Wednesday, November 3, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

 


Redemptor is the second book in Jordan Ifueko's hyped Raybearer duology, after last year's Raybearer (My review here).  I liked Raybearer quite a bit - its lead character was really strong, its inspiration from African* culture made its world feel in many ways quite original, and it dealt with some very solid themes of injustice, of aristocracy, of empire and assimilation, of sexism/misogyny, and more.  At the same time I didn't love it as much as many people did - the book earned Lodestar and Norton nominations among other awards - with it not quite hitting its themes in as interesting ways as some other books, and its minor characters often getting forgotten in the midst of the story.  But it was very well done, and I was interested to see how the series would move on from that first book.  

*As I said in my Raybearer review, neither the story nor marketing material seems to indicate what African culture in particular, if there is a single one, is the inspiration for much of this world, so I won't speculate, although Ifueko is herself Nigerian-American.*

And Redemptor takes the first book's themes of injustice, of love in its many varieties (sexual, familial, friendship, etc.), of finding a purpose for living of one's own, and takes it in some solid directions, forming a plot that works very well for the most part - even if it is a bit predictable at times.  Its lead character Tarisai remains great, as she may be free of the influence that guided her life and may be in a position of ostensible power, but she still finds herself driven by both ghosts and her own guilt to try and do more and more to alleviate the centuries of injustice that have formed the basis of life in Aritsar, which drives her and the other characters in some real interesting directions.  And the book wraps up really solidly in a nice ending.  All in all, a better book than its already good predecessor, even if it shares some of the same weaknesses with regards to its minor characters.  

Spoilers for Raybearer are inevitable below the jump:
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----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Tarisai is free of her mother, the Lady who once used her magic to try and shape her life's purpose and destiny.  She is now a Raybearer in her own right, the first openly acknowledged female Raybearer, alongside her beloved Dayo.  And now she is Dayo's equal in stature as well, as Empress Redemptor, having changed the bargain with the demons of the underworld, the Abiku, such that they will no longer take the children of one nation in exchange for not invading the country....instead they will merely take her in two years.  

To fulfill her bargain, and prevent another Abiku invasion, Tarisai must convince the twelve leaders of Aritsar's lands to join with her via the Ray, and become her own council.  But to do that, they must learn to love her, and how will they be able to love her if they learn who she is and what she's done?  And even if she manages to achieve her new council, will she be able to survive the underworld itself when she walks willingly into its depths two years from now?  

But as Tarisai struggles with these questions, she finds herself haunted by the spirits of the dead redemptor children, who insist that she is alone, and that she has let injustice fester in Aritsar.  And as Empress Tarisai cannot ignore that injustice, which she finds everywhere...but to change things will require fighting back against the nobles entrenched in their rule, and could jeopardize her friends, her loved ones, and her hopes of fulfilling her bargain to save the world itself....to say nothing of her own future....
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Raybearer setup a world where there was clear injustice in large parts of this land, and left a lot of that injustice undealt with because Tarisai, having grown-up in isolation - could not comprehend it at first and didn't have the power or time to try to deal with it.  Redemptor however picks up those threads with aplomb, as Tarisai, now as Empress finds herself driven to address those injustices - from nobles exploiting commoners, warlords using puppet kings to oppress, to nobles taking advantaged of disabled people for their own ends, and more.  And of course the sexism and misogyny in the system still does exist, even if her prior triumph has gone a long way in shattering it....and others have suffered plenty for it besides her.  And in the middle of this is even a new character, a bandit leader fighting seemingly for the people, the "Crocodile", who is raising unrest....and doing so in a way that might lead to better ends, but will most certainly wind up in a lot of blood, especially among the common people he champions.  

And so Tarisai, now officially Empress, finds herself desperate to take action to change all that - especially when the wrongs and injustices are pointed out by the visions she begins to have of the Ojiji, the ghosts of the redemptor children who were wrongly cast into the underworld by her predecessors.  She knows that those spirits cannot have pure motives, but their words about injustices rank because they are pointing out truth....truths that become apparent when other magical beings begin to act out because of those injustices, and the Crocodile raises further hell, making them impossible to ignore.  And when her closest companions, those on Dayo's council - especially Sanjeet the boy she loves - want to spend the last two years they fear they may have with her just with the version of her they knew and grew to love originally, instead of fighting for this injustice, it becomes very very easy for Tarisai to believe the other poisonous whispers of the Ojiji....that she is alone, both they and her are unworthy.  

These feelings aren't helped by various other aspects of the plot that work well.  First Tarisai has to share her memories with her potentially new council, including how negative and horrible she once was (due to the Lady's influence), making her fear rejection....which convinces her to try to edit her own memories so as to avoid such harms.  Then there's events that make Tarisai's rule more secure...by making the nobles fear her, making her feel more like the Lady than she wants to imagine she could be.  Finally there's the Crocodile's actions, where he tries to convince Tarisai to act alone in solving injustices, using her power in a monstrous and dominating way for the sake of a better world....as a dictator all on her own.  

The result is a story that is an effective tale, handling these themes of loneliness, of accepting who people are, of love, of fighting injustice both past and present, and of the bloody cost of it all, and it mostly works.  Redemptor still has many of the flaws of its predecessor - the book introduces a whole new council, and of them about two have any staying power or memorability, and the old council remains basically memorable as just Dayo and two others, which feels kind of weird given how significant they're all supposed to be (and some other minor characters from the first book just don't show up or barely do anything when they do).  Some elements of the plot are predictable again as well.  

Still it works really well in general, and I'm glad I finished this duology...and I'll be unsurprised if this book also winds up nominated for some awards.  It's definitely well worth your time, and as a debut duology, it makes me eager to see where Ifueko goes from here  

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