Narcomancy

I just started reading another series by N K Jemisin, beginning with the book The Killing Moon.  I gave her novel Fifth Season a huge thumbs up review this summer and this book was also fantastic.  Not quite as good, mind, possibly because The Killing Moon was written years ago so she has improved in her craft.  If so, it only makes me look forward to her next books even more.

The story is based in a fantasy world vaguely modeled on ancient Egypt, but with magic.  The magic of this land is called narcomancy because it is based on the power of dreams and relates to human minds and souls.  I love the name narcymancy so much, I can't even express it.

The historical fiction aspect of the book reminds me a bit of Guy Gavriel Kay's style.  Like Kay Jemisin blends recognizable historic groups and geography with new physics structures in ways that are really appealing.  They both write compelling heroes and villains but I find both are best at building worlds for the reader to explore rather than building characters.  The thing you really want to do in the books is walk the streets of the towns they describe and watch the unfolding history before you.

Just like in the Fifth season Jemisin makes room in the book for people with all kinds of styles of loving that aren't the standard monogamous, heterosexual pattern.  You will not find the prodigal son hunting for a magic sword after which he marries the girl of his dreams in these books.  People love other people in all kinds of ways, and Jemisin includes queer identities of many types among the characters.  The great thing though is it blends in perfectly.  She doesn't try to hammer home some kind of agenda in a hamfisted fashion; rather the characters just do what they do and it slides in seamlessly into the story being told.

One other thing that Jemisin does well is the examination of the price and burden of power.  Her characters are often extremely powerful users of magic and they go through all kinds of trials and challenges figuring out what they should do with the power they have.  Sometimes they make good decisions, sometimes not, and it is often difficult to figure out who is truly evil.  Even the people you feel are the baddies usually have reasons for what they do that aren't just selfish or pointlessly destructive.  There is a great deal of nuance in the paths that these characters choose and the fact that their power makes their choices influence a great many people makes it so much harder for them.

The wikipedia article about this book concludes that it got mostly good reviews but that it lacked maps and the geography was sometimes confusing.  I completely agree with that, and I think it is one thing that the book could really use, and it would be easy to add in.  Knowing where various kingdoms are and how they relate to other geographic features would help in understanding the political parts of the book, no doubt.

This is a good book, and certainly does a lot of things that appeal to me in particular.  If you like historical fiction with cool worldbuilding and examination of the trials of power and control, I recommend it.