The kingdom of Wendar, a land with magical history and unusual neighbors, is on the verge of civil war. Though King Henry holds the crown, his sister Sabella challenges
his claim. The king has a son, Sanglant, by a woman who was possibly not human. This is but one point of controversy; will an inhuman bastard child ever be able to take
the crown?
For now, Sanglant serves with the elite armed unit called the King’s Dragons, while the matter of his fitness to assume his father's crown is contested. As a Dragon, he
has more pressing matters to distract him. The reptilian Eika of the north are invading with unusual ferocity, just one of a number of ill-omened events which hint that
the civil war is only part of far greater struggles to come. As usual, the King's Dragons are on the front lines - with Sanglant leading the charge.
Alain, a boy of unknown parentage who was promised to the church at birth, has his life changed when the sacred Lady of Battles appears to him in a vision. Still devout,
Alain has no choice but to follow the Lady’s calling on a path that may lead to his hidden ancestry.
Liath's priest-astronomer father is on the run from enemies he dares not tell even her about. When these enemies catch up to him, she is left without a past or a future.
Circumstances lead her to the dungeon for her late father’s debts, the bed of a corrupt priest who buys her out of jail, and at last into the saddle as one of the King’s
Eagles, a special team of messengers and agents working for the crown of Wendar. Her latent displays of a rare and potent kind of magic are both a help and a hindrance as
she struggles to find a place in the world, while guarding the last secrets left by her father from the unknown enemies that still pursue her.
Review
I was initially skeptical of this book, but I finally got into the universe. Some fantasy books are set in worlds that I just don’t "click" with, but I found that I
actually was getting the feel of Wendar. I had thought the kingdom's strong religious influences might get sickening, as I am most certainly not a religious person, but
the kingdom's worship was different enough from Christianity to be interesting. With saints appearing, real-life miracles and such, it had more fantasy elements than I
expected. Unlike many religion-dominated worlds, ladies were given pretty much equal rights as the kingdom's landowners. The term "separate but equal" applies to the
world's power distribution, with both sexes being discomfited when the other tries to cross gender lines. Slightly different characters and good descriptions carried me
through when place names and histories pile up too thick. There were also some nice twists in the tale that I didn't see coming. A worthy addition to the library of epic
fantasies, being much more than just a retread of Tolkien.
I have the second volume, Prince of Dogs, sitting in my reading backlog; I really need to work my way down to it someday...
When the old kings reigned, mages of the five elements - fire, air, water, earth, and aether - were highly trained and
celebrated members of society. But ever since the Great Liberation that overthrew the decadent and corrupt royal houses,
magic is tightly controlled, with practitioners only allowed to learn a small fragment of their potential skills (that
which serves the new government best), taught to fear the corrupting "demon" spirit inside them that grants them their
powers. For all the August Protector's talk of creating a more equal and just society based on Virtues instead of
bloodlines, many in this new, reformed world find themselves no better off than before... some, such as the mages,
significantly worse.
Fellian has no love for the August Protector and the Liberationists, not since her mother and one of her fathers were
publicly executed for "seditionist" activities. She was only spared because an oracle detected the fire magic within her.
Now, she works off her indenture scrubbing latrines at a city inn by day and crafting magical Lamps by night. On the
side, she still secretly teaches letters to those who wish to learn, a direct defiance of Liberationist decrees that
restrict education to the most virtuous patriots. She's counting the moments until she earns her freedom to return the
distant hills of her home. Then an inn guest makes her an offer she doesn't dare refuse, drawing her into the company
of Monarchist rebels who seek to topple the August Protector and restore noble rule. Is this her chance at a future she
hardly dared dream of, or is she walking deeper into danger?
Review
There are authors I have an ambivalent relationship with as a reader, ones whose works I feel I should like, that I
want to like, but for some reason I tend to feel let down by their stories more often than not, in some way I can't
always articulate (which probably explains why I'm not exactly the world's best book reviewer, if I can't isolate and
express my thoughts better). Kate Elliott is not at the top of that list by any means, but novellas like this remind me
why she's on it, as for all the potential in the story premise and world going into it, I left it feeling subtly
unsatisfied.
