Thursday, September 8, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

 


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 August 16, 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 Oleander Sword is the second book in Tasha Suri's Queer (F/F) Indian-inspired Epic Fantasy series, "The Burning Kingdoms", which began with last year's The Jasmine Throne (which I reviewed here).  The Jasmine Throne was a tremendous book, featuring two strong women as its protagonists - a princess from an Empire whose chauvinistic brother insists she submit and burn as a sacrifice and a girl from a conquered people, who used to be one of the magical servants of their religious devotion to seemingly gone magical beings.  It was a story of love, empire, colonization, and what it really means to be a monster.  So I was really excited to read the second book in the trilogy.  

The Oleander Sword isn't quite as good as its opener in my opinion.  The story adds major supernatural elements (to what was already there), and while they do hit on a theme - the return of the past being not glorious, but horrifying - it kind of overcomplicates things from the first book's powerful themes of Empire/Imperialism and what comes before during and after.  At the same time, the characters remain incredibly strong, and the story continues to deal with at least one really strong theme - what it really means to "sacrifice" as exemplified by the actions of three different main characters for those they love, and the people they call their own.  It's still a really strong second novel, so I can't wait to try the conclusion.  

NOTE: Spoilers for Book 1 are inevitable below:  
-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------
The world has changed for Parijatdvipa and Ahiranya - and for Priya and Malini along with them.  Armed with a prophecy of the Nameless God declaring her the rightful Empress, Malini has now gathered together forces of disgruntled nobles on a campaign to take back the throne of Parijatdvipa from her cruel and monstrous brother Chandra.  And gifted with the powers of an Elder - the power of being thrice born in the Deathless waters - Priya finds herself leading a new Ahiranya, using her magical powers to stave off the Empire's incursions and to try to heal the Rot from consuming Ahiranya's people.  In their new roles, Malini and Priya may dream of the other, but physically seem permanently separated.


But fate will conspire to bring the two together once again - for when Chandra fights back with magical fire, Malini realizes the only way she might be able to overcome is with magical power of her own....Priya's power. But can Priya even lend her power to Malini when such an act would involve her submitting to Malini's rule - something that would undercut their pledge for Ahiranya's independence?  And what would it do for their love if Priya remains only a tool for Malini to use to secure her rule.  Priya and Malini will be forced to figure this out quickly, as the nobles under Malini's rule may be shaken badly if they believe divine providence has left Malini's side...something that will destroy all they both have worked for.


But the Priests of the Mothers and Nameless One in Parijatdvipa are concerned of more dangerous things than just an Imperial Civil War, and are determined to sacrifice anything, and anyone, to stop them.  And back in Ahiranya, the powers behind the Deathless Waters, the Yaksa, are returning, and may demand sacrifices of its people far beyond what any mortal could imagine, all in the name of ensuring their return is not stopped once more.....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jasmine Throne very much was a story of Empire, Colonialism, and what comes during, before, and after such conquering, with two dueling perspectives - Bhumika and Ashok - having different views on how a conquered land should proceed forward...trying to accept things and carve a new path forward or trying to violently restore an old probably lost order....and Priya, the main character from Ahiranya caught in between them.  It was also a story of power and monstrous acts, and how far one can go to attain power without becoming possibly irredeemably a monster, as Malini believed she was becoming as she tried to manipulate everyone, even Priya at first, for the sake of escape and vengeance upon a Chauvanistic brother and his religious backers who propped up him up even as it became clear that he too was a horrifying monster.  The book ended with the two leads trying to figure those fears out even as they took their separate paths: Malini becoming less of a manipulator from the shadows and more of the direct leader as Empress and Priya working alongside Bhumika to carve a new way forward with their magic, having benefitted from Ashok's revolutionaries in carivng the path forwards. 

The Oleander Sword continues from the pair's very different status quo, and really, while the story jumps to a few other point of view characters here and there, also manages to pick up a third main character in Bhumika as well.  For Malini that means seeing her try to manages an army of people not used to serving a woman, whose faith in her can diminish at a moment's notice, where she can no longer hide beneath the veneer of working for her seemingly hopelessly passive brother.  For Priya that means stretching herself thin trying to help stop the Rot infecting her people and to help sustain their nation...while also preventing others from trying the Deathless waters and undergoing the same sacrifices, especially those she cares about.  And for Bhumika, it means trying to manage the same noble powers who she one tiptoed around from beneath her husband's veneer of authority, who she now has to deal with directly (while also dealing directly with the revolutionaries she now is the Elder too). 


The story takes these characters in fascinating directions at times and forces them into difficult choices when things go horribly wrong, especially when the supernatural (Magic Fire, the Yaksa) appear on all fronts and begin to threaten more dangerous situations.  Once again this forces Malini and Priya to try to work together - to deal with their romantic attractions to each other as well as the way their different backgrounds - Malini the rogue princess/empress of the colonizing power that conquered Priya's land - make it so difficult for them to be together and to work together....as the very act of being together can make it look like one may be submitting to the other, a definite problem for Priya (whose role as a leader of the new Ahiranya means she needs to show her independence) and for Malini (who can't be seen as submitting to a foreigner if she wants to maintain her authority).  And then there's the way the supernatural throws the two of them against the powers of the status quo and those of pasts long conquered for good or for ill, whose prayed for return may be just as dark and deadly as the new status quo they're trying to build....after all, the book seems to be arguing, the leaders of the past may not have been good either, and their return will not bring back happy times....especially when they may have been and may still be oppressive themselves (cycles of oppression here). 


Most of all, and most interesting of all, is the theme of Sacrifice between the three women protagonists, all of whom embrace it in various ways....and not the ways the men necessarily believe sacrifice should be - Sacrifice, quotes Bhumika in a memorable passage, is not merely a grand single gesture of self destruction, but the long effort of fighting for others "day in day out, even with the sure knowledge of [] inevitable failure."  The idea of sacrifice and what all three women attempt leads them to very different places, ones in which leave us with a really great cliffhanger.


As I hinted above the jump, it doesn't quite all work - I thought the introduction of the supernatural like the Yaksa kind of took away from the really strong character interplay between the humans and the themes of Imperial/Colonial Power/Rule and what comes next, even if it does work alongside those themes.  But even with that, The Oleander Sword is an excellent second novel and I look forward to seeing this trilogy conclude. 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)