Monday, January 3, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Beholden by Cassandra Rose Clarke

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 18, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.  

The Beholden is a new stand alone fantasy from author Cassandra Rose Clarke, being published in January by small SF/F press Erewhon Books.  I haven't read Clarke before, though I had heard of her, but Erewhon's publishing output has been truly tremendous in its short existence (Folkorn, The Scapegraers, The Midnight Bargain, On Fragile Waves to name four such books), which made me very much want to try this book out.  

Unfortunately, The Beholden is perhaps the most ordinary Erewhon book I've read, with some really interesting ideas and one well done relationship buried underneath a plot and trio of main characters who largely don't really work.  The book is long (500 plus pages) but reads quick, and does contain a plot dealing with the importance of death/decay alongside life/growth, the difficulty of being hated for doing what's necessary and how self-destructive humans can be in pursuing short-sighted goals over more important ones, alongside the importance of love.  So there's certainly something underlying this book, but the book's ignorance of its opening concept and how that reflects on the protagonists, as well as its failure to actually make those protagonists truly interesting actors, prevents it from being one that I can really recommend.  
----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
5 Years ago, two destitute noblewomen - courtly Celestia and magic-gifted Izara - embarked on a journey down the Seraphine to summon its Airiana patron, the Lady of the Seraphhine, seeking the godlike Lady's magical aid in finding rich husband for Celestia to restore their family's fortune.  The Lady they summon grants their wish, but declares the two of them, and Ico, the ex-pirate guide they dragged along, to be "Beholden".  As Beholden, the three of them owe the Lady a debt, one which they must repay....or else.  

5 years later, all three have gone their separate ways: Celestia is married to and pregnant with the child of a famour rich adventurer, Izara is a gifted student at the magical academy, and Ico has lost all human comfort but found a home in the bed of the Airiana mistress of the cold and snow.  But strange things are happening in the world, with rumors of war and a plague that leaves all it touches in a state of miserable undeath, a state that has led the Emperor to call away Celestia's husband for one more adventure.  

And these strange things lead the Lady to call Celestia, Izara, and Ico together once more, and to call in their debt: to find a 500 year old legendary mage, the very man the Emperor wants dead, and to not kill him, but instead bring him to the Lady alive.  
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The Beholden is a story that alternates its telling between the third person perspectives of its three main characters - Celestia, Izara, and Ico.  The world it takes place in is epic and grand, featuring multiple countries of various allegiances, a culture that worships the godlike Airiana - who aren't quite gods but are close enough for most purposes - especially the twins known as "Growth" and "Decay", and where some of the Airiana do exist on the mortal plane and can be summoned....at a cost.  There's various forms of magic, various other forms of god-like creatures, and well, this is a deeply developed world, even if we don't really get to see that much of it.  

Unfortunately, our three main characters aren't really the greatest guides to this whole world, as they all really didn't connect with me at all for the most part.  The first problem of course is that Clarke never has them reconcile with what they did 5 years ago - when Celestia magicked herself a husband (how this works is never explained, she just has a husband immediately after the time jump who she sort of loves) at the cost of not just herself being indebted to the lady, but her sister Izara and Ico as well.  At NO POINT in this story does Celestia or Izara ever really recognize the fact that they basically screwed over poor Ico in the process in their own selfishness, nor does Celestia ever have to tell her husband how their marriage was magically influenced so that she faces the consequences of the shortcut she took...instead this deal is just used as a reason why the three protagonists are on this quest, which well, just seems off.  

And it doesn't help that Celestia and Izara remain in large part selfish as hell for major parts of the book in how they pursue their quest, even if it soon becomes apparent that their quest is in fact to save the world.  Celestia wants to be back at home with her husband so she can have their baby and Izara wants to be a mage, and their constant thoughts about those desires are just kind of annoying, since it's their own damn fault they're unable to have either thing (and Celestia doesn't deserve that husband).  Ico's selfishness is at least understandable since it wasn't his idea to bargain his life away, but his spending most of the book running away and drinking just makes him seem like a waste of a character, as barely any parts of the book would be different if he didn't exist - and most of those parts really feature the Airiana who's fallen for him instead of him directly.  

Really that's an issue for all three characters, who except for perhaps in the ending, never actually take affirmative action and instead wind up getting carried from one place to the next, rather than actually making any choices of what to do next.  For example at one part the trio washes up at a strange noble's house, who sketchily serves them magic tea she promises will help them reach a magically protected city, which Izara points out is really questionable and doubtful.  But that doubt comes to nothing as they have no choice but to go along with it (and it turns out the doubt was wrong anyway, so it was just pointless).  

The shame of it all is that there are things that this book does do well.  A fourth character joins the party midway through and her relationship with Celestia is really well done and utterly lovely - it might be predictable, but it's the type of character relationship that the book lacks pretty much everywhere else, and I loved this fourth character as a result of it.  There are a lot of interesting themes here as well - themes of the importance of death and decay alongside life and growth, themes of the shortsightedness of men in focusing on wars and alliances over environmental disaster, themes of love and listening to your significant other rather than obsessing over what someone else told you, etc.  And there's also a theme near the end of the burden one faces when one's necessary actions cause one to be constantly hated, and how possible that is to bear.  There's some interesting stuff here, and Clarke's prose reads well enough that I managed to finish a 500+ page book in two days rather than the three it usually would've taken.  

But alas, those character problems with the main trio are just too there for the other stuff to really shine, and it prevents me from really recommending this one.  

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