I started reading this during my vacation, figuring that it was different enough from my other vacation reads that I wouldn't get everything confused. One review I read described it as being like George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, except set in a fantasy Middle Eastern world. Unfortunately, although some of the magic and political intrigue was interesting, it turned out to be a bit of a slog. I couldn't connect with the characters and had trouble caring about what was going on around them.

The politics and character relationships were complicated. Years ago, when Emperor Tahal was in power, everything was better. When he died, someone (maybe Tahal himself? I can't remember) arranged for all of Tahal's sons to be killed by Eyul, the Emperor's Knife, in order to avoid future power struggles. The only ones spared were Beyon, who became the next emperor, and Sarmin, who was locked up for the rest of his life, in case he was ever needed (fantastic idea, right?). In the book's present, Beyon has become a respected but sometimes brutal emperor. By his command, anyone found to have been patterned (mysterious pattern marks spontaneously appeared on their skin) is put to death. However, there are rumors that Beyon himself has the pattern marks and may eventually become a Carrier, a dead shell used as a tool by the Pattern Master.

I was a little confused about who was trying to accomplish what, and how. I think Nessaket, Beyon's mother, was doing whatever she had to in order to remain the most powerful woman in the palace, but she also potentially cared for her sons...maybe. Tuvaini was definitely trying to overthrow Beyon, put himself in power, and claim Nessaket as his wife (he seemed to both lust after her and hate her). Eyul wanted to serve the empire but wasn't sure whose orders would best help him do that. Sarmin would have done anything to protect his brother. Mesema, Sarmin's future bride, just wanted to figure out what was going on, learn what the patterns meant, and stay alive. I think I followed all that well enough, but I couldn't always keep the assassination attempts and reasons behind them straight.

It probably didn't help that there wasn't a single character I really cared about. There were some characters I liked more than others, and yet it didn't upset me at all when a couple of those characters died (don't worry, no spoilers). Of them all, Sarmin probably appealed to me the most, but having been locked alone in a room for nearly his entire life meant he wasn't the most comfortable of characters. When he first began exploring his magical abilities, I wasn't sure if what he was dealing with was actually magic or if he was as insane as Tuvaini said he was. After all, his advisers were faces he saw in the walls of his room. And he had almost no experience interacting with others. I thought his excitement at the thought of eventually meeting Mesema was nice and kind of sweet, until I realized that he viewed her as something like a present, someone that would belong to him alone.

I wish I could have liked Eyul, Amalya, and Mesema more than I did. Eyul, the world-weary assassin, was fascinating at first. However, he spent much of his time away from the palace, and I had trouble remembering why anything he did was important to the overall story. Some of the reasons why he disappointed me were also tied into my disappointment with Amalya.

Almost across the board, women in this world had little freedom and power. Even Nessaket, the most powerful woman in the palace, couldn't leave the palace grounds. She was powerful because she was the emperor's mother and previous emperor's wife, and, if Tuvaini got his way and became the next emperor, she hoped to stay powerful by becoming his lover. There was no way for her to be powerful that did not involve some sort of connection to a more powerful man.

The only women who had anything resembling power and freedom all their own were mages, and there were only two female mages in the entire book: Amalya and Mura. Mura was mentioned so rarely I had to look up her name just to include it in this review. She was the one female character Tuvaini met that he didn't view in terms of her sexual attractiveness to him, primarily because he was uncomfortable with the knowledge that a wind elemental was trapped inside her. Amalya was a much more prominent character than Mura, but unfortunately she didn't amount to much more. She used her fire elemental's magic a little, but it was mostly Eyul's skills that kept them safe. Amalya's greatest skill, it seemed, was cooking, and her primary purpose in the story was to give Eyul someone to fall in love with. She had so much potential, and it was all wasted.

I wanted to like Mesema more than I did, but she kept doing things that annoyed me. She supposedly loved Banreh, a man from her tribe who escorted her to her new home in the Cerani Empire, and yet she frequently insulted him. Years ago, he'd shattered one of his legs and could no longer ride well – not good in a culture that prizes riding skills. Mesema sometimes called him Lame Banreh. At one point, she said “You are barely more than a woman yourself...” (13.5%). Later, she thought of him as a “thrall” not once (41.3%), but twice (45.9%). There was also occasionally some pity in the mix.

