Destiny can be a cruel mistress. For she demands from us a fealty it is not in our nature to grant. As intelligent creatures endowed with the freedom to act as we choose, we are accustomed to behaving as we wish, pursuing our interests as a means of satisfying our desires. But this cannot always be so. For there are moments in time upon which fortunes, cultures, even worlds, turn, moments of such gravity and consequence that the few who stand closest to such moments must sacrifice for the rest in the hopes of brightening all our tomorrows. For some, the glory that will come from bearing this burden will be enough, but for those who do not seek such recognition, the task is a thankless one, weighing down the shoulders of the unready with the hopes and dreams of unimaginable multitudes. Ms. Fallon explores this theme in her delightful, if plodding, trilogy.
In a world populated by gods and magics, demons and sorcerers, one would not expect to find a country of atheists. And yet Medalon, a sprawling nation of cultural and spiritual minimalists, thrives in its unbelief. Organized and ruled by the pitiless Sisterhood of the Blades, an order of powerful women who have replaced religion with politics and mercy with ruthlessness, Medalon has eschewed not only the weak, pagan gods favored by the kingdoms that surround it, but their demigodal servants as well. And why not? After all, the Sisterhood, now so deeply enshrined into Medalese culture, rose to prominence on the back of the Purges, centuries-old exterminations of all those who would summon magic to aid them. If the gods will not step in to help the Harshini, men and women who carry in them a measure of the divine, then the divine is not divine at all.
This narrowminded view will not serve Medalon well in the dark days to come. For the Sisterhood has claimed, as an acolyte, the Demon Child, a 20-year-old Harshini half-breed whose destiny is to slay one of the very gods they reject. Spawned by the union between a mad Harshini king and a helpless human girl, the Demon Child is the answer to an ancient prophecy that will not only bring to a head a war for the heavens, but will overturn the world Medalon knows so well. If they do not adjust, if they hold stubbornly to their convictions, refusing to acknowledge the danger, then they may well plunge the world into chaos and, worse yet, zealous slavery to a cruel and jealous god.
In Medalon, the trilogy's opening act, we are plunged into a tangled world of politics and rivalry. Rshiel, the daughter of the First Sister of the Sisterhood of the Blades, is a beleaguered acolyte, a young woman who has never pleased her demanding mother. With her brother, Tarja, a promising warrior in the ranks of the Defenders, soldiers sworn to protect the Sisterhood and uphold their laws in Medalon, they make a truly miserable pair, battered spirits who have spent too many years suffering beneath the weight of unachievable expectations. And so, when events in the Sisterhood turn disastrously against them, Rshiel and Tarja flee everything they've ever known, falling into a rebellion that seeks to make right what the Sisterhood has put so tragically wrong.
The theistic rebels, who stand no chance of defeating the Medalese state, may well be doomed, but no moreso than the fugitive offspring of the First Sister, both of whom are subjected to trials that not even their harsh upbringings have prepared them for. Fate seems, at times, to take pleasure in thwarting them, kicking them back down into the mud every time they escape their torment. Could there be another force at work, a divine will that has its own purpose behind increasing the suffering of Rshiel and Tarja? Anything is possible in a world where gods draw their strength and characteristics from the infinitely cruel human will.
In Treason Keep, the second instalment in the series, the drama shifts away from Medalon to the warlords and empires that live upon its borders. Considered heathens and pagan provocateurs by the Medalese, these kingdoms, rich in culture and intrigue, wealth and weapons, do believe in the gods and their Harshini representatives, but the Medalese purges have largely consigned these mythical beings to legend, stories spun for children. Ironically, like Medalon, these kingdoms are much more interested in conquest and politics. One victim of these machinations is Princess Adrina of Fardohnya. The most capable of her monarchical father's many, many heirs, she is nonetheless sold in marriage to Karien, a powerful kingdom of zealots whose worship of their one god, the Overlord, is a threat to the freedom of all intelligent beings and to the mind and body of this clever but powerless princess.
In Harshini, the trilogy's concluding work, the conflict between the zealous, combative Kariens and the rest of the continental powers comes to a head when the Karien priesthood manipulates the Medalon leadership into an alliance against the Demon Child and her uneasy amalgam of foreign powers. Pressed for time and bereft of the means by which to fulfil her destiny, this half-blooded heiress to the power of the gods must soon uncover some weakness in her Karien enemy. For failure will plunge her world into the darkness of authoritarian, monotheistic rule, condemning her friends and their innocent subjects to lives of emotionally crippled servitude.
Though at times burdened by unnecessary digressions, The Demon Child is, in every other respect, fantastic fantastical fiction. Populated by winning characters who are as animated by their foibles as they are burdened by their flaws, the series is an engaging romp which finds a pleasing balance between the questing heroism of high fantasy and the gritty, backs-against-the-wall fatalism of darker, more realistic offerings. Magic is present and potent without being a cheap means by which the author can exert her will upon the plot. In this, it bears a striking resemblance to David Eddings who must surely have been, in some regard, one of Ms. Fallon's primary inspirations.
Though the series handles questions of destiny and leadership with grace and skill, the manner in which its gods are woven into its plot is most compelling. Rather than having her characters abdicate personal responsibility to omnipotent gods upon whom all the ugliness and darkness of the drama can be blamed, Ms. Fallon flips the paradigm. The gods are the extension of human will, waxing and waning in power and influence based upon the number of people who believe in them. This owes more to metaphysics than it does to religiosity. It binds all of her actors to their own actions, making them responsible for the darkness in their world. It demands that the balance between light and dark be found by the humans, not by the gods who are largely exogenous actors. This may not be an original idea, but it is wonderfully imagined and charmingly executed.
There are flaws here. Not only does Fallon struggle to realize the full potential of the series' climax, she often loses control of the narrative, allowing it to lead her off in directions that do little credit to the core plot. Moreover, the stubbornness of some of her characters defies logic, serving only to provide contrast the openmindedness of her heroes. But regardless of its warts, Ms. Fallon has demonstrated, in The Demon Child, a delightful sense of humor, a solid grasp of tragedy and a downright entertaining yarn , all of which ensure that it will be some time before I forget her players.
@emit
@emit An unexpected gem... (3/5 Stars)
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