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The Year Of Our War by Steph Swainson check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
It's perhaps most important to note as it introduces us to new writer Steph Swainston, who on the basis of this display could go on to great things in the future. The novel takes place in the Fourlands, a feudal fantasy land in which thousands of mortals are ruled over by Emperor San and his chosen circle of fifty immortal warriors.
Because of his drug addiction, Jant's position in the Circle and thus his immortality is unsteady. At the beginning of the novel, an attack to push back the Insects goes wrong and a mortal King is killed. Jant uses an overdose of cat to send him to the Shift. After this, the Insects' hold on the Fourlands grows until much of the land is under threat. To make matters worse, two immortals in the Circle are feuding over the title of Sailor, the commander of the Emperor's fleets. Swainston uses enough new ideas to make 'The Year Of Our War' stand ahead of other fantasy novels in the same vein. The friction between the immortals of the Circle and the mortal soldiers they sacrifice in battle adds an extra dimension to the war setting, as does the drug-addled main character, whom most of the other immortals look down on. The voracious Insect foes bring a Starship Troopers-like desperation to the battles, which are exciting and often brilliantly tense, especially when some of the mortal characters take part. I enjoyed reading this book but found it occasionally confusing. The geography of the land never quite worked in my head and considering how much travelling Jant does in the novel, it frustrated me that most of the journeys took place quickly, without any sense of movement. The progression of the Insects march on the Fourlands seemed arbitrary rather than planned and I never quite perceived the land as an actual place. There were a few similar inconsistencies in plot and style. Nothing major but just enough to jolt me out of Swainston's world. The flashbacks and visits to the Shift come at haphazard times and break the flow. The threat of a standstill war for two thousand years suddenly becoming deadly for the Fourlands didn't seem plausible, hence wasn't as tense as it could have been. 'The Year Of Our War' is perhaps more important for the promise of Steph Swainston in the future than for the book itself. It's worth a read certainly, but I feel it won't be until the next couple of books that we see the author emerge as the fantasy writer she could be. Tomas L. Martin
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OTHER REVIEWS - April 2004
Other reviews: April 2004 Lucifer's Dragon by Jon Courtenay Grimwood The Companions by Sherri S. Tepper Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell The Skies Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton The Adam Strange Archives Volume 1 Wit'ch Gate: Immortal Magic - Infinite Vengence by James Clemens Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong Deep Space Nine: Rising Son by SD Perry Absolution Gap (The Inhibitors series book 3) by Alastair Reynolds Alchymist (The Well Of Echoes book 3) by Ian Irvine Hal Spacejock: Second Course by Simon Haynes Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris The Dancers At The End Of Time by Michael Moorcock The Crow: The Story Behind The Film by Bridget Baiss British Summertime by Paul Cornell The Year Of Our War by Steph Swainson April 2004: Hardback to Paperbacks The Chesley Awards: A Retrospective by John Grant and Elizabeth Humphrey with Pamela D. Scoville
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This
first novel is a good one. It's confusing in parts, but makes up
for it in vibrant characterisation, wonderfully weird settings and
some excellent battle scenes.
For
two thousand years, they have been fighting a war against a seemingly
unstoppable horde of Insects. The viewpoint character is Jant Shira
who, due to his flying ability, occupies the position of Messenger
in the Emperor's Circle. Jant is addicted to the drug cat, which
when overdosed transports him into the Shift, an alternate world
that everyone passes off as a hallucination.
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