Tuesday, June 19, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher




Summer in Orcus is a "YA"/Middle-Grade Novel written by T Kingfisher - who if you didn't know is actually children's book author Ursula Vernon (Kingfisher is the pseudonym she uses for her non children's books).  It's also one of the nominees for the first ever (Not-a-)Hugo Award for Best SciFi/Fantasy Young Adult Novel and as such was included in full in the Hugo Packet.  That said, Summer in Orcus is definitely on the younger side of the "Young Adult" genre (hence my use of "Middle-Grade" above) unlike several of the other nominees.  It's still pretty good even if it's definitely meant for a younger audience, mind you.

Summer in Orcus is a portal fantasy - main protagonist Summer is taken by Baba Yaga to a fantasy world very different from our own, with magical creatures abound and dangerous fantasy threats as well.  It is arguably a response to books like the Chronicles of Narnia - main character Summer is in fact aware of Narnia and its ilk and is genre savvy as a result - sharing similarities on a basic level but going in very different directions - no Christian allegories here.  Instead it's a story of a girl going on a journey and discovering the key to safety is kindness, not violence, and is pretty wonderful at that.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
11 year old Summer is the daughter of a woman who absolutely refuses to let Summer do anything that could possibly be unsafe.  But one day, a walking house enters the alley to her backyard, and Summer comes face to face with the old krone, Baba Yaga, who promises to give Summer her heart's desire....and sends Summer to the strange fantasy world known as Orcus.

But all is not right in Orcus, as things - wondrous things! - (such as a tree that sprouts frogs) seem to be dying of unknown causes.  As Summer encounters the "cancers at the heart of the world," she decides that she must be in this land to fix what's wrong.  As she journeys she will come across a series of wondrous companions of various types and forms, all helping to achieve her goal to save this world.  But Summer will also find herself on the run from the mysterious and terrifying Zultan Houndbreaker and his mysterious master, the unseen Queen in Chains.

What exactly can an 11 year old girl, the daughter of an overbearing mother, do to save a world as wondrous as Orcus?  And what really is her heart's desire?
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Ursula Vernon (aka T Kingfisher, the author of this book) states in the book's acknowledgements that "Summer in Orcus started as a place to put things."  If this is the case, Vernon's imagination is incredible and her ability to put together all of these ideas on the page and make a cohesive story is truly wondrous.  At no point does this book feel like an author just throwing ideas onto the page and hoping to make anything stick - everything pretty much lands and feels like a natural addition to the world.  Portal Fantasy Worlds are pretty common, but the world of Orcus is particularly special.

We can see that in the cast of characters who Summer winds up meeting - the talking unnamed Weasel, the wolf, Glorious (whose ability is such a fantastic pun I'm not going to spoil it), the bird Reginald, and many many more.  Sure they're mainly talking animals, but they're all really fun characters who make this a wondrous world to read.

One thing I'd like to note is that while the Amazon page for this book lists it under the categories of "Dark Fantasy" and "Horror," it is very much, especially with these characters, the opposite of that.  While this isn't a totally super-light toned book, each of the above characters who join the protagonist Summer on her way are done in an optimistic manner that's kind of refreshing - take Glorious for instance, who the heroes come across in a cage initially, and partially fear might be dangerous before deciding to rescue him.  In another book, this might result in dark consequences, but this isn't that type of book, and Glorious is and remains a staunch ally throughout (and a pretty fun character at that).

And then there's our heroine Summer, who's incredibly sweet.  Unlike say the heroines/heroes of Narnia-type portal fantasy, there is no point where Summer is drafted into a battle or learns or even wants to learn how to fight.  All Summer knows how to do is to care and to try and comfort others.  She's very smart (and sometimes genre-savvy, as she references similar worlds like Narnia at times), though immature - she's 11 after all - and wants to do good, but isn't some schemer or fighter.  She's just a girl in a strange world trying her best.

Is the book perfect?  I don't think so, but I'm struggling to think of individual things that bothered me throughout the book - nothing really comes to mind.  I suspect part of why I don't consider this book a masterpiece is how clearly aimed at a younger audience this is - it's still incredibly well done, but maybe this is a bit too young for my taste.  I'd give this to a younger reader in a heartbeat however.
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