This book, which is standalone, is set in a city that’s been under foreign occupation for several years. The occupiers have the goal of “perfecting” the world, so naturally anything not already “perfect” according to their rigid standards must be … perfected. Naturally this is hard on the populace.
The city seethes with discontent. You have students talking about glorious revolutions in lecture halls and taverns. You have the old aristocracy, who is all about supporting a rebellion so long as they end up back on top. You have the workers, for whom the new boss is pretty much the same as the old boss and needs to be reminded of where their wealth comes from. And you have the city’s criminal element, who are against whoever is in charge.
And you have a mysterious Wood on the edge of the city. Sometimes it’s just a stand of trees you can cross in a few strides. But other times it becomes a vast and mysterious forest, and a path to … elsewhere. If you have the right protections that will let you past the monstrous guardians. Our story begins when the #2 of the occupiers sets out to cross the Wood (because whatever is on the other side could undoubtedly do with some good old fashioned perfecting), yet the magical totem that will let him pass has been mysteriously stolen, with unfortunate consequences for him.
The story unfolds from a variety of different POVs. A student girl brimming with patriotic enthusiasm. The academic she idolizes, who talks about patriotism but mainly does a good job of self-promotion. A street tough. The last priest of a nearly-forgotten god. A dealer in blackmarket magical goods. The keeper of the Anchorage, an inn by the Wood that serves as a waypoint. More and more get added as the story goes on, providing a mosaic view of events.
(Pro tip: pay attention during the first two chapters - dinner at the priest’s cheap boarding house and a game of chance at the Anchorage, respectively. You meet a lot of the chief characters very quickly in those two scenes. I got about 10% into the book, was having trouble keeping track of everyone, and went back and restarted and paid better attention.)
Overall, this was enjoyable, but not Tchaikovsky’s best. I want to compare it to the Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I, for two reasons. First is that this book is far from Tchaikovsky’s best, but “Tchaikovsky’s best” is a high enough standard that this book is still much better than average. Second, this book didn’t really mesh into a coherent whole for me. I feel like Tchaikovsky had a variety of cool ideas that he’d come up with over the years and never gotten to use, and threw them together here to try to make them work. It’s still a good book, just a little discordant.
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