And I was supposed to believe she really loved him? Had they interacted more and had Mesema done some groveling, then maybe, but instead I was left feeling like she just latched onto whoever was uppermost in her thoughts. When she wanted to go home, she loved Banreh best. When she was in the thick of things at the palace, Beyon began to attract her. Even though she was there when, earlier, Beyon threatened to kill Banreh.

It's possible that this series gets better, but I doubt I'll ever read the next book. I didn't like the characters enough to risk another slog.

 

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Picked this up without knowing that the author's name is a pseudonym, and his-or-her identity is still a mystery to the world at large. There are a few clues on the Internet - but I still don't know who this is.
I'd lean toward female - but I'd also recommend this to fans of Daniel Abraham. It's not actually a debut novel, apparently the author has been 'mainly writing' for 10 years.

It does come across as a practiced, expertly-written story. This is the kind of fantasy I like - set in a vivid, well-thought-out world, with a focus on 'real' and interesting characters and plenty of danger and intrigue.

The Cerani Empire (vaguely influenced by the Ottomans) is a paranoid monarchy of the sort that thinks nothing of assassinating or imprisoning all potential rival claimants to the throne. But an insidious threat has infiltrated all the way to the royal chamber none-the-less. A mysterious plague is spreading; its visible sign tattoo-like geometric patterns that spread over the victims' skin. At some point those infected lose self control, and become violent assassins. It is suspected that this is no true illness, but magic, and the marked individuals are tools in the plot of a Pattern Master.

In this situation we meet Sarmin, a prince who's spent the last 15 years confined to his luxurious room. Mesema, a princess of the horse tribes who's been summoned to be Sarmin's bride by the scheming Queen Mother, Nessaket. The Emperor, Beyon, may interfere with those schemes, but it's unclear where Beyon's strength and cruelty end, and to what degree he may be a pawn himself. And of course, there is 'The Emperor's Knife,' the guilt-haunted assassin Eyul, and the sorceress Amalya...

I definitely want to track down the sequels and find out what happens next in this world, even if by the end of this book, most of the characters end up dead.

I fly home tomorrow and am doing my usual pre-travel freak out. I'm also procrastinating on packing. Part of my procrastination: considering what I might want to read on the plane and at the airport. Because who cares that I can change my mind an any point? Thinking about books is more fun than thinking about travel.

 

Mistborn - I'm taking part in a group read of this that starts tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll be able to concentrate on a brand new book, though. I've never read Sanderson before, so this would be a "new to me" read in several ways.

 

Arrows of the Queen - A comfort read. I started this on my flight to my parents' place, so I might finish it on my way back.

 

The Emperor's Knife - An e-book I'm currently reading. I don't really care about the characters and am only a little interested in what's going on, so I don't know if I'll even touch it tomorrow. But at least it wouldn't bug me to have my reading interrupted by announcements.

 

Earthrise - I haven't read this before, but I liked Hogarth's Mindtouch.

In an effort to keep my vacation reads straight, I've been choosing books that seem like they'd be vastly different from one another. An Amazon review describes this as "Game of Thrones in a Middle Eastern setting." Translation: it's dark, and there are very few likable/good characters. You can expect few, if any, of the women to be viewed as more than just potential bedmates or child bearers for men, although there hasn't been any rape (yet).

 

The cast isn't as vast as GoT's, and the intrigue doesn't seem to be as spread out. I do hope the mages get a lot of page-time. Each mage is inhabited by an elemental that gives them power, but at a price - the elemental eventually takes over and kills the mage. I enjoy the occasional fantasy magical system with serious costs.

It did feel like a first novel, there were times when I wanted to know more about how things worked in this world, a world that somewhat resembles our own, but not quite, some of the differences aren't quite clear enough to make this resonate properly with me. It's an interesting world, this semi-arabic style world where Sarmin is a brother of the emperor, the only survivor of the massacre that happened when his brother took over the throne. He's isolated and going somewhat mad while a strange pattern magic is creeping around the kingdom. The pattern appears on a person's skin and can kill or possess, and it's contagious (TBH the pattern magic and cool cover got the book an extra half-star) Sarmin's mother has organised a marriage for him with Mesema, a windreader from the northern plains and she will change everything, if she survives. It was an interesting read, though there were moments when things felt somewhat rushed and incomplete, I liked the characters but sometimes they felt like shells, and the big showdown fell a bit flat for me, having said all that, I was drawn into it and kept reading. An author to watch for in the future, shows promise.