terrain or weather, or maybe illness or bandits stuck. Whatever. But there was no explanation, which was faulty.

Gereint wants to test if crossing into Feierbiand will break his geas even though Eben broke the geas.

For some reason, Beguchren has Gereint strip before taking a drink that spreads coldness. Either this was required for Gereint to become a cold mage (although no explanation is given) or it was hazing (which is outside Beguchren’s character).

When Tehre’s with Bertaud, she compares language to making. Comparing grammar to mortar would have been a more apt description than to syntax. Also, some bits of punctuation can be style but most of it is hard and fast rules. Punctuation is fore providing clarity, after all.

Despite Gereint being under a geas, Beguchren says Gereint can’t be compelled to remake himself into a mage. What are the mechanisms behind this? Or is this just how it works in order to fit in with the plot? But then Beguchren tries to guilt Gereint into becoming a mage by threatening lives. This is coercion. Coercion is a kind of compelling. If people can’t be compelled into becoming mages, Beguchren compelling Gereint will guilt shouldn’t work.

 

The next three things were at first problems. However, with a little bit of wriggle, they’re okay. Ish.

There’s a discussion of how and why cold magecraft doesn’t work west of Casmantium. Yet we know from book one that cold magecraft does work west of Casmantium. It was mainly scholars pondering the question, clearly happening before this story (because their views were written in books.) But it’s been years since Casmantium’s defeat in Feierbiand, where all cold mages but Beguchren were killed. Surely Gereint had heard of this, so wouldn’t he know already that cold mages could work their cold magecraft across the border?

Gereint walks away from Beguchren and the mage moves the ground to bring Gereint next to the carriage. Gereint wonders why not into the carriage (clearly this is Beguchren giving a Gereint a chance to choose). I just wonder why they didn’t do this teleporting all the way north. But then the king did want Beguchren to deal with brigands if he came across any.

The process of Gereint becoming a mage was unconvincing: touching Beguchren’s blood which then strips away Gereint’s previous magical identity. This isn’t so much a maker remaking himself but a mage imposing himself onto another human. A better explanation with the blood could be Gereint remaking himself in the blood’s image.

 

Grammar and punctuation had a few hiccoughs.

We get ‘that that’. This was unnecessary repetition because the second ‘that’ isn’t performing a different function from the first. If it were, the double ‘that’ would be appropriate.

Gereint and Beguchren go to Eben’s house. Eben says, ‘Emre hates waiting supper.’ Surely that should be ‘waiting for supper?’

Starts sentence with “… true” Capital, please!

 

 

Conclusion

 

There’s a lot less exposition than in book one. This made this book flow much better. Following Tehre’s mind was highly interesting and engaging. The author did a lot of research into topics such as architecture to fully bring Tehre’s intelligence to life. The author did a truly fantastic piece of work.

Critique: Wheel of Time (Series Two)

In this series, the friends are split up after Rand’s (supposed) death. They all do their own thing but invaders come which throws all their tasks out the window.

 

*****SPOILERS***** 

Egwaine is at the Tower learning magic with the Aes Sidai. Nynaeve is there but she won’t channel because she thinks no-one should have access to that kind of power. Perrin is hunting for the Horn that summons dead heroes to fight for the summoner. He doesn’t want it in the hands of the Dark.

Rand is the Dragon, the person who can fight the Dark. As all male channellers go mad, Rand is trying to get the False Dragon to teach him some control. He doesn’t want to hurt is friends which is why he’s gone far away from them.

 

 

Good Things

 

These were things easy to appreciate.

There’s a really lovely analogy about cooperation and togetherness. When you’re by yourself, the shield doesn’t protect all of you. when you’re together, nothing can penetrate the shield wall to hurt any of you.

Rand isn’t in the first episode. Considering he’s the main character, this would ordinarily be problematic. However, all his friends were struggling with the misery his supposed death brought them. The empathy of the audience would have severely curtailed if we saw Rand glaringly alive.

When Rand says he doesn’t know how much time he has left, Selene says something quite profound. “Same as everyone else: not enough.”

Moraine tells Lan he’s not her equal so, as Aes Sidai are unable to lie, Lan sulks. Later, Moraine tells him, “The only reason I could say we were not equals was because you are my better half.”

Moraine casts a fiery, eastern-looking dragon as a banner to announce Rand as the Dragon. Considering there had so far been nothing dragony about the Dragon for two series, this was a good addition. (Though eastern dragons are associated with water and air so a fiery one either showed a lack of knowledge or creative flare. Pun intended.)

 

 

Funny Things

 

This series didn’t disappoint on the funnies!

An Aes Sidai asks a guy to move aside, putting Lan in her line of sight. This made her say, “That’s better.” If this wasn’t chuckle-worthy enough, she asked Lan if wearing trousers whilst training was too hot! The subtle-est unsubtle way I’ve ever heard someone ask to get undressed.

Giving the novices dirty dish water, an Aes Sidai is teachin them how to purify it and says they can’t leave until they drink it. Nynaeve, refusing to channel, just drinks the disgusting water. So stubborn.

