Wednesday, November 20, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham




A Betrayal in Winter is the second book in Daniel Abraham's "Long Price Quartet", his first four published novels, after "A Shadow in Summer" (which I reviewed HERE).  I really enjoyed A Shadow in Summer - which combined an epic fantasy setting with the feel of a fantasy of manners, with much of the plot dealing with the interactions and machinations of various characters in a city bereft with conspiracy.  The story had me constantly guessing what would happen next, all the way to its impressive ending, in which one main character makes a pretty dire choice, the effects of which were generally left to the reader to imagine.

A Betrayal in Winter takes place years after A Shadow in Summer (13 years, if I calculated right), and follows two of the same main characters from before - Otah and Maati - now in very different places.  Again, these characters find themselves caught in a city beset by conspiracy, one perhaps even deadlier than before, and have to struggle to both survive and find a way forward.  In some ways therefore, it's a bit of a similar book in mechanics to its predecessor.  But the new characters involved, in particular the story's antagonist, are absolutely tremendous, and even with the feeling of sameness being pretty clear, the characters kept me riveted and caring at what happened next.

Note: I read this as an audiobook and the reader is again very good.  Worth a read in that format.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
For the cities of the Khaiem, being a Khai - the ruler - of one of the cities means you are two things: First, a Man of great power; and Second, that you are the only surviving son of your father.  For only one son of a Khai can ascend to the position, and the sons of the most recent Khai are expected to kill each other until only one remains to take the Khai's chair.

The City of Machi is known for its valuable mines and the magical Andat, named "Stone Made Soft", whose poet master uses the Andat's power to shape and soften stone/rock for the prosperity of all.  But the Khai of Machi is sick and dying, and he has three known sons still alive....until one of those sons is poisoned to death, and it seems the succession contest has finally begun.  Yet all is not as it seems in Machi, as it seems that neither of the two remaining sons is responsible for their brother's death, and another actor may have intent on ruling the city.

Maati Vaupathai, has spent the last decade in disgrace in the poet's village, when he is summoned by the poet's master, the Dai-kvo with a mission; go to Machi and discover the truth behind the killing of the Khai's son.  For it is suspected that the culprit is none other than the man Maati once considered a mentor, the former poet-trainee Otah, long forgotten sixth son of the Khai.  But if Otah really is in Machi, can Maati really bring himself to turn in his former friend, after Maati betrayed Otah the last time the two saw each other?  And if Otah is innocent of the charge of killing his brothers, who actually is responsible and what actually is occurring in Machi?

For the first time in over a decade, Otah and Maati will find themselves in the same place, and together with several others - Cehmai, the poet of Machi & Idaan, a princess of Machi - they will shape the future of the city with their actions....if the conspiracy and succession doesn't get them all killed first.
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A Betrayal in Winter takes a large time jump - about 13-15 years - from the events of the first book, A Shadow in Summer, so the events here are largely self contained.  Which is not to say that you could read this book first - the events of Saraykhet are well in the backs of the minds of our two major recurring characters: Maati and Otah, and drive them forward as they try not to repeat the mistakes they made there and to make things work out for the better.  You'll note that for the second straight book my summary kind of references Maati as the main character instead of Otah as the Amazon summaries do - both are key protagonists, but Maati is again kind of more important in my opinion really.

Regardless of who is more important, in some ways A Betrayal in Winter is a similar type of book to its predecessor.  You have three major protagonists - Otah, Maati, and the poet of Machi, Cehmai - who are struggling to deal with major events driven by a conspiracy within the city, and who are hamstrung frequently by the fact that each has incomplete information and cannot simply share that info with the others.  It's a little irritating honestly, to have a second straight book where much of the drama derives from characters being unable to share information that the reader is fully aware of to get a full picture, and thus making some non-optimal (to say the least) choices for themselves.  Yet the development of these three characters is tremendous, as Otah and Maati are far more developed and a little different people than they once were and the book makes great use of that.  And of course there's Cehmai, whose relationship with his Andat is far different than that of the poet and Andat of the first book and yet just as dangerous in a very different way.  Not to mention Cehmai's struggle with his love of the fourth major character in this book, the princess Idaan.

And it's with Idaan that this book truly shines.  Idaan is essentially the book's antagonist, along with her lover Adrah, and is responsible for the death of the Khai's son and the plot to take the Khai's chair.  But she's no mere Lady Macbeth; instead she's got good reason for her drive - her fury at the gender politics of the Khaiem forbidding her from ruling despite her clear capability, and the fact that her fate as a noble woman is just to be bargained off as a pawn in marriage.  A pawn whose use ends when her husband's life ends, and is forced to go back to her household when he dies, even when there's nothing left for the woman there.  Abraham makes Idaan an incredible character despite the horrible things she does, and the reader may find themselves honestly rooting for her, especially as the scheme spirals out of control, with her originally weak-minded lover and co-conspirator Adrah reacting in ways that seem to doom Idaan to a fate just as bad as the one she is trying to escape.  And hell, Abraham even makes Adrah partially sympathetic too, despite us never seeing inside his head.  It's just tremendous writing, with it all leading to an incredible but fitting ending.

I can't wait to get to the third book in this series, if Abraham can continue writing characters honestly as well as he does here.  If he does continue as such, this quarter may in fact be a hell of a masterpiece.
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