The Hidden City

[sawyl]

And so I've reached the end of my journey: with David Eddings' The Hidden City, I've finished his Tamuli series and my month-long re-read of his novels. As I'm going to include spoilers for the previous books — none of them are quite so key as those in The Shining Ones but they're worth flagging up.

Having snatched the god Cyrgon's troll army from his grasp and retaken the northern cap of Atan in the process, Sparhawk and friends are in the process of wrapping up when a giant monstrous entity appears and promptly vanishes again. Happily the goddess Aphrael and Bhelliom, the sapphire rose, are on hand to provide an explanation: in his defeat Cyrgon has used a forbidden spell to summon Klael, Bhelliom's polar opposite, only for the monster to briefly slip free of his grip and go its enemy. With nothing left to do in the north, Sparhawk returns to the imperial capital where he discovers that his wife, Queen Ehlana, and her maid Alean have been abducted by Krager and the rebel leader Scarpa. When an insulting ransom note arrives from Krager ordering Sparhawk to travel to the province of Arjuna, Sephrenia, the High Priestess of Aphrael, and Xanetia, the Anarae of the Delphae, combine their magic to change the knights' faces, leaving Sparhawk free to search for his wife while a disguised Sir Berit follows the kidnappers' instructions.

In introduction of Klael from nowhere feels a bit clunky and some fast talking is required to retcon it in. Plot-wise it's not a terribly surprising addition: Bhelliom needs an opponent and the rules of epic fantasy require an opponent for the traditional end of series showdown between good and evil. But it might have been more effective with a bit of foreshadowing. I'm also unimpressed with the rescue plot which reduces Ehlana from an active protagonist to a victim who is completely obsessed with the state of her hair, whilst also putting Mirtai, stricken by guilt for failing as a bodyguard, into a holding pattern. Still, I shouldn't complain: with Queen Betuana and Xanetia added to Sephrenia and Aphrael, the book has more active female protagonists than the Elenium series.

While her husband tries to track her down, Ehlana finds herself taken to the ruined city of Natayos where she is forced to endure proximity to the psychotic Scarpa. The party having split up to aid the search, Kalten, Caalador and Bevier are the first to find evidence of the Queen's location. Hiring on as security for a former robber canny enough to realise that he can make fortune selling beer to the rebels, Kalten confirms the captives' presence and he and Alean manage to carry out a covert call and response recognition. But victory turns to triumph when Klael once again escapes Cyrgon's control and goes in search of Bhelliom, seeing through Berit's disguise in the process. Realising that his prisoners are not safe where they are, Zalasta relocates them to the hidden city of Cyrga just as Sparhawk covertly inserts himself into Natayos for his rescue attempt.

Splitting the core cast up into penny packets, something that may be an established fantasy trope but which isn't classic Eddings, allows a great deal of ground to be covered. Initially setting out with Talen and Stragen, Sparhawk soon finds himself off on his own doing heroic things with Aphrael, while his two former travelling companions dedicate themselves to spying and swindling. Berit's and Khalad's journey involves a scenic tour of the country, heavy with descriptions of campsites and opportunities for Khalad to prove the superiority of the Lower Orders by knowing everything about everything, even things he has absolutely no business knowing.

While the Atans and Church Knights and Peloi struggle with Klael's monstrous soldiers, Talen and Stragen take it on themselves to disrupt their enemies' plans by sowing disinformation that forces the armies of Cygnesca and Arjuna to deploy against phantom threats. Their espionage has a side benefit: during an encounter with their contact, the magician Ogerajin, who seems to be suffering from tertiary syphilis, blurts out the secret of the path to Cyrga although they don't recognise it at the time. Eventually, everything comes together: Khalad comes up with a clever way to defeat Klael's soldiers; Talen realises that he knows the way to the hidden city; while the Styric gods Setras, Hanka and Romalic rally to the cause, as does Edaemus of the Delphae. Sparhawk, Kalten, Talen, Mirtai and Bevier, assisted by the Goddess Aphrael, enter the city and sneak their way into the highest tower of the palace, where Queen Ehlana is being held.

And with that, we're done. Although there's a lot going on in the final section and much of it seems to happen simultaneously — the attempt on Emperor Sarabian's life, the arrival of the various armies at Cyrga, Sparhawk's arrival at the palace and subsequent climactic duel — I think it all just about comes off without feeling so cluttered that the reader struggles to keep track of events. The various Styric gods press-ganged by Aphrael are fun, especially Setra who is so charmingly dim — his method of getting into the secure bolt hole created by Klael's soldiers is pure comedy — that he causes significant theological problems for almost everyone he meets.

As with Eddings other books, there's a fundamental lack of rigour to parts of the world building — for example, the system of magic is left very open and undefined — that he uses to handwave his way out of plot holes. To be fair, he's not unaware of this and treats much of it with a nod and wink — he goes to great length to hang lampshades on the logical inconsistencies of the troll gods' magic — but sometimes it feels like its a bit of a cheat. Still it's an entertain and easy read, and a decent way to round out my re-read.