For humans, nothing is more central to who we are than identity. It is the sum of us, the gestalt of our life experiences, our neurological responses and our physical makeup, all of which come together to create an individual self that, thankfully, cannot be duplicated. For if it could, then we would be nothing more than clones, definable programs that have run their course before and will again, predictable beings stripped of that most essential aspect that distinguishes us from unthinking organisms.
But what of twins? Are they not, in some sense, clones? Are they not created from the same recipe, reared by the same parents, released to experience the same environment? Or are they different sides to the same coin, halves of a whole that can only be made one by union? Ms. Reimann harnesses the energy of such philosophical questions in this sweeping, fantastical trilogy.
In the ancient empire of Bissanty, a place of gods and storms, sacrifice and slavery, justice is as scarce as mercy. Llara Thunderbringer, the highest of the twelve Gray Gods, commands the five corners of the empire, her power on earth secured through the Bissanty emperor and his five princely sons who ensure symmetry throughout the realm. Thus, when Tielmark, its most southern province, rose in rebellion against this most cruel of imperiums, throwing off Bissanty's oppressive yoke and pledging itself to the service of Eliante and Emiera, the twin goddesses of the hunt. Under their protection, Tielmark thrived for three centuries, safe from the machinations of the ritualistic empire which never forgot this most grievous betrayal. Pride and symmetry would not allow it.
Still, their are holes in every plan, gaps that can be exploited and widened to let through vengeance and darkness. In Tielmark's case, this weakness stems from the pact its heroic prince made with the twin goddesses. In exchange for their protection from Llara and Bissanty, he vowed that his heirs would forever marry women of common, Tielmaran blood, ensuring that Tielmark would forever be ruled by its own. Failure on the part of any of its subsequent princes to fulfil this pledge would destroy the agreement with the twin gods and leave Tielmark unprotected against the holy wrath of its powerful and ruthless neighbor to the north.
In Wind From A Foreign Sky, the trilogy's opening volume, 300 years have past since that fateful agreement and Tielmark is vital and peaceful. The common folk ply their various trades largely free of the dominion of their betters who are raised to respect the finest noble traditions. But stirring in Tielmark's capital is a dark plot that might well see the relatively young kingdom toppled into ruin. For representatives from Bissanty have secreted themselves at the prince's court, deploying a combination of magic and temptation to subvert figures at both the heart of the government and the ceremony of marital renewal that must be soon made in order to honor the twin gods. Their aim? To make an abomination of the ritual, leaving Tielmark bereft of divine protection.
Standing against this plot are two adolescent sisters only now coming into their mystical powers. Gaultry and Mervion are twins, the bastard offspring of a father who, upon being elevated to the nobility, abandoned them to a woodland life with their grandmother, unable to acknowledge them as his own. This is at least Gaultry's angry view of her father's betrayal. Mervion, the gentler of the two, harbors less enmity for a man who has been recently slain in what appears to have been a hunting accident. His slaying triggers a series of events that sees Mervion captured and an accomplished soldier sent to guard Gaultry's life. But not even this wolfish warrior can keep her safe when she fixes her mind upon rescuing her sister, an act that causes her to take center stage in Bissanty's insidious plot.
In A Tremor From A Bitter Earth, the Chronicle's second entry, the danger has only escalated. For Bissanty has sharpened its attacks on Tielmark, sending sacred assassins into her lands to butcher the powerful witches that both keep Tielmark safe and ensure the continuation of her most important rituals. When Gaultry prevents one of these assassins from killing Tielmark's prince, she spares his life, beseeching her sister to help her protect the boy from the poisons imposed upon him to ensure his loyalty.
While the sisters work to heal the young assassin, showing him far more mercy than he showed his victims, Martin, Gaultry's protector, rashly ventures into the heart of the Bissanty empire, on a mission to see his honor cleared. But when he is captured by Bissanty's most powerful sorcerer, Gaultry, with the young assassin in tow, must follow his trail. For love and duty demand nothing less. She is not at all prepared for the truths she discovers in this most exacting of empires.
In Prince of Fire And Ashes, the trilogy's concluding effort, the war for Tielmark's future is brought to a head when the aligning of the stars opens a small window of time in which the fledgling country can raise a prince to the kingship and forever banish the claims the Bissanty empire has to Tielmark. In order to make this elevation a reality, however, royal blood must be shed, blood that will pave the way for a monarch's crown to be rested, by the hand of the gods, upon the head of Tielmark's highest noble. As a priestly conspiracy works behind the scenes to fulfil an ancient prophecy the bloodiest way possible, Gaultry, now a seasoned witch, endeavors to untangle 50 years of lies in hopes of finding, at the heart of this web of secrets, truths, of her origins and of the means to create a king.
Though its plot is troubled by clumsy, post-hoc rationalizations conjured up to justify the dangers its characters are subjected to, The Tielmaran Chronicles is, on the whole, entertaining work. Steeped in the finest traditions of female mysticism -- witchcraft and taro readings play prominent roles throughout --, Ms. Reimann has created a feminine response to the all-too-common chauvinism of fantasy fiction. This alternative energy provides the story with style and punch that elevates it above the ubiquitous trope of farmboy-fights-the-dark-lord that dominates high fantasy.. Gaultry is convincing as a young woman who, while struggling to come into her powers, is burdened by the rejection of her father and overwhelmed by the political intricacies of life at court. In this, Ms. Reimann has successfully animated a heroine that galvanizes her epic.
However, the series suffers from two major flaws that prevent it from achieving greatness. In the main, Ms. Reimann struggles to animate any of her characters beyond Gaultry, her heroine. Everyone, from the prince she's tasked to rescue to the darkly dispositioned soldier who earns her loyalty, is a caricature, floating in and out of the story. They exist only to provide something against which Gaultry can act: a man to be besotted with, a prince to save, a boy to aid. True, most secondary characters are designed to bring out the virtues of the story's protagonists. However, when done well, they have their own personalities, the foibles of which lead them into the blunders from which the heros rescue them. Ms. Reimann cannot even muster this much for Mervion, Gaultry's twin sister. Which leads us to t he series' second flaw. After investing so much time and thought into the symbolism of twins and polarities, dominant and submissive, hard and soft, darkness and light, she reduces Mervion to a plot zombie, a piece to be moved about her chessboard.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings of plot and character that burden her trilogy, Ms. Reimann largely succeeded in her mission here, to create a mystical world of angry gods and intricate prophecies. Both serve these three novels well, creating an escapist atmosphere full of crackling power and divine destiny. Were that these virtues had been married to a strong story, this series might well have coalesced into a tale worthy of the masters of the genre.
A decidedly mixed bag, but certainly work that will be welcomed by those fond of magic and fate. (3/5 Stars)
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