Steph Swainston

A flying man arrives in a town, buys a newspaper and turns to read about the King's most recent press conference. This is certainly not your usual fantasy novel. Jant, the flying man referred to, is one of the Circle of Immortals, a cadre of some fifty individuals, each with a skill or special ability that the equally immortal Emperor keeps by him to run the Fourlands in the absence of an (unspecified) god who created the world and then went away. The Immortals are not born immortal; immortality is bestowed upon them when they join the Circle; it can be taken away from them if any one of them upsets the Emperor, and the Immortals are not invulnerable.

Jant is the Emperor's Messenger, and he has a Circle name, Comet. All the Immortals have their Circle name; these names serve as an official identity and also as a job title. Although one of the races of the Fourlands, the Awia, have vestigial wings, hollow bones and fast metabolisms that suggest that they ought to be able to fly, only Jant actually can. He also has a drug problem, which is described in some graphic detail. But this is not gratuitous awfulness; a heavy dose of his drug of choice can propel him into another world, which is weird, sometimes horribly surreal, but which has a physical reality of its own and which comes to play an important part in the events of the novel.

The Fourlands are besieged by large, beetle-like Insects, against whom the Circle have waged war seemingly without end.. As the novel opens, Insect attacks are growing in intensity and frequency and no-one knows why. Things get complicated when various members of the Circle begin falling out with each other - after all, after between 500 and 1000 years of working together, you might just begin to detest the sight of your colleagues. Jant finds himself at the centre of these disputes and of the war, all the time trying to be a fair go-between for the Emperor, various mortal monarchs and the other members of the Circle. No wonder he took to drugs, you might think.

Jant is far from likeable; but he is a complex character, and not without wit. But he is definitely flawed, and those who like to empathise with their main protagonists will probably react against Jant, his excesses and his addictions.

The world-building is interesting. Fourlands is at tines a modern society; people wear T-shirts, run marathons, measure distances using the metric system, tell the time with a twenty-four hour clock and have a seven-day week that starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. Technology is roughly late Georgian/early Victorian level; there is industry and steelworks and (water-powered) trams and sticky tape; and although there are some things that are inexplicable, and others that are just not explained, there is no highly overt magic as such. I've seen this described as a parallel reality; I tend to visualise this sort of thing as suggesting some sort of far future, lost colony sort of setting, because so many of these things are cultural indicators that a wholly different and separate culture would not have. But I enjoyed it immensely, possibly because of all these contemporary vibes elbowing their way in.

The language is also contemporary; and what with the scenes of graphic drug abuse and some equally graphic sex of dubious consensuality, some readers will not take kindly to this book. But it is no identikit fantasy. The plot gets a bit bogged down in the middle as Jant uncovers the extent and effect of the bickering within the Circle, but once a few heads get knocked together, things move on in interesting ways. Combat is described in some degree of detail, but without gratuitousness. The Insects are truly implacable and their motives unknowable.

To sum up: an unusual fantasy unlike any that you may have read before. There is enough to intrigue if the protagonist's shortcomings don't actually repel you.… (mere)

Turning Point collects four short stories set in the Fourlands written by Steph Swainston. The stories are told from different perspectives and about different people, plus there are two maps and a family tree to provide more details about the Fourlands. It's a very nice collection for fans of the Fourlands.

Read more about each of the stories on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2018/08/25/turning-point-steph-swainston/… (mere)

Wrought Gothic collects various glimpses into the background of the Fourlands in differing forms. There are some outtakes, a few descriptions from a tour guide, a history essay by Simoon, and a look at Jant’s past.

Wrought Gothic and Other Scenes provides us with some nice background information of the world of the Fourlands and some of its characters, but not everything worked all that well for me. Still, as a supplement of this complex world, it was nice.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2018/04/22/wrought-gothic-and-other-scenes-steph-swainston...… (mere)