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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
A superb murder mystery, on an epic scale, set against the fall out – literally – of a war in heaven.
Paris has survived the Great Magicians War – just. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burn-out shell, and the Seine runs black with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens continue to live, love, fight and survive in their war-torn city, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over the once grand capital.
House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.
Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naïve but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires’ salvation. They may be the architects of its last, irreversible fall …
Paris has been ravaged by a devastating war between rival magical houses, each founded and run by Fallen angels. House Silverspires was the foremost of the houses, founded by Lucifer himself but when Lucifer went missing 20 years earlier, the House’s fortunes began to decline. Its current leader, Selene, is desperately trying to maintain her House’s status and things seem to be looking up when she finds Isabelle, a new Fallen (and therefore at her most powerful) together with Philippe (a mysterious Vietnamese man with magical powers that defy explanation). But their arrival coincides with the mysterious death of several of the House’s informants. Something – or someone – is striking at the heart of the House and won’t be satisfied until it and everyone in it is destroyed …
Aliette de Bodard’s fantasy novel is a gothic mix of GAME OF THRONES meets PARADISE LOST and while I really liked the mythology underpinning this war-wracked world, the murder mystery left me cold. De Bodard uses a number of narrators to track through the events, including Philippe, Selene, Isabelle and Madelaine (an alchemist taken in by Silverspires from the ambitious House Hawthorne) but they don’t all get sufficient page time to develop. This is especially the case with Madelaine and Isabelle, who are one note and appear to be there more to service the plot than to influence it. This is countered in part by Philippe, who is a fascinating character who has lost everything he knows and loathes the House system and all it stands for – in fact, I wanted to know more about him as de Bodard gives hints as to his previous life but not details, e.g. what he did to get throne out of the court of the Immortals. I found the politics fascinating, particularly the rivalry and balance between the competing houses and the rise of Asmodeus who leads House Hawthorne after committing a bloody coup and I would have loved to have learned more about Claire, who leads House Legion and who clearly knows more than she is letting on. The big issue though is the murder mystery, which lacks pace and urgency and, critically, doesn’t involve much actual investigating, instead consisting of characters reacting to the series of events and running away from them. Ultimately while there were aspects that I enjoyed, ultimately this novel doesn’t quite live up to its ambition for me.
The Verdict:
Aliette de Bodard’s fantasy novel is a gothic mix of GAME OF THRONES meets PARADISE LOST and while I really liked the mythology underpinning this war-wracked world, the murder mystery left me cold. De Bodard uses a number of narrators to track through the events, including Philippe, Selene, Isabelle and Madelaine (an alchemist taken in by Silverspires from the ambitious House Hawthorne) but they don’t all get sufficient page time to develop. This is especially the case with Madelaine and Isabelle, who are one note and appear to be there more to service the plot than to influence it. This is countered in part by Philippe, who is a fascinating character who has lost everything he knows and loathes the House system and all it stands for – in fact, I wanted to know more about him as de Bodard gives hints as to his previous life but not details, e.g. what he did to get throne out of the court of the Immortals. I found the politics fascinating, particularly the rivalry and balance between the competing houses and the rise of Asmodeus who leads House Hawthorne after committing a bloody coup and I would have loved to have learned more about Claire, who leads House Legion and who clearly knows more than she is letting on. The big issue though is the murder mystery, which lacks pace and urgency and, critically, doesn’t involve much actual investigating, instead consisting of characters reacting to the series of events and running away from them. Ultimately while there were aspects that I enjoyed, ultimately this novel doesn’t quite live up to its ambition for me.
Paris has survived the Great Magicians War – just. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burn-out shell, and the Seine runs black with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens continue to live, love, fight and survive in their war-torn city, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over the once grand capital.
House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.
Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naïve but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires’ salvation. They may be the architects of its last, irreversible fall …
Paris has been ravaged by a devastating war between rival magical houses, each founded and run by Fallen angels. House Silverspires was the foremost of the houses, founded by Lucifer himself but when Lucifer went missing 20 years earlier, the House’s fortunes began to decline. Its current leader, Selene, is desperately trying to maintain her House’s status and things seem to be looking up when she finds Isabelle, a new Fallen (and therefore at her most powerful) together with Philippe (a mysterious Vietnamese man with magical powers that defy explanation). But their arrival coincides with the mysterious death of several of the House’s informants. Something – or someone – is striking at the heart of the House and won’t be satisfied until it and everyone in it is destroyed …
Aliette de Bodard’s fantasy novel is a gothic mix of GAME OF THRONES meets PARADISE LOST and while I really liked the mythology underpinning this war-wracked world, the murder mystery left me cold. De Bodard uses a number of narrators to track through the events, including Philippe, Selene, Isabelle and Madelaine (an alchemist taken in by Silverspires from the ambitious House Hawthorne) but they don’t all get sufficient page time to develop. This is especially the case with Madelaine and Isabelle, who are one note and appear to be there more to service the plot than to influence it. This is countered in part by Philippe, who is a fascinating character who has lost everything he knows and loathes the House system and all it stands for – in fact, I wanted to know more about him as de Bodard gives hints as to his previous life but not details, e.g. what he did to get throne out of the court of the Immortals. I found the politics fascinating, particularly the rivalry and balance between the competing houses and the rise of Asmodeus who leads House Hawthorne after committing a bloody coup and I would have loved to have learned more about Claire, who leads House Legion and who clearly knows more than she is letting on. The big issue though is the murder mystery, which lacks pace and urgency and, critically, doesn’t involve much actual investigating, instead consisting of characters reacting to the series of events and running away from them. Ultimately while there were aspects that I enjoyed, ultimately this novel doesn’t quite live up to its ambition for me.
The Verdict:
Aliette de Bodard’s fantasy novel is a gothic mix of GAME OF THRONES meets PARADISE LOST and while I really liked the mythology underpinning this war-wracked world, the murder mystery left me cold. De Bodard uses a number of narrators to track through the events, including Philippe, Selene, Isabelle and Madelaine (an alchemist taken in by Silverspires from the ambitious House Hawthorne) but they don’t all get sufficient page time to develop. This is especially the case with Madelaine and Isabelle, who are one note and appear to be there more to service the plot than to influence it. This is countered in part by Philippe, who is a fascinating character who has lost everything he knows and loathes the House system and all it stands for – in fact, I wanted to know more about him as de Bodard gives hints as to his previous life but not details, e.g. what he did to get throne out of the court of the Immortals. I found the politics fascinating, particularly the rivalry and balance between the competing houses and the rise of Asmodeus who leads House Hawthorne after committing a bloody coup and I would have loved to have learned more about Claire, who leads House Legion and who clearly knows more than she is letting on. The big issue though is the murder mystery, which lacks pace and urgency and, critically, doesn’t involve much actual investigating, instead consisting of characters reacting to the series of events and running away from them. Ultimately while there were aspects that I enjoyed, ultimately this novel doesn’t quite live up to its ambition for me.
