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May. 25th, 2020 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsC.L. Polk's Witchmark is another one of those books that's, like, right next to what I want out of a fantasy about the aftermath of WWI.
... which is fair because it's not actually about World War I in any way; it's set in a gaslamp fantasy world - post-gaslamp? right on the borderline between gaslamp and dieselpunk? - in the aftermath of a war that hits approximately WWI-ish in cultural impact on this vaguely-British fantasy nation (though less messy and more directly Imperialist) and has resulted in a generation of young men coming home from the war feeling Real Bad.
Our protagonist, Dr. Miles Singer, is a psychiatrist working with returning vets; secretly he is also a magic-user on the run from his powerful magical aristocrat family, part of a secret organization of magic elites, who want him to bind his power up to the service of his more powerful sister like all the other good little low-key magic users in the secret magical aristocrat families. As a result of all this, he is officially keeping a low profile and not using his magic at all to try and investigate why so many returning vets feel like they're besieged by intrusive thoughts to the degree that they're not safe to go home, and, relatedly, why the papers are reporting a rising number of murder-suicides of veterans and their families.
However! after a patient dies in his arms in the first chapter, Miles finds himself investigating a different and yet perhaps related murder + magical conspiracy with a hot, mysterious, and potentially otherworldly gentleman, as well as accidentally reconnecting with his sister, who's in a political bid for leadership of the secret magical elite. Romance, fraught sibling dynamics, and rising consciousness of the atrocities that elite will cheerfully commit in the name of protecting the status quo ensue!
I enjoyed the experience and the shape of the book overall - some echoes in the worldbuilding of both certain bits of Fullmetal Alchemist and DWJ's Witch Week, both stories near and dear to my heart - with some caveats. Mostly, I really wish that a book that stars a psychiatrist in the aftermath of a terrible war did more than pay lip service to the existence of actual PTSD around the magical conspiracy disguised as PTSD ...
... actually, between the possession spell that's cast on all the returning soldiers, and the fake asylums to contain and channel the power of unjustly committed witches, there's a lot of magical conspiracy in this book disguised as mental illness without much discussion of actual mental illness and the ways those things might interrelate, though the PTSD thing bothered me personally more because at heart I want all books even vaguely thematically adjacent to Pat Barker's Regeneration to just be Regeneration. That's probably a me problem. And, like, the literalized metaphor of possession-by-dead-enemy-soldiers is a solid metaphor (much as the criminalization and draining of the witches is a solid analogy for the prison-industrial complex), it's just I would also like the PTSD to not be one hundred percent a magical metaphor. You know.
On another note, I also do not have any kind of grasp on the worldbuilding around the place that Tristan comes from ... fairyland? Heaven? Fairy heaven? ... which made him feel very slippery to me and the eight-day romance somewhat difficult to invest in fully. Very cute, though!
... which is fair because it's not actually about World War I in any way; it's set in a gaslamp fantasy world - post-gaslamp? right on the borderline between gaslamp and dieselpunk? - in the aftermath of a war that hits approximately WWI-ish in cultural impact on this vaguely-British fantasy nation (though less messy and more directly Imperialist) and has resulted in a generation of young men coming home from the war feeling Real Bad.
Our protagonist, Dr. Miles Singer, is a psychiatrist working with returning vets; secretly he is also a magic-user on the run from his powerful magical aristocrat family, part of a secret organization of magic elites, who want him to bind his power up to the service of his more powerful sister like all the other good little low-key magic users in the secret magical aristocrat families. As a result of all this, he is officially keeping a low profile and not using his magic at all to try and investigate why so many returning vets feel like they're besieged by intrusive thoughts to the degree that they're not safe to go home, and, relatedly, why the papers are reporting a rising number of murder-suicides of veterans and their families.
However! after a patient dies in his arms in the first chapter, Miles finds himself investigating a different and yet perhaps related murder + magical conspiracy with a hot, mysterious, and potentially otherworldly gentleman, as well as accidentally reconnecting with his sister, who's in a political bid for leadership of the secret magical elite. Romance, fraught sibling dynamics, and rising consciousness of the atrocities that elite will cheerfully commit in the name of protecting the status quo ensue!
