Elitist Book Reviews

It took me a while to catch on to this series by Elizabeth Bear.  I'd seen reviews when the first book, RANGE OF GHOSTS, came out, including here at EBR (see that review here).  I even saw the second book in the series, SHATTERED PILLARS, come out and also reviewed here (see that review here).  The books started to sit in my mind a bit.  It took a while, but they sounded like something I needed to be a part of.  So late last year I finally got RANGE OF GHOSTS (loved it), and for Christmas I received SHATTERED PILLARS (fantastic) so that I could be ready to go when the last volume STELES OF THE SKY came out.

I got STELES OF THE SKY in the mail and tore into it.  I was excited to spend more time with the fabulous characters that Elizabeth Bear had created.  This is one of those series that starts off pretty simply.  We followed Temur on his journeys.  We watched him find Edene and love her.  We watched the wizard Samarkar save Temur's life and start to journey with him.  For the first book it seemed that this was mostly Temur's and Samarkar's story (with occasional interludes from the bad guy, Al-Sepherthe, and Edene).  SHATTERED PILLARS expanded the series and we grew to know more about Hrahima the Cho-tse tiger (a very cool character), and Hsuing the warrior priest with a vow of silence.  I mean, it just kept getting better and better.

I can happily say that STELES OF THE SKY wrapped up the series nicely for me.  The stories build into one another flawlessly.  Bear leads us through this wonderful land at a brisk, but even pace that never left me confused.  There are some big great scenes in this one, scenes that I was really waiting the whole series for.  I left feeling sad that I wouldn't get to spend more time in this world with these characters.  That's what series are all about really, right?  We find a world that just entrances us, characters that are fun to read about and see what they are up to.  One book won't satisfy us so we need more, we need duologies and trilogies and ten book massive series just so we can go back again and again (like vacationing in your favorite spot over and over again).  This is a fun vacation spot to enjoy folks.  I wish I had a brochure to show you all that this trilogy offers...but you'll just have to stick with the reviews here at EBR for now until you buy the novels yourselves.  I would tempt you into it with beautiful vistas, and stunning moments.  The people you'll meet!  The sights you'll see!  You're just gonna have to take my word for it I guess.

The only problem I had with this last book (and it's a small thing in relation to the whole) was strangely enough, the lack of Temur.  He was the character I started with.  He was my first and most important window into this world, and as much as I enjoyed the other characters (and I really did) I kind of missed Temur in this one.  It felt like he got shoved to the sides for a bit of the book and I wanted to experience some of these events through his eyes.  I wanted to see it and feel it with him.

I nitpick.  This series is really great.  It took me awhile to catch on but hopefully you (my dear readers) are smarter than me and already know what I've just finished figuring out.  THIS SERIES ROCKS!

Age Recommendation: 16+
Language: There are a few words, a scattering of F words (less than 10 I think) and little else
Violence: Never described in much detail even in the battle scenes
Sex: Mentioned a few times, never shown in detail

Here are your links so you can enjoy the series as much as we do here at EBR:

RANGE OF GHOSTS
SHATTERED PILLARS
STELES OF THE SKY

I was blown away by RANGE OF GHOSTS (EBR review here) last year, and was so excited to receive SHATTERED PILLARS in the mail, the second installment of Elizabeth Bear's The Eternal Sky trilogy. But before I start the review, if you haven't read GHOSTS, stop and read it before you continue. PILLARS will not make sense if you read them out of order.

With that out of the way, the question I'm sure you're wondering about is if the second is a good as the first. The short answer is: No, but only barely. However, PILLARS is still an excellent book in its own right.

Let's start with the good stuff. All the things I loved about GHOSTS was evident in PILLARS: an imaginative setting, interesting characters, epic good vs evil story. Bear's consistency across the books is excellent, including but not limited to the tone, pacing, and continuing build-up of the story and characterization. As before, her prose is astounding in its detail and stimulation of the senses, her observations on situational irony amusing counterpoints to the usually serious tone of the story. The dialogue and character interaction is particularly well done--it is crisp, insightful, and propels the story forward.

Bear expands the world even more in PILLARS, showing us the differing sensibilities between the cultures and their traditions, as well as the wizards of Tsarepheth in their element, and how dangerous the old magics are. The same characters you grew to know and love have experienced hardship and as a result are different people. After the events of GHOSTS, they can now stop, think, and begin to make choices that will impact their future: Will Temur decide to oppose his uncle? Will Samarkar follow Temur as he attempts to save his lover? What is al-Sepehr's next move and can they stop him?

