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.