I enjoyed the experience and the shape of the book overall - some echoes in the worldbuilding of both certain bits of Fullmetal Alchemist and DWJ's Witch Week, both stories near and dear to my heart - with some caveats. Mostly, I really wish that a book that stars a psychiatrist in the aftermath of a terrible war did more than pay lip service to the existence of actual PTSD around the magical conspiracy disguised as PTSD ...
... actually, between the possession spell that's cast on all the returning soldiers, and the fake asylums to contain and channel the power of unjustly committed witches, there's a lot of magical conspiracy in this book disguised as mental illness without much discussion of actual mental illness and the ways those things might interrelate, though the PTSD thing bothered me personally more because at heart I want all books even vaguely thematically adjacent to Pat Barker's Regeneration to just be Regeneration. That's probably a me problem. And, like, the literalized metaphor of possession-by-dead-enemy-soldiers is a solid metaphor (much as the criminalization and draining of the witches is a solid analogy for the prison-industrial complex), it's just I would also like the PTSD to not be one hundred percent a magical metaphor. You know.
On another note, I also do not have any kind of grasp on the worldbuilding around the place that Tristan comes from ... fairyland? Heaven? Fairy heaven? ... which made him feel very slippery to me and the eight-day romance somewhat difficult to invest in fully. Very cute, though!
SPOILERY REPLY IS SPOILERY. Also, mine is an extremely dissenting opinion. :(
Date: 2020-05-25 06:39 pm (UTC)OTOH, I thought the worldbuilding was tremendously weak.
Frex, there's a lot of commentary within the text about how most folks drive bikes to and from places (with an occasional coach for those with more coin in their purses). But, given how the countries had been at war + the amount of returning veterans, I don't recall seeing a lot of people with disabilities out and about? Which then made me wonder: if someone can't ride a bike or pay for a coach (which means they definitely don't have the funds to get/drive a car), then how do they move around?
Another thing: how did the socio-political angle worked? Because, as I understood it, there were 2 governments: the non-witch one (that pretends witches and magic don't exist) and the witch one (which apparently is the real seat of power?)
MOVING ON.
The main reason why I ended up giving this book a massive side-eye was Grace, Miles' sister. I just couldn't believe that she'd betray her brother time and time again. So, to me, her v. late in the game redemption arc (which happened in, what, the next to last chapter?) completely sunk the entire book and series for me. I just couldn't believe that all she did at the end was feel terrible about her involvement once she knew the truth of everything. Learning that the sequel is focused on her cemented my decision to bounce from reading that novel. It simply wasn't enough, I guess I'd call it grovelling, for me given how many terrible things she'd done before.
TBH, I had a difficult time trying to understand how Grace was advocating for a better magical system while pressuring her brother to be part of the same oppressive system.. She wanted to do good things by engaging in terrible acts and that way of thinking never worked for me. My best guess is that the author was aiming for making Grace a complex character, maybe? But she ended up being on the same level as the main villain in my mind. #YMMV
In the end, Miles and Tristan's extremely slow burn couldn't save this novel from my complete and utter loathing.
(I also think I really disliked it because it'd gotten so hyped at one point that my expectations were pretty high.)
Re: SPOILERY REPLY IS SPOILERY. Also, mine is an extremely dissenting opinion. :(
Date: 2020-05-26 02:01 am (UTC)(I wasn't actually sure whether or not I would like it, so I think it helped to start with expectations that were not super high!)
Re: SPOILERY REPLY IS SPOILERY. Also, mine is an extremely dissenting opinion. :(
Date: 2020-05-26 12:55 pm (UTC)I mean, I should't have to be wondering abt the methods of transportation during a bike chase OR why was it that women were suddenly NOT at the same societal power level as men at random moments, you know?
Re the hype: I was still hanging out a lot around Book Twitter and, let me tell you, I heard abt this novel for months. Always in a positive manner while highlighting the diversity rep (including the fact that the author is a WOC who identifies somewhere in the queer spectrum.)
And, ngl, the premise sounded cool (I'm a sucker for queer historical mysteries and can roll w/fantasy just fine.) Unfortch, the book fell way short for me.