A Shadow in Summer [Anglais] [Poche]

The Cities of the Khaiem shine like jewels in the East, and the brightest is the port of Saraykeht. The realm's profitable cotton trade flows through the city, quickened by the artistry of the poet Heshai. For in the East, a poet's art can become incarnate as a powerful spirit-slave (andat), and it is on the shoulders of Heshai, master of the andat Seedless, that the weight of Saraykeht's continuing prosperity balances ... a weight outsiders would gladly topple.

In these delicate times, first-time novelist Daniel Abraham chronicles the poignant choices of a handful of characters seldom seen in the "fantasy" genre: a middle-aged, female overseer of a foreign merchant house; her aging employer, the house's lord; her young assistant; the assistant's lover (a common dock-laborer); and Heshai's newly-arrived apprentice. Together and individually, without sword or spell, these elegantly-realized few will determine Saraykeht's fate.

Mr. Abraham, quite often a poet himself in fashioning the novel's lacquer-smooth prose, has written a marvelous novel--a "fantasy" by virtue of its setting and the andat's power, but a fantasy that can be gleefully dropped in the lap of anyone complaining of generic, Arthurian or Tolkien-esque settings; paper-deep protagonists; or unrestrained gore. "Shadow" (Book One of the planned "Long Price Quartet") is both fresh and literary, and as Mr. Abraham has spent years writing short fiction and honing his craft, he deserves every compliment that comes his way.

Although "Shadow" is not a perfect book--some will no doubt label the communicative custom of "poses" (e.g. "[he] took a pose half query and half command") as a device to cheat and tell emotions instead of showing them; and there is a plot issue as mentioned after the spoiler alert--it is a book worth owning and, likely, re-reading. Fans of Barry Hughart ("Bridge of Birds") and Guy Gavriel Kay ("Tigana") should take special note of this tale. Four summer-bright stars.

** Spoiler Alert **

The plot is driven by a Western conspiracy to remove the poet and andat and thus cripple the city. The execution of the story is solid enough that one may not pause to consider the larger picture; but in retrospect, it seems implausible that the conspirators would adopt their complex, innocent-life-taking scheme when assassinating the poet would work just as well. Of course, it could not be a blatant, traceable act, but a well-planned "accident"--perhaps a roof tile falling on the strolling poet (as it does on others in an actual scene), a mugging, or the consumption of "bad" liquor or drugs--would work equally well and with fewer contortions.

I am in love with this book. The characters, which in some ways are familiar (the Hidden Prince, for example) are richly written, real people with real lives rather than fleshed out stick-figures who only serve to advance the plot. The relationships are complex, both friendships and emnities are well founded, and the interactions are genuine, almost making the reader feel embarrassed to be evesdropping on conversations rather than reading them in a work of fiction.

Mr. Abraham amazes me with his ability to paint details into scenes with an economy of words, relying on mastery of vocabulary rather than volume of prose. Having only read of the place in this book, I feel I know Saraykeht. It's seedy dockside, it's glorious noble quarter, it's teahouses, inns, and places where workers toil at their labors are all familiar territory to me. I can hear the beggars singing for alms, the the prostitutes singing for clients, and the food vendors hawking parchment wrapped parcels of fish and ginger or sugar-glazed almonds. The climate of the place is so well detailed that it too seems like another character.

The plot and storyline are also impressive. I have read enough novels to this point to be tired of over-reaching tales of high improbability. Mr. Abraham's story is above all things believable, written on a scale that takes no great leaps of faith to bring to life in the mind's eye. Normal people doing business, living and working in a world where the greatest magic is not wizards raising armies of undead or lobbing fireballs about the firmament, but that of the Poet, who once in his lifetime chants a song that's taken him years to write, to capture a thought and make that thought flesh and purpose. Court intrigue is at play here, not high wizardry and grand adventure, and I applaud the author for it. This story is pure, well considered, and believable.

I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it was very well written for a debut. Lots of visual imagery making it feel like I was reading a painting come to life. The characters were anything but cliche and I found myself feeling like I knew each and every one of them. I also empathised and sympathized with them during the book and that is a sign of strong characterization. I also have to give Abraham serious props for making the book ~300 pages and not needing to go longer, this can be hard to pull off. So why only 3 stars?

Well, I'd actually give it 3 1/2 if I could but this book suffered from a major flaw and it was fundamental so it kind of ruined it for me. It is one of those "why didn't they do this?" questions that when answered usually sounds like "because then the book would be 10 pages." What we have is a beautifully described land reminicent of the medieval orient. At one end we have Galt, a war mongering country hell bent on taking over its neighbors. One of those neighbors is Saraykeht, one of the summer cities, which is a group of neighboring cities to the east. All of these summer cities are protected by an andat which is a kind of god-ghost that is controlled by a human poet from the city. The god may not want to protect the city but if the poet demands it, it pretty much has to (to keep a long story short).

To become a poet, one must go through years and years of tough schooling and even then only a few make it. For a thousand years the summer cities have been protected because of their control of these andat. Here is the flaw.

**Spoiler Alert**
If a country's sole means of defense is an andat, which is controlled by a single person, this person being extremely rare and hard to produce, don't you think that person would be under gigantic amounts of protection? Don't you also think this person would face constant threats of assasination from enemy countries? Not in this book - never mind that his andat hates him and would love to see him dead (thus freeing his slavery). If the assasin ran out of bullets the andat would have tossed him a full clip (ok, ok, I know). This situation could never happen because the Galts would have assasinated the poet 999 years ago and no andat would be protecting anyone.
** /Spoilers **

If you can suspend this disbelief, you might really like this book. Like I said, it is well written and the characters are well developed. It isn't action packed, another reason my score was a little lower than others, and I found myself wishing for a little more adrenaline - this could be my own shortcoming, so I didn't penalize much for that. I never thought about quitting though, so that is a good sign at least. I'd say read it if you like original, character driven fantasy without cliches and cheese. Don't read it if you like action or can't look past a few fundamental holes in the security, uh, I mean plot.

Edit: I just noticed that a few other reviewers pointed out the same flaw as me so it appears pretty obvious. I feel bad for the author because someone should have caught it before publishing the book and I'm confident he'd change a few things is he could go back and do it over again. I'm guessing the next few books will see this plot hole disappear and the author will reap the rewards of his talent.