Things open on reasonably decent footing, as Fellian's situation and world are established in quick strokes that manage
to avoid dull, intrusive infodumping... at least, at first. As the story progresses, though, there are more and more
moments where she pauses to observe and think worldbuilding information for the benefit of the reader; her go-to
reaction in stress tends to be lead boots. (I lost track of how often her feet or legs were described as "leaden",
mostly so Fellian could stand uselessly and look around and describe things - even in the middle of high-stakes action
- so the reader peering at the tale through her eyes got a full tour.) Things do at least happen, as Fellian is whisked
from the inn halfway across the nation in the company of mages recruited to the Monarchist cause. She's all for
undermining the August Protector and freeing herself from bondage, though at times Fellian parrots party-line ideas a
little too readily for someone raised in the hinterlands by parents who were not loyal to the uprising, and having been
partially educated in magic by someone outside the Liberationists and their strict, stifling, shame-infused system. The
closer she and her companions get to their end goal, the more danger she's in - and the more she comes to question the
ultimate motives and goal of their leader. Ultimately, she must decide where she means to stand in a politically
fractured world, and what future she wants to work toward, though by then my interest was somewhat dimmed by distancing
infodumps and tangled histories and relationships, and a general failure to really bond with Fellian enough to care
where she ended up. I also found myself subtly irked that the cover misled me into thinking dragons would be more
involved in the tale. (Aside from a somewhat-symbolic minor character/encounter, dragons are notably absent. Do not
promise me dragons that you do not intend to deliver, authors and/or cover artists...) And the tail end drags out a
little long, in a way that makes me wonder - along with all the worldbuilding crammed into a novella's page count - if
Servant Mage was originally intended to be a full length novel or even a series but never quite fledged.
As I say too often, I've read worse. There are some interesting ideas, and when Fellian's not mired in leaden boots
things happen. I just never felt drawn in like I'd hoped to be.
Catherine, a girl on the brink of womanhood, lives in a rapidly changing world. Machinery and science are slowly dominating the old ways of gods and magic. The
voiceless masses grow restless under the yoke of numerous princes and the powerful mage Houses, made less relevant by progress. Cat and her cousin Beatrice even attend
an academy like boys do, learning of new contraptions such as floating ships that will revolutionize the world as they know it. Even children of the much-maligned
Kena'ani (erroneously branded Phoenicians by the lying tongues of Roman scholars), widely considered unscrupulous spies and double-dealers, might find their fortunes
raised.
But worlds do not change easily, nor do the old ways yield easily to the new... especially when there is much more than ignorance and superstition behind their
power.
Cat is wakened to this truth most unexpectedly when a cold mage - a much-resented breed of magic worker, in whose presence flames extinguish and machinery snarls - turns
up on the doorstep. By claim of magic contracts of which she knows nothing, the arrogant man rips her from everything she has known, everything she had thought she might
become. Even as she despairs, she learns that far greater forces are at work. In a world where magic and science cannot coexist, where war seems inevitable, Cat must learn
fast if she is to land on her feet... and choose a side.
Review
Alternate worlds like this one - a re-imagined Industrial Revolution-era Earth, where Celtic princes rise in the wake of a shrinking Roman empire, where
feathered-reptile "trolls" from across the ocean (clearly evolved from dinosaurs) introduce dangerous, radical ideas to the populace, where northern mages use their powers
as much to enforce their own tyranny as to protect the public - can be a treat to visit. I enjoy a well-thought-out new world to explore. That doesn't mean, unfortunately,
that I will accept page after page after page of endless worldbuilding, tracing histories and lineages and ethnic migrations and so forth, set against a smothering backdrop
of geography lessons, in lieu of a story. Elliot even repeats several stories and history lessons, I suppose on the assumption that I was too stupid to remember them the
first time. In between lectures, I had to endure a heroine I didn't enjoy and a slew of largely heartless (or seemingly heartless) and manipulative supporting characters on
a journey that moved in agonizing fits and starts, careening from plot-stopping "story time" to breathless escapes from enemy clutches. Strong whiffs of politics grew into
a choking stench by the end of the book, which - being the first book in a stated trilogy - didn't resolve much. Instead of eagerly awaiting the second installment, I
merely felt a sense of relief that I'd finally finished the thing.
I give Kate Elliott marks for depth of research in planning her alternate Earth. Unfortunately, the tidal waves of research drowned the story, and her characters' unlikable
and annoying traits overwhelmed their commendable ones. I have no interest in following this series any further.
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