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Harbinger of the Storm.
Bodard, Aliette de. Harbinger of the Storm. New York: Angry Robot, 2011.
I'm a big fan of French-Vietnamese writer Aliette de Bodard's work; this is the sequel to her debut novel Servant of the Underworld, and just like Servant, I enjoyed it a lot.
The action resumes about a year or so after the events of the first book and centers around the succession to the crown of the Revered Speaker of the Mexica, the ultimate monarch of the Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire. Bodard is really good at marrying what we know from history and archaeology with magic and fantasy elements, and I continue to sympathize with the tribulations of her protagaonist Acatl, whose elevation to High Priest of the Lord of the Dead before the start of the first book continues to structure his life, and his problems.
Axzyacatl, the previous Revered Speaker, has died, and the obvious candidate, his brother Tizoc, is no one's particular favorite to assume the throne, but the need to install a new Revered Speaker becomes particularly urgent when star-demons begin appearing in the palace and slaughtering people. Acatl has to try to figure out the identity of the summoning sorcerer, as well as fend off the machinations of his rival High Priests and the various factions of other candidates, including the co-emperor the She-Snake and his own student Teomitl, Tizoc's brother.
Like the last book, Harbinger reads blazingly fast, and I thought the story worked well both as an independent continuation of events and as a set-up for the final book, which is out now, Master of the House of Darts. I was sad to see less of Acatl's sister Mihmatini, who is awesome, but spoilery plot developments regarding her leave me hopeful that she'll be back in force in the final volume. I also really liked this book's more detailed take on the Mexica cosmology, and the role it played--and the key role of its differences from many non-American pantheons--in the denouement was very satisfying.
The first three chapters of MoHoD are up here, and if you'd like to check out some of Bodard's other fiction (I love her short stories), she has a Chinese postcolonial space opera story out this month in Clarkesworld, "Scattered Along the River of Heaven." It's painfully good.
Also, the book trailer for Harbinger is under the cut.
I'm a big fan of French-Vietnamese writer Aliette de Bodard's work; this is the sequel to her debut novel Servant of the Underworld, and just like Servant, I enjoyed it a lot.
The action resumes about a year or so after the events of the first book and centers around the succession to the crown of the Revered Speaker of the Mexica, the ultimate monarch of the Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire. Bodard is really good at marrying what we know from history and archaeology with magic and fantasy elements, and I continue to sympathize with the tribulations of her protagaonist Acatl, whose elevation to High Priest of the Lord of the Dead before the start of the first book continues to structure his life, and his problems.
Axzyacatl, the previous Revered Speaker, has died, and the obvious candidate, his brother Tizoc, is no one's particular favorite to assume the throne, but the need to install a new Revered Speaker becomes particularly urgent when star-demons begin appearing in the palace and slaughtering people. Acatl has to try to figure out the identity of the summoning sorcerer, as well as fend off the machinations of his rival High Priests and the various factions of other candidates, including the co-emperor the She-Snake and his own student Teomitl, Tizoc's brother.
Like the last book, Harbinger reads blazingly fast, and I thought the story worked well both as an independent continuation of events and as a set-up for the final book, which is out now, Master of the House of Darts. I was sad to see less of Acatl's sister Mihmatini, who is awesome, but spoilery plot developments regarding her leave me hopeful that she'll be back in force in the final volume. I also really liked this book's more detailed take on the Mexica cosmology, and the role it played--and the key role of its differences from many non-American pantheons--in the denouement was very satisfying.
The first three chapters of MoHoD are up here, and if you'd like to check out some of Bodard's other fiction (I love her short stories), she has a Chinese postcolonial space opera story out this month in Clarkesworld, "Scattered Along the River of Heaven." It's painfully good.
Also, the book trailer for Harbinger is under the cut.
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Your copy should be on its way shortly, BTW (got a pile of stuff to send out, I'll hit the post office next week).
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And now that I've finished this one, I'll be able to appreciate MoHoD when it arrives.
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On my list!
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