This was an interesting book with a good setting and a good premise, but ultimately it didn’t work for me.
The books are set in the Philippines in the 16th century, under Spanish colonial rule. (The author gives them different names, in the same kind of way Guy Gavriel Kay does, but I’m going to ignore that for purposes of this review.) The main character is Maria Lunurin - Lunurin her name from birth, Maria the name she took when she accepted baptism and became a nun. Her mother was a native Filipino woman; her father was a Spanish priest.
Lunurin is an avatar (Priestess? Saint? I’m not sure what the best term here is) of the native goddess of storms, something she has to keep carefully hidden while in the convent unless she wants to be burned as a witch. The goddess she serves is an elemental being of instincts and feelings, and she is angry. An idea that comes up frequently in the book is that the storm doesn’t heal, and it doesn’t build, but it can avenge. She is angry over the deaths and indignities her people have suffered at Spanish hands. She is angry that her statue has been renamed “Saint Mary the Drowned” (with a story spun about a Filipino woman who converted and drowned in sorrow when her husband and son wouldn’t renounce their heathen ways) and put into a cathedral. She is angry that her chosen people are burned as witches. And she wants Lunurin to use her power to destroy the Spanish and drive them into the sea.
Unfortunately, a typhoon is a blunt instrument, and Lunurin is unwilling to unleash a once-in-a-thousand-years storm on Manila - it would certainly destroy the Spanish, but it would also destroy her friends and family and many innocents. The goddess doesn’t care - she just wants her vengeance, and Lunurin has to work very, very hard to keep the goddess from working her will.
The other main character is Alon, the son of the chief Filipino official under the Spanish governor. He is in the position of wanting to please his father (who wants power and authority under Spanish rule) and protect his people from Spanish demands, while also preserving his people and their culture. He’s also been in love with Lunurin since they were kids, and himself is an avatar of a different member of the native pantheon, so to say he’s conflicted would be an understatement.
It’s a good set-up, and I’m always a sucker for books that are rooted in cultures I’m unfamiliar with. It didn’t work for me for two reasons. One is that the Spaniards were too villainous. Obviously this is an anti-colonial book, and I don’t want to seem like I’m defending colonialism, but none of the Spaniards in this book had any redeeming features. Colonialism is an evil system, but people are people. A kind Spanish friend to Lunurin, or a monk or nun of genuine faith who wanted to save the Filipino souls but not burn witches or stamp out their culture, would have gone a long way to fixing this. But there’s no one of the sort, and the book feels unbalanced for it. The other problem is that I hate it when tension in a story comes from when two people who are on the same side and have good will towards each other refuse to talk to each other. I hate it, hate it, hate it. And there was a lot in here.
Ultimately a decent book, but a flawed one.
Comes out on June 25.
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