Thief's Magic, Trudi Canavan – 2014
Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy was one of the forerunners of the modern YA genre. It was published during the Potter phenomenon, but well before the dark shadow of Twilight began to spread over YA writing. Seeing them in the school library, I remember being intrigued by the simple covers, which bore a plain white background and a black robed figure dead centre, and they remain on my to-read list. However, during the NaNoWriMo-dominated November, I called into my local library and discovered the first book in Trudi Canavan's latest trilogy: Thief's Magic.
The book concerns Tyen, a young student studying sorcery and archaeology at The Leratian Academy, and his discovery during an archaeological trip, of a book of powerful magic. So powerful, that upon being touched, it scans the mind of the one holding it, and adds their knowledge to its store. Much of this power comes from its sentience, as within its pages is incorporated the spirit of a young woman, Vella, once a great sorcerer/bookbinder herself, before being transmuted into the book by the mightiest sorcerer of the age. Aware that the Academy will not accept much of Vella's knowledge, and scared that they will simply hide her away, Tyen at first conceals the book, until he is betrayed and Vella confiscated. When he realises that they plan to destroy the book for fear of the knowledge she now holds about the Academy, as well as, by extension, about the entire Leratian Empire because the professors have touched Vella, Tyen steals her back and goes on the run. Meanwhile, in another time, on another world, Rielle, the daughter of a prosperous middle-class family, finds herself in the precarious position of having a talent for magic, in a land where magic is considered property of the Angels, and only their exclusively male priests may use it. Even to be able to see or acknowledge where magic has been used carries dire penalties, yet a 'corrupter' haunts the city, teaching those who would learn, against the wishes of the priests. Then Rielle finds herself falling for the poor, charismatic painter, Izare, and everything begins to fall apart…
Within the overaching YA fantasty, there are two distinct genre at work in Thief's Magic. Of the two interwoven strands, neatly presented to us in alternating sections, Tyen's is essentially a 'boy's own' adventure story, fitting nicely into the John Buchan/Alfred Hitchcock-esque 'man on the run' style narrative, while Rielle's plot is far more that of a social and romantic story, though it does bring to mind a toned-down, magical 'A Handmaid's Tale'. Common threads running through both are a suspicion of mysterious authority figures, in Tyen's case the Academy and in Rielle's the priests, and the narrative of a young person's disillusionment with such powers. Misogyny is one of the major themes of the novel, and though it is far more overt in Rielle's narrative, Tyen's perspective offers the interesting narrative of a compassionate person beginning to understand his own privilege. When, whilst on the run, he encounters two women, Veroo and Sezee, one an untrained sorceress, the other the rightful princess of her country, he is forced to confront the prejudices of his own Leratian upbringing. Veroo's request to study sorcery at the Academy has been denied, and Tyen realises 'I know of no female sorcery students. I assumed there had been none with enough ability to qualify'1, while Sezee's crown was lost to her when the Leratian Empire colonised her land, and enforced succession through the male, rather than the female line. During moments like these, Tyen also has to confront the troubling colonial heritage of his land, and the changing of his mind is handled superbly by Canavan.
Indeed, both Tyen and Rielle are excellently written; laced with insight, easy to empathise with and genuinely likeable characters, both naturally quiet and submissive, but both also making huge and divisive decisions. Although Tyen's theft of Vella is a dramatic moment, Rielle's choice to be with Izare carries far greater emotional weight for the reader. Their romance is also handled well, and though it follows the well-worn cliché of a young woman of social standing falling for a roguish artisan, Canavan injects it with enough fire and realism to make it believable, not only that their relationship might start, but also that it might last. A relationship of a much stranger nature, but one which holds equally as much chemistry is that between Tyen and Vella, a relationship with difficulties far greater even than Rielle and Izare's, yet written with enough nuance by Canavan that I will be interested to see what future installments of the series bring.
There is also a clear analogy at work in the text, most prominently in Tyen's section, in the fear that magic, which suffuses the air all around and which the sorcerers need to draw on, is running out. The idea of depleting natural resources seems an easily drawn parallel with global warming, but it is subtly enough done that the message does not feel forced.
