Book Log 8/2012 - Sherwood Smith: Treason's Shore

[jacey]

This is the final book in the Inda quartet. Phew, what a marathon! I reckon at least 250,000, possibly more, words in just this final book alone. We've followed Inda since he was a child of ten and here he is, still a young man, having achieved his wildest dream, to be Harskialdna – war leader – to his childhood friend, now King Evred of Iasca-Leror. At the end of  King's Shield (book 3) it seemed that Inda's story had run its course. And so it might have ended there with Inda running the academy and second only to Evred, but the Venn, repelled but not defeated, mass for another attack, driven by Erkric, chief dag (mage) of the Venn, who has seized ultimate power by taking over the mind and will of Rajnir, the new king. Erkric has enemies In his own camp, including some of the mages and good-sort naval commander Fulla Durasnir, but it isn't until Erkric overstretches himself with this sea-attack to take over the all-important strait that he becomes vulnerable.

It's the sea attack that brings Inda back into the forefront of conflict. As Elgar the Fox (book 2) he had established a fearsome reputation as a sea-commander who never lost a fight. The countries around the straight will unite to fight the Venn, but only under Elgar's command. It's inda's return to the sea that finally brings his old friend Fox, now commander of Inda's Fox-Banner fleet, back into the Marlovan fold as the Fox banner Fleet becomes the Marlovan navy.

How Inda and Fox defeat Dag Erkric and allow the Venn to return home to put their own house in order is long and complex, and presents Inda with a huge moral dilemma, seemingly impossible to solve, at the end of it. Is he going to betray his friends or be foresworn and disobey his king? The final segment of the book wraps up everyone's story arcs, actually telling the happy-ever-afters, which, like life, are filled with ups and downs, but mostly happier than not.

Inda's story, through four books, is mammoth. Though he remains the commander who never loses a battle, sometimes the win comes from an entirely unexpected element in the whole million-piece jigsaw puzzle that Sherwood Smith has fitted together so elegantly. The characters have way more dimensions than three and even the minor characters are important. Relationships matter and death in battle leaves painful gaping holes in people's lives.  Inda is a rare puzzle of a character all by himself, dedicated to his own personal truths, but deeply damaged not only by childhood trauma, but by battle wounds. There is always a price to pay for victory and Inda, who never loses, often pays the biggest price of all, mentally as well as physically.

This is a completely realised world that the author has been nurturing in various timelines since she was a child, and the depth of imagination shows. There's no handwaving, everything is thought out carefully and fits together with not a piece out of place. This is a fantasy tour-de-force. Highly recommended.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It's an amazing sequence, isn't it?

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes. The world-building is gobsmacking and every time I think she's drifting off the main point, the relevance sneaks up on me and hits me on the back of the head with a clue-by-four. Sometimes I think she follows too many character arcs, but then when she misses one out I get annoyed. For example, though she hinted, she wasn't specific about what happened to Jeje and whether she ever got together with Tau on a more permanent basis- though obviously ahe did tell us what happened to Tau and Evred. I found the 'What happened next' on Sherwood's website, which helped solve the Jeje unfinished business.

Whether I'll ever have the energy to re-read them, I just don't know. I reckom there are over a million words in the whole sequence. I'm not a particularly fast reader (and I don't have the time to read for long hours at a time) so just one of the Inda books represents a good fortnight's reading to me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It's that sense that three is so much *more* to the world -- that these are real lives we're reading about, and, as with history, there are things we don't fully know. It's just an astonishing achievement.