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Last week I finished Michelle West's The Sun Sword, which is the sixth and final book of the Sun Sword series, which I started in . . . March of last year, wow. Anyway, that means I can now write up the series as a whole!
The Sun Sword has approximately a million plot threads, only about 40% of which are actually resolved in the series. In some ways I liked this a lot, because it contributed to the sense of a very real world with a lot of history and a lot of complex characters; in other ways, for obvious reasons, it was kind of frustrating. (I am kind of impressed by the ballsiness of Michelle West taking most of an entire book on the epic quest to RECOVER A FORGOTTEN BURIED CITY AND ITS POWERFUL MAGIC, and then being like "aaaaand that city is not actually important to this particular storyline and half of those characters are going to spend the rest of the series offscreen there. Tune in later and maybe I'll have a plotline for it! :D")
BUT ANYWAY. The main plotlines that are the focus of the series are as follows:
1. A noted general in the Southern country called the Dominion has decided that he's pissed off about the weakness of the current ruler and plans to take over and establish a new dynasty. The main characters in this plotline are Diora, daughter of one of the plotters and the wife of the ruler's heir, who ends up using her position to set off on an EPIC REVENGE QUEST, and her aunt Teresa who has magic voice powers and even more magic SOCIAL PWNAGE powers and is insanely hardcore.
2. One of the hostages in the Northern Empire, a teenager called Valedan, happens to be the son of the ruler of the Dominion and a very unimportant concubine. Suddenly he's heir to the throne! The North figures that Valedan in charge is going to be better than the general and plans to support his claim. The lead characters here are Valedan, who I expected from the beginning to be kind of bored by but who is actually a total sweetheart - he loves JUSTICE, and also, babies! - and Alina, another hostage from a powerful family who acts as Valedan's mentor because he does not actually know all that much about how to act in the place that he's supposed to rule.
3. The demons in charge of the Hells are planning . . . something! That's bad for everyone! At the end of the series, I still don't have all that great of an idea what they were actually planning, except that it was probably bad. Anyway, they're technically allied with the South but are obviously scheming beyond that. The focus of this plotline is Kiriel, a the half-human daughter of the Lord of Night who was raised in the Hells and now spends most of her time wandering around killing things, saving Valedan's life from demons, and being socially incompetent.
There are two other plotlines that get a lot of attention in the book but don't actually get resolved:
4. An important household in the North is having dynastic difficulties, as the current strong and pretty ethical leader is probably about to die and everyone knows it. Technically the main character in this plotline is Jewel, snarky seer and former street-rat who might be tapped to be the next Head of House; however, Jewel gets yanked away midway through (much to her annoyance) to spend some time in a creepy Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and then wander around having visions in everyone else's plots instead. There is another series apparently focusing on the resolution of this!
5. The Voyani, a matriarchal subgroup in the South who are constant roamers and have a totally distinct and somewhat antagonistic culture to the rest of the Dominion, are involved in a side quest involving their ancient backstory that Diora and Jewel get wrapped up in for a while before returning to the main storyline. (I was kind of disappointed that this turned out to be a side quest, because it was my favorite plot.) The focus here is Margret, the new, insecure, and EXTREMELY CRANKY matriarch of one of the Voyani clans, and her mommy issues. Unsurprisingly, she is one of my favorites also.
If you read through all of that, you might have noticed something. If what you noticed is that they all involve powerful and interesting women, and none of these women are powerful and interesting because of who they are romantically involved with: go you, you get a prize!
Basically, there are two things that I really love about this series. One is the really interesting and complex and thoughtful way that it portrays the difference between cultures and the inevitable complications that result without giving undue weight to one side or the other, which is extra-impressive given that two of the cultures clearly align much more with contemporary Western values than the other does. The other is the enormous diversity of women wielding different kinds of power, most of whom are - even more impressively - driven by their ties to other women! I genuinely can't think of another series that is anywhere near as awesome in this regard. Which is why, even though the writing style is sometimes a bit tortured, the constant angst can verge on over-the-top, and even a week after finishing I am still kind of completely confused by the whirl of plotlines, I am absolutely going to keep reading Michelle West.