The book's biggest problem, one that, in a sense, it advertises on the front cover is that it is the first in a trilogy. This, of course, shouldn't be a problem in itself; the issue comes with the simple fact that the entire book is the interwoven story of two people, their lives and times, all building towards, presumably, when they eventually meet. And that word 'presumably' is the problem. Because they don't meet. Not in Thief's Magic. And while keeping their stories separate is an excellent way of allowing each main character room to breathe and develop, and each have their own dramatic climaxes, not having them meet denies the book as a whole any emotional resolution. While I am fully aware that this is a trilogy, not including the encounter that the series is clearly building towards gives Thief's Magic the unsatisfying feeling of being a glorified, extended prologue.
Despite this, Thief's Magic is an excellently written YA novel, featuring compelling characters, exciting emotional episodes and mature exploration of issues such as sex, authority and the cultural institutionalism of racism, jingoism and misogyny; issues that, right now, it is more important than ever that literature should discuss. Hats off to Canavan for dealing with it all so skilfully, it would just be nice if the plotting had received the same attention.
Thief's Magic page on Canavan's website, where it can be purchased: http://www.trudicanavan.com/books/millenniums-rule-trilogy/thiefs-magic-2/
1Canavan, Trudi. Thief's Magic, Orbit, 2014 pp. 284
And I Darken, Kiersten White – 2016
A little while ago, the incomparable @thebookfox, greatest of booksellers and guardian of the written word, sent me a consignment of books that I'd requested. A couple of these have already made an appearance, while others will no doubt be fluttering their pages around the corner of this blog pretty soon. Amongst such treasures as I had requested, however, was a proof-copy of Kiersten White's And I Darken, which I had never heard of before and that @thebookfox, in her wisdom, thought I might like.
And I Darken concerns the children of Vlad Dracul, the dark, violent, vicious child Lada, and her little brother, the beautiful, gentle and completely helpless Radu, who find themselves held hostage by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, to ensure their father's loyalty. Lada chafes at her captivity, desiring nothing more than to return to her beloved native Wallachia, while Radu discovers the beauty of Edirne Court and of the Islamic faith practised there. Most importantly, at Edirne, they meet Mehmed, the young son of the Sultan, who becomes initially their closest friend, until both find themselves in love with him. Both are horrified: Radu due to his unawareness of homosexuality as anything but a sin and his awareness that Mehmed cannot reciprocate his love, and Lada because she has already arrived at the conclusion that emotions, particularity love and affection, will only weaken her. When Mehmed's father abdicates, the three are plunged still further into a web of intrigue and danger and pitted against Halil Pasha, the treacherous advisor, while Lada and Radu, aware of each other's feelings, try to hide their love of him from Mehmed. He, meanwhile, comes to rely evermore on their loyalty and ingenuity and while he remains entirely unaware of Radu's yearning, his own desire for Lada soon becomes apparent.
Right from the start, themes of femininity and masculinity, and what it means to be female or male, run through the heart of the book. Early on, in Lada and Radu's parents, we see embodied the very stereotypical dichotomy of the male as powerful and female as weak: in the very first sentence Vlad Dracul's 'heavy brow descended like a storm'1, while their mother, Vasilissa's 'tiny frame trembled'2. Almost immediately, these obvious tropes are subverted by the younger generation. As a very young child, Lada has 'arched brows that made her look perpetually cross'3, is fond of biting people and is 'contrary and vicious and the meanest child the nurse had ever cared for'4. Radu in contrast has 'eyes framed by thick lashes, his lips full, his gentle curls kissed with a hint of Saxon gold'. From this obvious role-reversal, White builds complexity, as Lada, who from birth has associated femininity with powerlessness and done everything to be as masculine as possible, is confronted by the Sultan's harem, in particular Huma, Mehmed's mother and ruler of the harem, who moves 'with a sensuous grace that terrified Lada'5. Huma explains her perspective, that in exchange for being a possession of the Sultan and unable to ever leave the harem, there are great benefits, in the following paragraph:
'There are many ways to be powerful. There is power in stillness, there is power in watching, waiting, saying the right thing at the right time to the right person. There is power in being a woman – oh yes, power in these bodies you gaze upon with derision.” Hama ran one hand down her ample breasts, over her stomach, and rested it on her hip. “When you have something someone else wants, there is always an element of power'6.
