nce upon a time, there was a vast and powerful empire led by an empress named Cyrsa. Although she and her citizenry were humans, they shared the land with many nonhuman races: the Viruk, the Turasyndi and others. Eventually, war broke out between the Empire and the Turasyndi. The climactic battle literally devastated the world, unleashing disruptive wild magic and years of chaos. The humans and others died off in great numbers. Civilization crumbled.
Seven hundred thirty-six years have passed since then, and the shards of Empire have been reformed into nine principalities, each ruled by a royal family. Beyond these havens—which, while civilized and possessed of certain attainments, have never returned to the old glories—the world is a mystery. Pushing at the limits of the unexplored are the cartographers of Nalenyr, chief among them the Anturasi clan, residents of Nalenyr's capital city, Moriande. Ruled dictatorially by their stern patriarch, Qiro, the latest generation of Anturasis—brothers Jorim and Keles, and sister Nirati—chafe under their duties. But they have little idea of the harsher rigors still in store.
Eager to please his ruler, Prince Cyron, Qiro conceives of two expeditions to bolster the vital knowledge he markets, and which secures his high status. He will send his younger grandson, Jorim, on a sea voyage to chart the unknown lands thought to lie to the east. (A previous similar voyage has already killed Qiro's son, Jorim's father.) To the west, overland, he will dispatch Keles, to investigate the blighted realm of Ixyll, where Empress Cyrsa and her armies perished. Nirati will continue to do his bidding at home. Keeping in mental contact with his distant grandchildren, Qiro will funnel their findings to his liege, who battles his neighbor, Prince Pyrust, who has dreams of conquest.
But what awaits Jorim and Keles and their comrades on their respective missions beggars all expectations. Keles will find not only hoary remnants of Cyrsa's fate, but a living survivor of that golden era. And Jorim will discover a new continent—where he is proclaimed by the natives to be a returning deity!
Nine princes in shambles
Michael Stackpole has done a fine and clever thing with the first volume in his latest series. He has married famous moments from our own history during the classical period of discovery—say, the 15th through the 18th centuries AD—with a strong fantasy milieu, whose elements in turn mirror cultures we know, mainly Confucian China. This strong resonant underpinning, combined with ingenious fabrications and Machiavellian plotting, forms a rousing saga whose lineaments we are only beginning to grasp when this book ends on multiple cliffhangers.
The expedition undertaken by Keles evokes such classic overland forays as Lewis and Clark's mission. Jorim's quest has echoes of both Darwin's voyages and those of Captain Cook, as well as of the Spanish conquistadors. Yet these resemblances are not forced, but examples of organic parallel evolution between Stackpole's fantasy world and ours. The particulars of both expeditions always reflect the political, historical and geographical constraints of the imagined lands. As for the culture of the nine kingdoms, where an eternal bureaucracy contends with the royal leaders, Stackpole has lots of fun illustrating how the inertia and schemes of civil servants are more deadly than armies.
Stackpole's cast of characters is well wrought to sustain these adventures as well. The sibling tensions and love among Jorim, Keles and Nirati are depicted keenly, as is their reluctant fealty to their horrid grandfather. The rival princes, Cyron and Pyrust, bluster and maneuver like E.R. Eddison's warriors. And characters such as the ronin-style warrior Moraven Tolo, the inventor Borosan Gryst (a weird technology known as "gyanri" is gradually supplanting magic) and his relative, sea captain Anaeda Gryst, emerge vividly in the fashion of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar heroes.
Finding romance in exploration and the acquisition of knowledge rather than warfare—although plenty of the latter still intrudes—Stackpole's novel resembles science fiction almost as much as it does pure fantasy, lending it allure for readers who might not otherwise be tempted by a mere Tolkien-style trilogy.
