sawyl | Entries tagged with tamuli

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.

Over the weekend I finished The Shining Ones, the middle novel in David Eddings' Tamuli trilogy, which features the great pivotal event that changes the focus of the current series and alters the significance of events in The Elenium trilogy. Consequently, it's not possible to talk about the events of the novel without including spoilers for both series. You have been warned!

Despite having foiled recent attempts to overthrow Sarabian, the Tamul Emperor, Sparhawk has decided that reinforcements are needed. Consequently Patriarch Emban is dispatched back to Chyrellos on the Eosian continent to summon the rest of the Church Knights, while Sparhawk and his party, aided on their way by an unusual ship provided for them by the Goddess Aphrael, retrieve Bhelliom, the all-powerful sapphire rose, from the sea where they threw it after death of the Elder God Azash. Gradually getting to know the power of the stone, Sparhawk uses it to teleport his party from one part of the Tamul Empire to another, greatly increasing his enemy's confusion. Travelling to Cygnesca in the centre of the country, he meets a diplomat — actually the brother of Foreign Minister Oscagne — who decides to accompany the group. With Itagne along to provide background information, Sparhawk and company encounter a group of Delphae — the titular Shining Ones — who offer to assist them in their fight against the Cyrgai. Unfortunately, the situation is greatly complicated by Sephrenia's vehement hatred of the Delphae and everything to do with them.

The opening suffers from a few problems, not least of which is Aphrael's impossible ship — strongly implied to be a hydrofoil brought from another world and crewed by aliens — which, having told the knights not to ask too many questions, the Goddess then proceeds to hangs a lantern on every question they ask which seems to approach the truth. The episode is probably intended to be comic and the ship is probably an allusion to a specific vessel from somewhere else — although I'm not sure where! — but the whole thing feels slightly jarring, not least because the alien world of the strange ship is never mentioned again. I'm also troubled by Sparhawk's sudden ability to teleport, which comes across as nothing quite so much as an author abandoning his constraints because he finds them boring, and which requires special pleading to explain why it can't be used for Convenient Plot Reasons. Delphaeus presents an opportunity for a spot of bucolic indulgence and anachronistic dialogue, complete with Eddings' characteristic thees and thous. Normally I'd complain about this, but frankly it's a relief not to have to put up with Caalador's horrible country bumpkin accent — imagine a very, very bad attempt to do comedy West Country.

Meanwhile, back in the capital of Matherion, Ehlana and Emperor Sarabian are taking steps against the Interior Ministry. Having imprisoned Minister Kolata during the coup, the pair realise that they can use the ministry's files to track down every dodgy operative in the empire. In order to disguise their goal from the other conspirators, they devise a new filing system which they implement by moving all the papers out on the lawns of the imperial compound. When this fails to pay off, Stragen, Caalador and Ehlana's Atan bodyguard Mirtai, break into the ministry at night to search for secret rooms. By the time Sparhawk returns accompanied by Xanetia of the Delphae, the Queen and the Emperor are almost ready to stage their counter coup when Xanetia's telepathic abilities reveal a spy in their inner circle: Zalasta of Styricum is an agent of Cyrgon and their principal opponent. With Sephrenia still furious at the presence of Xanetia, Sparhawk and Ehlana come up with a clever way to force Zalasta into the open without having to rely on the Delphaeic woman's word.

With Xanetia's revelation and Zalasta's unmasking before the Imperial Council, the book promptly goes into full on explaining mode, dedicating quite some time to explaining how Zalasta seems to have been behind every bad thing that has happened in the last three hundred years. Not only is he, along with a small band of renegade Styrics, responsible for the current troubles, but he was also responsible for the cloud that haunted Sparhawk on his way to face Azash in Zemoch and the Dawn Men they were forced to fight while travelling through no-time. The shadow that haunted Sparhawk and Ehlana, first in The Sapphire Rose and later in Domes of Fire, wasn't an aspect of the troll gods or of Azash as they'd thought at the time, but an aspect of a spell of Zalasta's, made visible by the power of Bhelliom's rings. (This last definitely stretches the continuity: in Sapphire Rose Sparhawk confidently claims that the shadow is the result of a small group working together. At it's most charitable, this could be read as being Zalasta and his band of outcasts, but it feels like a bit of cheat because one of the ground rules of this sort of epic fantasy novel is that you're supposed to be able to trust the character's mystical assertions).

