Wednesday, January 16, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Reader by Traci Chee




The Reader is the first in a YA Fantasy trilogy by Traci Chee, ending with a novel out last year (The Storyteller).  As you might imagine from the title, it features a fantasy world in which reading is a special ability, amongst a world that is near-completely illiterate.  Moreover, there is literal magic in reading, a power that can enable people to know unknowable things about the past, present and future, and to perform wondrous feats.  It is in this world that this story takes place, following a girl and a boy searching for the truth as they encounter this strange power.

It's an interesting world filled with interesting magics and characters, but the book takes a long time to set up its plot and only really has all of its interesting plot aspects come to a head at the very end, just in time for the book to end.  So The Reader definitely had me interested in the second book, but it isn't very satisfying on its own, which is a problem if you're not sure you're ready to be that invested in a full trilogy.  It's very possible given the setup that this trilogy could take a leap forward in the next book, so I will be trying it out, as there was nothing here I really disliked.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
When Sefia was a little girl her parents were taken from her - first her mother, and then her father.  When her father was taken, Sefia followed his guidance and found her father's most sacred object and took it to her "Aunt" Nin, a famous thief.  Together Sefia has grown up on the run with Aunt Nin, always keeping the mysterious object safe.

But when the people chasing after them take Nin, Sefia follows, desperate to save the last remaining member of her family.  To try and understand what is happening, she finally takes a look at the object, an object made up of paper and filled with strange symbols: A Book.  As she teaches herself to read, guided by some of her father's teachings from her early childhood, she discovers a strange power, to see things beyond what appear on the surface...and perhaps to achieve even greater feats.  But Sefia is unsure what this power is, or how it can help her save her family.

But as Sefia travels on, she begins to see recurring a symbol that appeared first on the book, and knows it to have some relation to what she seeks.  Following the symbol leads Sefia to a strange but dangerous mute boy, as well as people who she once thought only existed in stories, as she gets closer and closer to the truth she seeks.  But the truth may not be what Sefia wants to hear, and her enemies, who want The Book badly, are hot on her heels....
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The Reader is told mainly through the eyes of Sefia, although the book takes a few chapters away to deal with a parallel storyline featuring "Lon," an apprentice reader learning how to do magic via reading and a few chapters that take place from other points of view here and there.  But for the main part his is Sefia's story, and she's a rather strong young character.  You really get to feel her trying to figure out what is going on, to see her learning the wonders of reading, and the implications of the magic she learns to use on her own.

And the stories that she reads in The Book are really well done (especially when a reveal occurs that gives them all new light).  The other characters who get development in this story are not that many - but this is clearly Sefia's story (and that of her travelling companion, Archer), and it works generally pretty well.  And the plot moves along pretty briskly, with chapters not being too long, allowing for things to flow at a good pace so that the book reads rather quickly.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention more specifically the core idea of The Reader: that the power of literacy, of reading and writing, is real Power and that control of same is incredibly dangerous and powerful.  The Reader does this by the idea being incredibly literal - by the very ability to read, Sefia and Lon possess magical powers that can do a number of fascinating things, from seeing the past, present, or potentially future of objects, to actual telekinetic or magical tricks, the full extent of which is obviously not encompassed by what's seen in this novel.  It's an interesting and obviously relevant idea and one which I've seen before (I'm reminded of a very different book, The Bloodprint, which had a bit more in-depth examination of same) and it works well, although the literal nature of it kind of defeats some of the allegorical power it has I'd think.

Still, The main issue with The Reader is that it takes an awful long time to set things up and things finally seem to be happening just when the story ends.  Throughout the story, we get hints - first through a parallel storyline and second through occasional chapters that occur from the perspective of an antagonist - of the mysterious Library from which The Book comes and which controls magic and assassins and a whole lot more for some mysterious purpose.  So we, the readers, know something about the organization hunting Sefia, even if she doesn't....until the last 10% of the story.  And the reveals in that last 10% don't really provide great payoff, leaving the mystery still present for the sequels to deal with - which is a bit of a disappointing payoff.  It's an interesting mystery but I really would've appreciated being thrown a bit more of a bone.

The parallel storyline is also a bit of a letdown in the end - the storyline clearly builds toward a certain point.....and then a reveal occurs about that storyline during which a large time jump occurs, so we really don't get to see the reason "why" those events occur. It's very possible, probably likely, we'll see the time gap filled in in the next book, but without the time gap, the parallel storyline just feels kind of pointless and a waste of time, just teasing things that never really occur or get explained.

I don't mean to sound too negative, as I AM interested in reading the second book, The Speaker, so the setup this book spends its whole time working on is interesting and if the second book has a satisfactory payoff, I won't complain too much.  But as a single book, this is a bit disappointing.
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