Though he does not hear her speech, it is Radu who embraces this side of power, of secrecy and manipulation – and it is worth noting that he is not bound by the restrictions that he would face as a woman – while Lada responds very simply that such power 'can be taken from you'7 and continues all of her military training, in an attempt to gain power that she is not reliant on anyone else for. Thus her eventual rejection of simply becoming Mehmed's wife, instead ending the novel by preparing to re-take the only mother she has ever recognised: the land of Wallachia itself.
If any on this sounds rather on-the-nose, White's characterisation more than makes up for it. The evolution from caricature to nuanced character is beautifully done in Radu and Lada, while Mehmed's progression lonely child to passionate, capable Sultan is excellently intertwined with their development. The supporting characters are memorable, from their various hapless tutors to Lada's sparring partners, and the scheming Halil Pasha is allowed the dignity of a man trying to do what he feels to be best, without veering into moustache-twirling territory. A particular mention must go to Kumal, whose kindness, understanding and generosity to Radu seem almost unreal at moments, yet because White simply asks us to believe in him, we do.
The depiction of Islam within the text is lovely as well, shown mostly through Radu's eyes as initially both alien and beautiful, though White never falls back on cheaply exoticising the religion, and as we progress we see the comfort and security that his new-found faith gives Radu.
There are a couple of minor issues, which should be mentioned. To be extraordinarily picky, I would suggest that the title is a bit of a misnomer; Lada starts the book pretty aggressive and violent, and although she is forced into making decisions that seem cold or heartless to other characters, there is no sense of her actually becoming evil. This is especially so given that, during an early exchange between Lada and Radu, Lada first states that 'If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me'8 and when Radu asks her if she will protect him, she responds 'Until the day I kill you'.9 Given these lines and the title, I had assumed this would be foreshadowing a very dark end indeed, although I suppose that given this is only the first in a planned trilogy, it might still happen.
Two rather more serious issues present themselves, one of which White seems aware of. In her Author's Note to the book, she admits she has 'taken massive liberties...particularly changing Vlad the Impaler to Lada the Impaler'10. The problem is that it is not made clear within the text that this is what she is doing; even towards the end, when Lada is returning as ruler to her own land, there are no impaling references specific to her, beyond her closing statement of 'I am the dragon'11. Unless we are already aware that Vlad the Impaler's father was also called Vlad Dracul, we simply assume that White is taking even greater liberties and portraying the legendary impaler as 'so worthlessly, weakly human'12 at the beginning of the novel.
There is also the issue of the connotations that the name 'Dracul' or, lets be real here, 'Dracula' have taken on. Obviously, this book concerns the historical Vlad Dracul, rather than the most famous vampire in all media, but attempting a heavily fictionalised retelling of a historical person, who is already completely obscured by modern mythology is always going to be mired in associations and expectations. Given the 'massive liberties' being taken anyway, it may have been simpler to just write a purely fictional tale of Lada and Radu, without invoking the Dracul name and all of its modern day significance.
And I Darken is an excellent YA novel, with a compelling, if not always likeable, pair of protagonists and an interesting if slightly meandering plot, and as we leave Lada, at the end of the first part of the trilogy, standing on the border of her land, proclaiming that she is 'the dragon' I will be interested to see where Kiersten White takes her next.
Link to Penguin's page for And I Darken, from which the book can be purchased: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1108889/and-i-darken/
1 White, Kiersten. And I Darken, Corgi Books, Penguin Random House, 2016 pp. 1
2 pp. 11
3 pp. 5
4 pp.6
5 pp. 179
6 pp. 184
7 pp. 184
8 pp. 59
9 pp. 59
10 Author's Note to And I Darken, pp. 484
11 pp. 475
12 pp. 460