It is these things that make PILLARS an excellent book. But it unfortunately still suffers a little from middle book syndrome. While Bear does well tying up plotlines and weaving new ones, the story still feels like a continuation/build-up/act 2, making it less the cohesive story it needs to be in its own right. It doesn't help that the climax feels less like a culmination of the novel and more like another big event. It is this reality that will make newcomers to the series hard to persuade to continue reading to book three, because without having read GHOSTS, PILLARS will lack meaning to them, they won't connect with the characters, and they will be lost in the setting.

There are some inconsistencies with setting/plot that weren't clear to me, particularly Edene's storyline. Is Bear attempting a mythological feel? Will she explain more later? Also, there are much more switches back and forth between characters than in the first book, as well as more PoV characters. In a recent review of a different novel I complained about those very things (that review is here), and while Bear does it with much more finesse and a better sense of timing, it did get overwhelming sometimes, making it harder for me to absorb the story as a whole.

Still, Bear is painting a beautiful story in an exotic and foreign land with the kinds of people we want to see succeed. GHOSTS and PILLARS are written in the epic fantasy tradition, but Bear tells a timeless story with a fresh perspective. I can't wait til book three.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: Maybe one instance
Violence: There's fighting (not as much as book 1) with some gore; a plague with resulting gory descriptions of deaths and surgeries
Sex: Scenes referenced with minimal detail

Find this book here:

SHATTERED PILLARS

And the first book:

RANGE OF GHOSTS

After the Great Khan's death his heirs fought over his empire, wiping out entire armies. A grandson of the Khan, Temur is left for dead on the battlefield and miraculously survives to join the refugees fleeing the Steppes. But in order to avoid notice by an enemy that would kill him, he hides his identity.

Samarkar, former princess and now a widow, is close to completing her training to become a wizard. But despite great sacrifice, there's no guarantee that she will actually be able to wield magic at all.

The necromancer al-Sepehr is aiding Temur's cousin to re-conquer the Khaganate, and he will do anything to win, even raise the dead to fight the living.

RANGE OF GHOSTS is the first book in a new series by Elizabeth Bear called The Eternal Sky. The winner of the Campbell Award for best new writer in 2005, Bear has only improved her craft. RANGE OF GHOSTS is a tale rich with character, story, and setting, but never feels rushed despite its relative brevity of 300 pages. This book deserves more attention than it's getting.

Set in another Middle East (not unlike Earth's) during an era of khans, we are inundated with information from page one: political, historical, cultural. At first Bear throws more information at us than we know what to do with. But it's the very act of being dumped into this foreign land that sucks you in, the details of food, locale, and culture that the main characters take for granted. Things like how the sky changes in relation to the kingdom below it. How a steppe native would never drink mare's milk unfermented. How a prince of the Khanganate defers respectfully to a woman, but a prince of Rasa will use a woman for his own purposes. How a cult following of a long-banished sorcerer-prince uses blood magic.

But while the world of RANGE OF GHOSTS is unfamiliar to Western readers, Bear fills it with enough of the familiar to make the setting easier to digest. Here the characters are oft-used archetypes: the princess married off for political gain; the reluctant prince who loses his kingdom; warrior monks; wise and powerful wizards; and, yes, even cat people (usually this would be a cause for shuddering...fortunately Bear makes it work). There's even the map in the front of the book and the epic trope of characters traveling across various landscapes. In another book they would have been cliché, but here Bear breathes new life into old ideas with a setting that creates a different story. A story that is awesome.

Temur and Samarkar are the main PoVs; al-Sepehr provides a handful of villainous scenes so we know why and who is trying to kill Temur. While both are relatively young (Temur around 18, Samarkar in her late 20s I think), they've already experienced the darker side of life, but still have hope--it's easy to admire their tenacity. They're under no illusions that evil exists, but still look for the good in people. And while they fear for the future of their respective peoples, they're willing to risk their lives for those they love. Bear does her best to draw these archetypes with their own unique strengths and motives. It makes these two main heroes easy to identify with and like.

The plot is straightforward and tends toward the predictable. Fortunately the characters and setting move the story along. Once the various character plot lines converge, the story finally takes off--even though the book never does move particularly fast. But it's Bear's thoughtful writing and beautiful prose that pulls readers into her well-researched and delightfully imagined world more than anything.

The end isn't precisely a cliffhanger, but Bear doesn't leave you without a consolation wrap-up. At the very least she raises the stakes in exciting ways that left me thirsty for book two.

Clearly this book isn't for everyone. If you liked THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS this book is for you. If you prefer the violent anti-heroes of Abercrombie then probably not so much.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: Little to none
Violence: Pain and blood, but not overly violent or gruesome
Sex: One brief scene with detail, otherwise referenced

Buy it here:
RANGE OF GHOSTS