The Sun Sword has approximately a million plot threads, only about 40% of which are actually resolved in the series. In some ways I liked this a lot, because it contributed to the sense of a very real world with a lot of history and a lot of complex characters; in other ways, for obvious reasons, it was kind of frustrating. (I am kind of impressed by the ballsiness of Michelle West taking most of an entire book on the epic quest to RECOVER A FORGOTTEN BURIED CITY AND ITS POWERFUL MAGIC, and then being like "aaaaand that city is not actually important to this particular storyline and half of those characters are going to spend the rest of the series offscreen there. Tune in later and maybe I'll have a plotline for it! :D")
BUT ANYWAY. The main plotlines that are the focus of the series are as follows:
1. A noted general in the Southern country called the Dominion has decided that he's pissed off about the weakness of the current ruler and plans to take over and establish a new dynasty. The main characters in this plotline are Diora, daughter of one of the plotters and the wife of the ruler's heir, who ends up using her position to set off on an EPIC REVENGE QUEST, and her aunt Teresa who has magic voice powers and even more magic SOCIAL PWNAGE powers and is insanely hardcore.
2. One of the hostages in the Northern Empire, a teenager called Valedan, happens to be the son of the ruler of the Dominion and a very unimportant concubine. Suddenly he's heir to the throne! The North figures that Valedan in charge is going to be better than the general and plans to support his claim. The lead characters here are Valedan, who I expected from the beginning to be kind of bored by but who is actually a total sweetheart - he loves JUSTICE, and also, babies! - and Alina, another hostage from a powerful family who acts as Valedan's mentor because he does not actually know all that much about how to act in the place that he's supposed to rule.
3. The demons in charge of the Hells are planning . . . something! That's bad for everyone! At the end of the series, I still don't have all that great of an idea what they were actually planning, except that it was probably bad. Anyway, they're technically allied with the South but are obviously scheming beyond that. The focus of this plotline is Kiriel, a the half-human daughter of the Lord of Night who was raised in the Hells and now spends most of her time wandering around killing things, saving Valedan's life from demons, and being socially incompetent.
There are two other plotlines that get a lot of attention in the book but don't actually get resolved:
4. An important household in the North is having dynastic difficulties, as the current strong and pretty ethical leader is probably about to die and everyone knows it. Technically the main character in this plotline is Jewel, snarky seer and former street-rat who might be tapped to be the next Head of House; however, Jewel gets yanked away midway through (much to her annoyance) to spend some time in a creepy Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and then wander around having visions in everyone else's plots instead. There is another series apparently focusing on the resolution of this!
5. The Voyani, a matriarchal subgroup in the South who are constant roamers and have a totally distinct and somewhat antagonistic culture to the rest of the Dominion, are involved in a side quest involving their ancient backstory that Diora and Jewel get wrapped up in for a while before returning to the main storyline. (I was kind of disappointed that this turned out to be a side quest, because it was my favorite plot.) The focus here is Margret, the new, insecure, and EXTREMELY CRANKY matriarch of one of the Voyani clans, and her mommy issues. Unsurprisingly, she is one of my favorites also.
If you read through all of that, you might have noticed something. If what you noticed is that they all involve powerful and interesting women, and none of these women are powerful and interesting because of who they are romantically involved with: go you, you get a prize!
Basically, there are two things that I really love about this series. One is the really interesting and complex and thoughtful way that it portrays the difference between cultures and the inevitable complications that result without giving undue weight to one side or the other, which is extra-impressive given that two of the cultures clearly align much more with contemporary Western values than the other does. The other is the enormous diversity of women wielding different kinds of power, most of whom are - even more impressively - driven by their ties to other women! I genuinely can't think of another series that is anywhere near as awesome in this regard. Which is why, even though the writing style is sometimes a bit tortured, the constant angst can verge on over-the-top, and even a week after finishing I am still kind of completely confused by the whirl of plotlines, I am absolutely going to keep reading Michelle West.