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Well, I just finished this. Count me in as one who was surprised by the ending, and Baru's decision to join the powers-behind-the-throne took me by surprise until I realised she'd decided to go after a bigger fish, so to speak. I liked Baru's relationships with Aminata and Tain Hu, and the fiercely contemporary reflections of the real world: tear-gassing rioters(? - I think), or the exocet. And some of the imagery, especially the map weighted down with coins (wish you'd done more with this one). On the other hand, I thought the powers-behind-the-throne were pretty one-dimensionally villainous; the Masquerade was all about control, never civilising or paternalistic. I'm happy the novel wasn't a paean to Empire, but it felt a bit moustache-twirling. And, more seriously, the worldbuilding felt, for want of a better word, thin. I'm calling it serious because the plot relies on it being a realistic, functioning world, but the text contradicts that. The late-19th-century vibe of the Masquerade and quasi-mediaeval Aurdwynn felt inconsistent rather than a deliberate tension. They have torpedoes on sailing ships and naval mines, but not guns. The Masquerade puts notices up in the Aurdwynni villages, so why are there enough literate people to make this worth while? The Masquerade felt like it had been imposed on the world, with the economic and scientific knowledge of the twentieth century, preying on other nations... "Yes, first I'll trade with you, then I'll crash your economy, you silly foreigners... dance, puppets! Dance!" It seems to sit at the top of the world, unrivalled and omnicompetent. The effect was that the novel felt a bit didactic. Questions/comments for the General, if you like: Were the red ships arriving at the start a reference to Delany's Tales of Neveryon? And I'm sure I caught a nod to "Diving into the Wreck", too. Apparitor is sometimes called "the Apparitor", which looks like a copyediting mistake to me. By the way, I think part of the reason people were expecting it to be sf is this thread's tag, not the book. I read the UK edition and I think the cover's okay.
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Feb 3, 2016 23:33
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General Battuta posted:19th century's a bit premature. Torpedoes were in play during the Islamic Golden Age, and naval mines were around by the 16th century too. The Masquerade and Oriati are right on the edge of a transition towards cannon armament (which also happened in the late 16th/early 17th in our world), but right now the Masquerade's incendiaries are much better, and since they won the last war with firestarters they're doctrinally attached. I said 19th century because the Masque's emphasis on races and homosexuality struck me as being very modern and the civil service exam gave me a strong British Empire vibe. So did the seafaring, but that's probably just an accident of the plot. I did a bit of searching and I think you're talking about this thing <- click this link, guys, this is cool when you say torpedoes... I just didn't pick up on it from the description. Gotta argue with you about cannon, though: they've been around since the 14th century and were effective siege weapons by 1500. quote:Nor is the Masquerade's scientific and economic knowledge super 20th century — it's again drawing a lot on the Islamic golden age, Indian Ocean trade circle communities, and financial gambits as old as Ancient Egypt Ooh, you don't have a bibliography, do you, because this sounds fascinating! quote:A lot of the research that went into the book involved creating situations that felt anachronistic but still made structural and technological sense, to show how our own narrative of history is shaped by the way we remember the origin of innovations and social mores (Taranoke's society is largely based on some tribes in the Amazon). Next book will be going even harder on the things-that-feel-unrealistic-but-totally-could've-happend! I don't think I understand. Are you saying you deliberately made your cultures by combining stuff from different real-world cultures, but in a theoretically possible way? If that's the case, Masquerade Aurdwynn didn't work for me, I'm afraid. quote:Speaking of literate people (sorrrrry I couldn't resist), the sentence about putting up notices reads right like this, at least in my manuscript (maybe it got fumbled in page proofs?) I don't doubt that's what I read, but I asked myself "why not only announce it?" Even if you don't take the "every door" thing literally. quote:Thank you for the comments! It didn't come across in my first post, but I enjoyed your novel. Thank you for writing it! Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Feb 4, 2016 |
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Feb 4, 2016 15:41
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When I thought about it I just assumed she was grandstanding for political benefit and nobody actually expected it to happen v v Imagine the poor devils traipsing through Aurdwynni mud with a sackful of notices on their back. Suddenly, bandits...
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Feb 5, 2016 17:40
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