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Fifteen years have passed since the devastating war between the Galt Empire and the cities of the Khaiem, in which the Khaiem's poets and their magical power known as "andat" were destroyed, leaving the women of the Khaiem and the men of Galt infertile. The emperor of the Khaiem is trying to form a marriage alliance between his son and the daughter of a Galtic lord, hoping the Khaiem men and Galtic women will produce a new generation to help create a peaceful future.But Maati, a poet who has been in hiding for years and is driven by guilt over his part in the disastrous end of the war, defies tradition and begins training female poets. With Eiah, the emperor's daughter, helping him, he intends to create andat and to restore the world to how it was before the war. As the prospect of peace dims under the lash of Vanjit's new andat, Maati and Eiah try to end her reign of terror. But time is running out for both the Galts and the Khaiem.… (more)
User reviews
And the story ends. As I mentioned in my review of An Autumn War, I'm very happy that Abraham was able to define a complete story arc. I was left with a sense of completion...that I was told a story with a beginning, middle and end...that I don't get from the current trend in fantasy series of wandering ever-onward on some endless path.
Fantasy books aren't for everyone (though the fantasy aspects of this series are rather light) but, if you do enjoy the genre, I'm hard-put to think of another completed series by a current author that I found so satisfying.
Based on this, I really recommend the series.
"We say that the flowers return every spring...but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested. The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid. And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us."
With tethered creatures of immense power comes actual power, not just implied force and now we see Abraham being to its conclusion the use, abuse and resolution that such force would entail. That is masterfully done, though alone the way to getting there we are taken down some paths that slow us to this resolution.
That we find those (like with Modesitt) who have a technological society since magic is denied them in opposition to those with magic trying to create some balance of power in a world where magic has given too much power we muddle through what their perceptions about power will lead to. We might see a parallel in our own world where we have now and have had before, societies so far ahead of others that those others feel the need to level the playing field. And we who have power do not recognize strongly enough the fear of others, the envy of others, the lust of others, that we become far too complacent in dealing with others.
In once sense, the Long Price Quartet should have further looked to those themes, expanded on them, and been written from the beginning, all at once, much longer than it is, divided into themes of the seasons. There is a great deal to discuss about the divide between great power and those with lessor power, that still remains to be discussed.
But the series does come to an end, put together well with enough inner conflicts between those who have led the way in this series to show more than just your regular Fantasy genre depth. This series is most definitely worth your time and effort and a reread with al four books tackled in sequence one after another.
You could probably read this on its own, but the experience would be much richer for having read the ones that come before – I recommend reading the whole series (4 books, each set 15 years apart.)
[A bitchy aside here – not enough of these
As the book opens, the cities of the Khaiem and their rivals/enemies of the Kingdom of Galt have been thrown into a disastrous situation due to the actions of the andat (a kind of magical golem) at the conclusion of the previous book (An Autumn War). Fifteen years have passed, but the kingdoms, instead of working together (a solution which would ensure survival), have both weltered in bitterness and failure.
Now, both the Khai and his old friend/enemy/rival Maati each have a plan to save the lands of the Khaiem. However, the plans are completely mutually incompatible. Each works hard and desperately to convince others to make the compromises and sacrifices necessary for a scheme to work. Each is convinced of the rightness of his actions. But the reader sees that disaster seems inevitable.
At first, I had doubts about the book, because one of the main characters is operating on the premise that conclusions on a topic, if researched and created by women rather than men, will be utterly different, because men and women think so differently. I don’t agree. But Abraham deals with this deftly, and although gender politics are a large part of the book, his characters are all fully-realized individuals. Abraham is truly excellent at creating complex characters and multivalent relationships between them – one of my favorite things about this series is that it presents characters from different angles – it shows believably how people change, how one person can be seen differently by different people, at different times. The reader can’t trust that someone who seems to be a villain at one time will remain a villain.
In a vivid and unique setting, Abraham concludes a story which is difficult at times, thoughtful, and deeply satisfying.
I found this book to be a fitting end to the series. The theme of the cycle of life, the passing of the torch from one generation to the next, and how the passage of time changes people (or not in some cases) is strongly felt. It's an impressive feat to have pulled off and it makes for a series that is likely more appreciated by older audience than perhaps a younger one.
I'm happy to say I finally found a characters I could get behind in Eieh and, eventually, Danat and Ana. Poor, poor Maati. He has to be one of the most tragic and misguided characters I've read about in a long time. I both feel bad for him and disgusted by him. Vanjit was another interesting and different villain. I was mostly able to predict where she was headed given her situation, though I was still surprised just how far she went in the end.
As much as I enjoyed the book there were several things that also bothered me.
While I don't think I'll ever reread this series, I'm glad to have read it. I truly enjoy Abraham's writing and had an interesting time visiting the world of the andat. I think I'll be picking up the author's Expanse series sometime in the future.