Moraine is distancing herself from Lan. This annoys him so when she says she’ll take dinner in her room, Lan tells her to make it herself. Hilarious.

 

 

Invaders

 

The invaders from the west were interesting. They are conquering the world so that the world can stand together in the Final Battle against the Dark.

Their leaders were silent, wore elaborate headdresses, used sharp gestures and had extremely long nails. Egwaine is collared by the invaders and her captor can control Egwaine’s power.

The captor cuts off Egwaine’s hair. Considering hair is the signifier of womanhood in the Two Rivers, this action was especially brutal.

The invaders are from the west, just like America is west of Europe. The landmass the invaders come from stretches from the top of the world to the bottom, just like the Americas do. So the fact that the invaders have American accents to top this off? Great decision making.

 

 

Problems

 

These were disappointing, to say the least.

Perrin is on the hunt for the Horn. But it feels like we’ve been dropped in the middle of the hunt with no real explanation as to why they’re hunting it or why it’s important. The explanation comes later than it should, leaving unnecessary confusion.

To become a full Aes Sidai, Nynaeve has to go through the Arches. These act as a portal and reappear only once. When the Arch reappears for Nynaeve, she takes a long time to talk to her daughter and then casually stroll through the Arch. If they only reappear once and you don’t know how long it stays available, why wouldn’t you make a run for it? Yes, she knows her daughter isn’t ‘real’ so won’t pass through the Arch, but Nynaeve had clearly made the decision to leave.

One time when Ran and Selene shag, the One Power wraps around Rand and she tells him not to be afraid. So he knows that she knows he can channel. Yet later, Rand uses magic to save Selene and she starts a whole drama, acting afraid and asking why he didn’t tell her. But it’s already established that he knows she know!

Rand and Moraine escape from Lanfeer, riding horses down a road. They hide, Lanfeer continues along the road, and they then walk in the opposite direction. Lanfeer gets to where Rand and Moraine’s horses are and she carries on in the same direction. But why would Rand and Moraine get off the horses to then walk in the same direction when that would be slower?

Once Egwaine is collared, she can’t touch anything she considers a weapon and, as such, can’t touch the water jug. Eventually her captor beats her for not being able to pour her water. If Egwaine wanted to attack you before, how is attacking her going to make her want to attack you less?

When Egwaine’s hair is cut short, we then see her with braided her. Yet her braided hair is longer than the length of her hair: considering braids are shorter than free flowing hair, this was problematic.

The leaders of the invaders, to begin with, never spoke in public. As the show progressed, they did start to talk in public. Other than for script and acting reasons, there was no internal reason for the leaders to change behaviour.

At the end, the invaders could see the attack coming for them and yet they stood there and did nothing. When they had many channellers on board that could have at least attempted to save them.

When Rand stabs Ishmael, Ishmael doesn’t defend himself or even run away. He just stood there. Yes, he spent the whole series not being keen on life because of the pain it causes. But because of this he wanted the Wheel destroyed so that no-one would be reborn to suffer again. Letting himself get killed guarantees he’ll suffer more and hence goes against his personality. (Not to mention he’ll be a baby and thus unable to get the Wheel broken any time soon.)

 

 

Questions

 

These four things started out as problems. But then my brain quickly found reasons to justify what happened. The questions (clearly) remained unanswered. Maybe they’ll be discussed in-show at a later date but, for now, I’m left to wonder.

Rand is in love with Egwaine, yet he’s sleeping with his landlady Selene. This seems wildly out of character, yet there are several things to consider. One: Selene says he’s behind with rent so maybe sex is the payment? Two: Rand wouldn’t want to piss off his landlady and risk being made homeless so he might feel obligated to comply. Three: Egwaine can’t be an option if she thinks he’s dead and he probably doesn’t want to be celibate.

If Ishmael wants Rand to break the Wheel, why not put one of the invader’s collars on Rand and then force him to break the Wheel? Although considering male and female magic is different, perhaps the collars can’t work on men? Still, it seemed like the easiest and most obvious solution so it should have been discussed.

Egwaine put a collar on her captor and could control her. Why didn’t the captor control Egwaine, like force Egwaine to stop controlling her? Maybe the pain was too much. Maybe Egwaine was controlling her captor not to control Egwaine. Maybe the more recent collar takes precedence. I’m intrigued as to the reasons why.

The Amalyn looked betrayed when Moraine followed Rand and Lanfeer into the Ways. But surely it’s better for a good Aes Sidai to be with Rand and a Forsaken than to leave Rand alone with a servant of the Dark? Or maybe from the Amalyn’s perspective, it looked like Moraine was in league with Lanfeer. That would be worth feeling betrayed about.

 

 

This series was definitely enjoyable. With all the characters off doing their own things, the plot could have felt disjointed, unconnected. But the invaders coming funnelled the storylines into the same direction. This allowed the lines to stay relevant to each other even though they didn’t actually intersect until the very end.