Range of Ghosts

[sawyl]

Onwards and upwards to Elizabeth Bear's latest novel, Range of Ghosts, an epic fantasy that mixes elements from various eastern and far-eastern myths and elements from history into an whole that features wise wizards, plotting emperors, reluctant khans, and evil sorcerers.

The book opens on the aftermath of a battle. Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is seriously injured but still alive, unlike the rest of his clan who have perished in a fight with another clan who aspire to rule the Khanate. Temur's life is saved by a horse who seems to have survived the battle largely intact and he joins a group of refugees incognito, where he falls for a girl called Edene. When Edene gets caught up in the schemes of a malevolent sorcerer, Temur vows to rescue her.

Meanwhile, in the city of Tsarepheth, Samarkar has given up her life as a princess and become a wizard in order to avoid death at the hands of her Machiavellian brother. Just as her powers begin to blossom, she finds herself sent to investigate the fall of Qarash. Here she crosses paths with Temur, now struck down by illness and fatigue, and meets a tiger-woman called Hrahima, who bears an ominous messages for Samarkar's brother. Joining forces, the disparate group set out to get rescue Edene, to confound the sorcerer al-Sepehr, and maybe even reclaim the Khanate.

Range of Ghosts is a fun, compulsively readable large scale fantasy that features a lot of Bear's characteristic touches: a strong, largely female cast that has no problems passing the Bechdel test; complex intra- and inter- family politicking; and a beautifully imagined world that, although not Earth, draws on a lot of terrestrial features and names and national myths to make it recognisable much as in Bear & Monette's Iskrayne series. All of which says nothing about the excellence of the writing, the intriguing idea of making the appearance of the sky change with the dominance of a specific religion over a given nation, or cults of elite assassins who practice their faith through calligraphy.

Delightfully enjoyable stuff.