Customer Reviews

Artesia

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you like fantasy combined with mythology, Artesia is definitely your book. It has a rich and complex story, with terrific artwork, that will capture you throughout the book. Also Artesia portrays the spirit and character of a beatiful and interesting woman who is willing to fight for her beliefs. you must have this book in your collection!

Mark Smylie does what few in fantasy dare. He builds a world, peoples it with well rounded characters, ditches the stereotypes, creates economies, religions, political structures, and myths. What he doesn't do is offer up hack-work fantasy. You feel that the world and the people that live there have a purpose and a life beyond the page. This is no lifeless, racially pure, pseudo-historical, Tolkien wanna-bee. You want that find yourself 100 on the shelves right know. The writing is solid, and doesn't draw attention to itself with hipster, overly heavy, staccato Bendis-nonsense.

The story is banal, and lacks the epic scope of Tolkien, the fantastic satire of Peake, the achingly perceptive commentary on the human condition of Lewis, and the joi de vivre of ER Eddison.
We're plunged headlong into the middle of the story with no real sense of who the characters are and what their purposes are. People are introduced left and right and then either disappear off stage or merely serve as foils to the heroine Artesia. We never get a sense of how she achieved her following, and what actions on Artesia's part provoked her enemies. The heroine herself is 2 dimensional, and something of an "author's darling." She's beautiful, prophetic, blessed by the gods, strong as any man, an excellent Machiavellian commander, and lover. Anyone who goes against her is usually either a chauvinist, or power hungry. There are no internal conflicts within her of any particular substance, as they have no impact on her actions, or her behavior.
She has no faults, and as the series progresses the reader is well aware that little if nothing can harm her for long.
Thus, while the art is fairly unique if flawed at this stage, the story holds no real surprises. The deus ex machina ending is also something of a let down as Artesia places herself in a foolish situation only to be bailed out by others.
A word about the world building: while it seems superficially extensive it really isn't. The author attempts to inject it with cultural nuances like differing languages but it isn't quite executed properly as it seems more like a mishmash of english and corrupted latin than something a person with a real understanding of language would come up with.
The biggest factor seems to be whose society is egalitarian and which isn't.
The gender dichotomy is also inexplicable. Perhaps its just my bias, but there doesn't seem to be a reason why the old religion would foster an egalitarian society when its cousin faiths don't. Most, agricultural societies irrespective of religion have always been skewed towards a male hegemony. Economy plays a bigger role for women than religion does in terms of rights. In other words, I wish the author would have highlighted the circumstances that allowed Artesia's side of the world to be so egalitarian.