With the central climax out of the way Aphrael dedicates herself to tidying up the various characters' relationships: Kalten and Alean decide to settle down; Melidere manoeuvres Stragen into marriage via an offer he can't refuse; and Vanion and Sephrenia finally get back together. With that all sorted the plot picks up again, firstly with a plot to deal with Interior Ministry's remaining agents, and secondly with a plan to deal with the entire herd of trolls, who seem to be determined to demolish northern Atan down its bedrock. With the help of Bhelliom, Sparhawk creates a vast escarpment across the cape and, with the help of five thousand Church Knights recently arrived from Eosia and a few legions of Atans, sets about taking the god Cyrgon's trollish allies away from him.

The character development section is treated as light relief after the big revelations and all the heavy exposition, with Aphrael manipulating events and acting as the author's proxy — and Eddings is self-aware enough to flag this up by having Sparhawk tell Aphrael that she spends far too much time meddling with things that would sort themselves out perfectly well if she were to leave them alone. The mass murder of the Interior Ministry's double agents is deftly handled via a series of short cameos, each showing an individual professional assassin at work; although I find Sarabian's hand-wringing and Oscagne's worries about legality a bit odd, considering the Emperor's previous comment that he could have his Prime Minister executed simply for having the wrong haircut.

Im now making my way through David Eddings' Tamuli series starting with Domes of Fire. Given that I have problems with some parts of The Tamuli and I consider The Redemption of Althalus to be borderline unreadable and The Dreamers novels to be completely unreadable, this definitely marks the beginning of the end of my Eddings re-read.

The book proper opens in an of The Diamond Throne: returning to Cimmura in the rain after a mission to Lamorkand for the Archprelate, Sparhawk apologises to his wife — Queen Ehlana — for being out of communication for so long and proceeds to give her an extremely convenient update: an unsavoury aristocrat called Count Gerrich, supported a mythic hero and armies resurrected from the bronze age, is making a determined attempt to bring of northern Eosia into his civil war. Annoyed with the Archprelate for casually borrowing her husband, Ehlana is even less impressed when Sparhawk receives yet another peremptory summons. Arriving Chyrellos with most of her court in tow and an escort of Church Knights — who prove all to necessary after they encounter a group of anachronistic warriors on the road to Demos — Ehlana and her husband discover that an ambassador from the Tamul Empire has arrived to request Sparhawk's help with a problem that seems suspiciously similar to those in Lamorkand: civil unrest supported by ancient heroes and long-dead armies. Recognising the need to keep the world from collapsing, Ehlana and Patriarch Emban come up with a plan to include Sparhawk's trip an joint royal and religious deputation to the imperial capital.

The start isn't promising with a rather contrived info-dump, but it starts to pick up when Platime points Sparhawk in the direction of a rebel aristocrat who gets torn apart as soon they knights try and question them. Just in case this bit of foreshadowing wasn't obvious enough, the appearance of a group an ancient Lamorks pushes the message home and conveniently allows Patriarch Ortzel a chance to recite The Drychtnathasaga. Hardly the most thrilling of openings but things start to pick up when the group finally start out on the road.

After a pleasant sea voyage, the group — Sparhawk, Ehlana, their daughter Danae, Emban, the principals from The Elenium, and a modest number of knights, wander their way through Daresia towards the capital. Along they way the encounter some melancholy aristocrats in Astel, including a fool called Elron who fancies himself as a poet and sympathises with Sabre, the province's chief rabble rouser. On their way to the Styric capital of Sarsos the force encounter another group of ancient warriors, this time a mix of extinct Cyrgai and their Cygnescan descendants, who quickly fall when confronted with modern mounted cavalry and improvised catapults. In Sarsos they team up with Sephrenia and Vanion, now living in quiet retirement together, and get some advice on the current situation from Zalasta, one of the greatest wizards of Styricum and Sephrenia's oldest friend.

While there are few entertaining moments on the journey to and through Astel — more Russian than Russia with its Orthodox priests, morose aristos, and truculent serfs — things really start to pick up with the battle although the relative ease with which the Knights, Peloi and Atans achieve their victory is undercut by the suggestion that their hidden opponent may never have intended it to be a serious challenge. With their arrival in Sarsos, the reunion with Sephrenia, and, most especially, a helpful info-dump from zalasta on the wider situation in the Empire and their hidden opponents' use of magic, the existential threat, which had been rather vague jumps into abrupt focus.

The sudden focus on Styric culture — Sarsos is the only truly Styric city in the world — causes the Elenes, even the heroic ones, to come in a nasty bigotry rash. Perfectly happy to defend Eosian Styrics when their grotty villages are attacked by the local racists, even Sparhawk encounters a nasty bit of prejudice at the bottom of his soul when confronted with the results of 40,000 years of civilisation. Ehlana, despite being raised by Sparhawk to respect Styric traditions, takes an instant dislike to Zalasta — something that Sparhawk suggests may be due to his beard or eyebrows or accent rather than straight out racism; which feels less like a handwave when, shortly after, Ehlana reverses her opinion when confronted with unequivocal evidence of the man's heroism.

Resuming their journey through the province of Atan — the homeland of the Tamuls' fearless warriors — the knights find themselves in yet another battle, this time with a large group of trolls, a powerful wizard, and something a lot like a dinosaur. Through the use of cunning tactics and Zalasta's magic, the group prevails. After a brief pause in the Atan capital, where Mirtai goes through a rite of passage into adulthood, the arrive in the imperial capital of fire-domed Matherion — a city whose buildings are covered entirely in mother of pearl. After an initially inconclusive encounter with Emperor Sarabian, the Elenes manage to break through the formality and get down to work. They quickly discover a coup attempt in the planning and, in the best traditions, decide to combat it with a large party and some rather unorthodox fireworks.

This final section is definitely the most successful, starting with the spectacular fight against a horde of trolls. By far Eddings' best monster, the trolls have upped sticks from their ancestral homeland in Thalasia and moved en masse to Daresia, where they've started banding together and working in cooperation — something Ulath, the party's expert on all things trollish, claims is completely contrary to their nature. Mirtai's coming of age ceremony is also rather effective, providing a natural way to allow her to explain how she came to be a slave in Cimmura. Her bloody and murderous tale even goes so far as to include a positive portrayal of a gay character — something Mirtai claims is quite common but which, aside from a series of jokes about why girls shouldn't kiss girls in public, never appears again, so it's obviously not that common.

The arrival into Matherion obviously borrows heavily from Garion and Ce'Nedra's arrival in Mal Zeth in Demon Lord of Karanda, with each group being bowled over by the surprise discovery that their eastern — and Eastern — neighbours are not only civilised but several degrees more civilised than those to the west of them. The convenient cooperation of Emperor Sarabian and his enthusiasm for absolute monarchy also echoes that of both King Urgit and Emperor Zakath, although all three have quite different personalities. The subterfuge of the party on the boats is good fun, as is the resulting fight and the characteristic way Eddings skips over the triumphalism to end the book on a note of uncertainty: was the fight — indeed were all the book's fights — intended seriously or where they merely challenges, as the fight with the Cynescans implied?

In some ways Domes of Fire is an improvement over the Elenium — it has more than one female character! Some of the characters have doubts! Some even have parts of their personality that they're ashamed of! — there are a few signs that the author is starting to get a little bit tired of writing long travelogues, in which the characters travel for months and months and people complain at hime for the length of his seasons, and wants to start pushing the big events together as quickly as possible — something that comes to a head in his subsequent novels — making it hard for me to maintain an impartially and positive opinion of the book as a standalone novel. But perhaps I've just become jaded...